Hornet sting, birdies take Swafford to tourney lead
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – A hornet sting early and a bunch of birdies late carried Hudson Swafford to a 5under 67 on Friday for a two-shot lead going into the weekend of the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship.
Joining him in the final group will be Sean O’Hair, who missed an entire year with a torn oblique and returned just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down golf.
Swafford played in the morning when it was humid along the Caribbean Sea but without much wind. He started on the back nine and it was largely uneventful, except for that hornet that stung him on the joint of his pinky finger while he reached for his putter after playing one hole.
“It started swelling up, so
I was just
kind of rubbing ice on it after tee shots for the first five, six holes on the back side,” Swafford said. “I guess it kind of cleared my mind of the golf thing and just let me focus on something else.”
Swafford has a good feel for the greens this week, so his objective was to give himself enough chances. After a pair of birdies on the back nine, and then a few mistakes when the wind arrived, Swafford ran off three birdies at the end of his round and set the target at 12-under 132.
“My caddie got stung yesterday on the forearm on the first hole, and I guess he said it’s kind of a good omen,” Swafford said. “We played well, and we ended up playing well again today.”
Two shots behind were O’Hair (67), former Southern Cal star Justin Suh (67) and Luke List (65).
All have dealt with some form of injuries. Swafford has missed most of last summer with foot surgery. Suh had a wrist injury right when he turned pro that slowed his progress.
And then there was 38-year-old O’Hair, a four-time PGA Tour winner. He tore his oblique at the AT&T Pebble
Beach Pro-Am in February 2019, had surgery to repair and remove scar tissues, and he didn’t play another PGA Tour event until Pebble Beach this year.
“I’ve been out pretty much almost a year-and-a-half now,” said O’Hair, who missed the cut in the Safeway Open last week. “So it’s trying to get in a groove again, in the routine again. My body is still not quite there as far as the workload that you do from traveling and hitting balls and walking and practice. It’s kind of hard to practice that at home.”
Suh chipped in for birdie on the 17th, and then made an 18-foot par putt on the 18th when his approach rolled off the side of the green into a collection area.
Mackenzie Hughes of Canada had a 67 and was at 9-under 135 along with Adam Long.
The cut was at 3-under141, and among those missing the weekend was Graham DeLaet.