Cameron Percy hits his tee shot on Thursday on the seventeenth gap at El Cardonal at Diamante.
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Cameron Percy smiled. He shrugged his shoulders. In his final occasion, a month in the past now, he tied for forty third. In his three occasions earlier than that, Percy missed three weekends. He’s lower than a yr away from the PGA Tour Champions, 50-and-over circuit, too. And right here he was Thursday, the chief on the World Wide Technology Championship, after a PGA Tour-personal greatest 62.
Golf, proper? However maybe nobody is extra shocked on the developments than Percy himself.
“I used to be mendacity in mattress this morning and the whole lot was hurting, and I’m like, what am I doing?” Percy stated on Golf Channel.
“I’m 49 now; what am I doing with these younger bucks and stuff?”
Successful, for one.
With that, here’s a have a look at the darkness-delayed first spherical of the World Huge Know-how Championship, performed on the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal Diamante course in Los Cabos, Mexico.
A 49-year-old leads
Percy began quick, saved it going and completed sturdy. He birdied 1, 3, 5 and 9 and eagled 6 for a six-under 30 on the entrance 9, and he birdied 10, 11, 13 and 18 for a 10-under 62. For some time, he flirted with a 59.
With a handful of gamers but to complete their first spherical as a result of darkness, Percy leads by two over 4 gamers.
“Yeah, simply hit a very nice drive down the primary and a fantastic 3-wood about 30 toes, I assume, and rolled it about six foot by, which I didn’t need to do, then and made it,” Percy stated. “Then holed like a 15-footer on 3, which was good. Then I holed a pitch shot from about 75 yards and that kind of kicked me alongside to five-under, I feel. Then performed actually properly by way of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. I hit the ball superbly. Didn’t hit it fairly shut sufficient coming in, however I had a couple of seems to be. I couldn’t make ’em all.”
Notably, Percy is planning to play in a couple of weeks within the PGA Tour Champions Q Faculty.
“I’m 152 I feel on the [PGA Tour’s] cash checklist or FedExCup, sorry, so ending high 150 at my age could be incredible,” he stated. “That’s kind of — I need to a minimum of do this, but when I can hold the ball rolling like I did as we speak, I ought to have the ability to end rather a lot greater than that, after which lead into Q-Faculty with the Champions Tour.
“Yeah, I’m wanting ahead to that.”
A 17-year-old contends
Eight photographs again of Percy is Billy Davis.
Tiger Woods is in ‘go-mode,’ major winner says. Could return be near?
Who’s 32 years again of Percy.
The 17-year-old sensation Monday-qualified into the occasion, then went to work. He birdied the tenth gap, his opening gap. And 13, 16 and 18. Davis, the dual brother of 2022 Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice winner Anna Davis, was contending, then stumbled towards the top and was two-under with one gap to go in his first spherical.
“I had a extremely good group as we speak,” Davis stated. “They had been all good to me so I felt fairly snug on the market to start with. Nonetheless must play No. 9 tomorrow, however we’re in a great spot.”
One wild stat
The fairways at El Cardonal at Diamante are extensive. Forward of the World Huge Know-how Championship, gamers talked about it brazenly.
“My first impression is that it’s not very tight off the tee,” Maverick McNealy stated.
“The fairways are wider,” Keith Mitchell stated.
“Yeah, the very first thing I consider when it’s a Tiger Woods design is that you just sort of know that the fairways are going to be extensive,” Sahith Theegala stated.
“It’s pretty extensive off the tee,” Ludvig Aberg stated.
And so forth and so forth.
However this stat was wild.
Throughout play on Thursday, gamers hit a whopping 90.3 % of fairways. Thirty-two gamers had been an ideal 14 of 14 on fairways hit. Forty-seven gamers missed one. Each participant hit a minimum of 9.
How correct was that?
The PGA Tour common coming into the week was 58.07 %. The Tour’s greatest participant in driving accuracy share, Russell Henley, was at 71.4 %.
The leaderboard
Beneath is a have a look at the leaderboard. Golf Channel’s protection of spherical two begins at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday.
