Perico barely makes tee time, cut line
A few hours before he teed off in Thursday morning’s second round of the Southern Amateur Championship, Julian Perico awoke from a bad dream.
In the dream, Perico said he had missed his tee time because he showed up to the wrong tee box. Then, at 8:20 a.m. at Chenal Country Club in Little Rock, his dream became a nightmarish reality.
Perico, a Lima, Peru, native and a sophomore at the University of Arkansas, was scheduled to tee off on No. 10 Thursday, after going off No. 1 during Wednesday’s opening round. But as his 8:20 tee time approached, he had a mental lapse and inexplicably thought he was supposed to tee off No. 1.
He rolled putts and chatted with fellow Razorbacks teammate Wil Gibson on the practice green, which sits close to the No. 1 tee at the Founders Course, when, all of a sudden, someone came running toward the green and informed Perico that he was late on the No. 10 tee. Confused at first, Perico then quickly realized his catastrophic mistake.
He rushed over to No. 10 on the other side of the clubhouse and arrived 15 seconds late. Perico was dealt a twoshot penalty leading to a quadruple-bogey eight at the par-4 10th before bogeying the par-3 11th. But Perico still managed a 3-over 74 Thursday to just make the cut on the number at 3 over and sit in a tie for 56th place.
“I literally couldn’t think because I was so disappointed and p ***** off,” Perico recalled of his error after the round, as he stood just a few yards away from the practice green, the location of his mental blunder.
Perico currently sits nine shots off the lead. Texas A&M junior Walker Lee, who shot a 6-under 65 in the opening round, maintained his one-stroke advantage with an even-par 71.
“I didn’t play very well today, but I kept [the lead],” Lee said. “The round could have gone a lot of different ways, but I kept it around even. Could have been better, could have been worse.”
A total of 36 players sit at even par or better through the first two rounds. University of Washington junior Noah Woolsey, North Florida senior Michael Mattiace and ex-Central Florida star Kyler Tate each are tied for second at 5 under. Tate at one point held the lead at 7 under, but he made back-to-back bogeys on his final two holes.
Tate began this tournament 5 over through his first eight holes. He’s gone 10 under since then, and he’s a combined 10 under on the back nine alone in two days.
“I like the back nine a lot. The back nine is really similar to my home course back nine,” said Tate, who grew up playing West Orange Country Club in Winter Garden, Fla. “I almost feel like I’m playing my home course on the back nine. The front nine, I think, is a little bit tougher.”
As for Perico, despite the self-inflicted two-shot penalty and messy opening hole Thursday, he said he’s still not out of the tournament — so long as his body holds up.
Perico, who set the Razorbacks’ freshman scoring average record this past season with a 71.54, said he’s been dealing with a pinched nerve in his neck and a “swollen disc,” which he aggravated Wednesday morning.
He had seriously considered withdrawing from the tournament, but he ultimately decided to play through the pain. He claimed the pain is so bad that he had difficulty raising his fork to eat breakfast.
Perico said he plans to return to Fayetteville eventually to have team doctors evaluate him.
“I should’ve withdrawn for sure,” Perico said. “It hurts a lot. It just feels awful when I hit the golf ball.
“I’m just playing because I love it. We’re playing in my home state. I just got to do it. It would have been smart to withdraw just because of health issues, but I’m just not built for that. I’m just gonna grind it out.”
Perico is one of three Razorbacks hopefuls of six who made the cut at the Southern Amateur.
Just like Perico, senior Tyson Reeder, who transferred to Arkansas from Oklahoma State in January 2018, made the cut on the number at 3 over, after posting a 2-over 73 in the second round.
Senior William Buhl, a native of Oslo, Norway, is the leading Razorback through two days, sitting in a tie for 21st at 1 under. Buhl fired 2-under 69 Thursday.
“I’m hitting the ball great — probably the best I have in a couple months,” Buhl said. “If I get some putts to fall, I can be right there no problem.”
Meanwhile, three other Razorbacks — Gibson, Mason Overstreet and Luis Gerardo Garza — all missed the cut.
“I think we’ll be a dangerous team for sure,” Overstreet said of next season’s Arkansas squad. “I think we’ll have a little more depth this year than we’ve had in the past. I think it’ll be a really good year.”