Nationwide leader has tour promotion on mind
This isn’t Brendon Todd’s dream, playing in Columbus this weekend. He, like the other golfers playing in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at the Ohio State Scarlet Course, yearn for the life of a PGA Tour player.
Todd’s been there. He won the 2014 Byron Nelson Championship and competed in 85 tournaments from 2014 to ’16. But he needs to finish strong in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, a three-tournament swing that started this week, to get back there.
He didn’t have a good start Thursday, hitting his first tee shot out of bounds on the way to a double bogey, and Todd closed with a bogey on the 18th hole to finish at 1-over-par 72.
Things took a major turn Friday, though.
Todd he carded a 7-under 64, highlighted by four consecutive birdies to close the round. He jumped from being tied for 65th to sitting alone in third.
“I look at each tournament as a one-week race to get to the top,” Todd said. “If you can win or cash in on the top three, you can get back on the PGA Tour — and that’s kind of what this is all about for me.”
Todd is two shots behind Kevin Dougherty and one behind Brandon Hagy. Todd admits he benefited from an early tee time Friday (7:51 a.m.) after struggling with the course later in the day Thursday.
“It played really difficult (Thursday) with the winds kicking up and the greens getting firm, but I’m happy to take advantage of a morning round,” Todd said. “My secondround scoring average this year has been really bad, so it’s just good to kind of put that second round together and give myself a chance going into the weekend.”
Dougherty played a bogey-free round while making five birdies.
“I think I missed three fairways the first two days, and two of them were in the first cut by a foot,” he said. “I’m just driving it really good and giving myself really good looks at holes.”
Hagy birdied the 18th to move to take over second place. His day consisted of an eagle, five birdies, three bogeys and nine pars for a score of 67, including a 32 on the back nine.
Upper Arlington and Ohio State graduate Bo Hoag followed up a first-round 69 with a 72, putting him at 1 under, in a position that may require a herculean effort to win. To be fair, it would be his second such performance after his win last week at the Portland Open, which earned him a spot on the PGA Tour next season.
“Just nice to have that card in my pocket when I showed up at the course this week,” Hoag said. “I’ve played this event a couple of times, but I always feel like it’s kind of a grinding week. And this week is just a little more stress free, that’s for sure.”
Being on the PGA Tour certainly changes things, and Hoag was quick to point out what he is most looking forward to. The chance to compete at Augusta? Pebble Beach?
“You know, I’m a car guy, so some of those courtesy vehicles sound pretty good to me,” Hoag said. “Those are going to be cool.”
Dougherty, meanwhile, played college golf for Oklahoma State — the other OSU. Playing on an Ohio State course in front of many Buckeyes fans will usually inspire some OSU (Buckeyes) talk.
“I haven’t heard it too much — I think Bo (Hoag) was behind me a few groups, so I heard a little bit of OSU chatter,” Dougherty said. “But we all know orange and black’s the real OSU.”