Journeyman rides back-to-back eagles to first-round lead
John Peterson started his rookie season on the PGA Tour about the time Tiger Woods started to experience back problems.
One of them is closer to walking away than the other.
Peterson, the 29-year-old free spirit who has pledged to retire from golf ’s vagabond lifestyle if he doesn’t earn enough money to keep his card in three events, made back-to-back eagles late in the opening round Thursday for a 6-under 65 that gave him a two-shot lead in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Woods had an unspectacular round of 71 in his return to Quail Hollow after a sixyear absence — mostly due to his balky back — and figured it would keep him and everyone else fairly close to the lead on a course that made it tough for anyone to get separation.
That was before Peterson came to life late in his round.
He holed a bunker shot from just under 60 feet away on the par-5 seventh hole. Then he holed a 56-degree wedge from 107 yards in the fairway for eagle on the next hole. It almost got even better. From the trees left of the ninth fairway, his approach cleared the bunker and was headed for the flag as the crowd — “seven or eight people and a Golden Retriever in the grandstands back there,” he said — began to cheer in anticipation.
It missed. He missed from 8 feet. All was well.
Peterson had never led after any round in 89 starts on the PGA Tour, and he didn’t seem all that worked up over it.
“I’m kind of free-wheeling it at this point,” he said. “I know a little bit has been said about me retiring if I don’t make the necessary money for my medical starts, and all that’s true. If I don’t make it, I’m not playing golf anymore.”
He made clear on more than one occasion he wants to win the Wells Fargo Championship, or the two tournaments he has left. Because of surgery on his left hand two years ago, Peterson started the year needing to make $375,165 in eight tournaments to keep his card. Five events later, he still needs $318,096 and has this week, and then the FedEx St. Jude Classic and Travelers Championship.
He loves golf. He also is a father — his son was born in October — and he would be just as happy in real estate development with a few friends in Fort Worth, Texas, than chasing around birdies from one coast to the other.
If he wins this week? Or makes enough money to keep his card?
“Either way is fine with me,” Peterson said. “Obviously, I would never be bothered to win a golf tournament out here.”