Delio and Myers tied after round two of Web.com tour qualifier at Dayton Valley
Submitted by editor on Wed, 10/21/2015 - 7:23pm
Nick Delio of Valencia, Calif. fired the low round of the tournament so far with an 8-under par 64 to tie for the lead at the halfway point of the Stage One Web.com Tour Qualifier at Dayton Valley Golf Club. J.R. Myers, Saratoga, Calif., shot 4-under 68 Wednesday and the two are atop the leaderboard at 9-under 135.
Martin Trainer, Palo Alto, Calif., carded a second 4-under 68 to hold third at 8-under par 136. Randall Hutchison, Orlando, Fla. shot the second lowest round so far with a 7-under 65 to jump into fourth place at 7-under 137 after an even par first round.
First round leader Chris Williams, Moscow, Idaho, slipped to an even par round and is tied with five other players for fifth at 6-under 138. Veteran Dayton q-school qualifier Nick Killpack, St. George, Utah, fired a 6-under 66 to move into that group after an opening 72.
Delio is playing in his fifth consecutive tour qualifier at Dayton Valley and he has advanced to the second stage all four previous times. In a case of history almost repeating itself, he fired a 9-under 63 in the second round of last year’s q-school.
“Well, I have two more rounds to put another 63 or better on the board,” laughed the 26-year old who had a bogey-free round with eight birdies. “I rolled it good and hit it really good and I like where my game is at this point.”
Former San Jose State star Myers is playing in his third q-school (first at Dayton) and he made it to the Web.com qualifying finals last year. He has an interesting perspective on the tour-qualifying grind.
“Q-school is unlike every other tournament we play where you are trying to win,” he said. “Not in q-school, you have to really focus and stay in the process on every shot. There is stress on every player all week but I love it, it lets you know where you are at in this game.”
Myers was one of the first to observe that the course was beginning to become firmer than soft conditions in the first round.
“Yesterday was a lot easier but I had a birdie streak going (four in a row on holes 10 – 13) and thought I could get in real low,” he said. “But I shanked a driver out of bounds on 17 to make a double bogey. Fortunately I bounced back with a birdie on 18 to keep momentum going into the third round.”
Williams described his even-par second round as, “Just awful, nothing good happened out there.” Most of that feeling was the result of three 3-putt bogeys.
“I put the ball in the wrong position on those holes and wasn’t able to make difficult second putts,” he said. “And, I had a lot of chances where I hit it close in the right position and couldn’t make the putts.”
Gunnar Wiebe, son of PGA and Champions tour star Mark Wiebe, fired a 3-under 69 to move into a tie for 11th with 2013 medalist Tyler Weworski, Carlsbad, Calif., at 5-under par 139.
“The course firmed-up a bit today and was more like the last few years,” said the veteran of five q-schools. “It’s back to one bounce and roll with the greens picking up speed.
“I prefer to play it that way because that’s the way I am accustomed to playing this course,” he said. “It brings more strategy into play and I think that is to my benefit.”
Former Stanford star Dodge Kemmer, San Francisco, Calif., is doubling down on his q-school chances. He was the medalist Sept. 25 at Golf Club Ebreichsdorf in Austria finishing 16-under in a first stage qualifier for the European PGA Tour and will play in the European second stage on Nov. 2.
Kemmer shot 4-under 68 in the second round and is in a 4-way tie for 13th at 140 and is in good position to advance from Dayton.
“It will be a good option to have if I can advance from here,” he said. “I got started overseas five years ago when I earned an Asian Tour and European Challenge Tour card, so there was no reason to come back to the states.
“But I’ve gained a lot of experience playing all kinds of different courses over there and I thought I’d give the Web.com another shot,” he said. Kemmer played in the 2011 PGA Tour Q-school at Dayton but did not advance finishing 41st at 2-under par.
Leaderboard watching is the predominant activity for the players in qualifying events where “getting inside the number” is the primary objective. If the tournament ended today, the cut line for qualifying would be at 2-under par, with 25 players theoretically advancing as the 24 low scores and ties as set by the PGA Tour.
Go here for complete results and individual player scorecards visit the web link.
