Duke frosh Whitehead available, could debut Fri.Duke frosh Whitehead available, could debut Fri.
Duke freshman star Dariq Whitehead will dress and be available for Friday night’s game against Delaware, the school announced Friday.
Day: November 18, 2022
Harry Higgs shares lead at The RSM ClassicHarry Higgs shares lead at The RSM Classic
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Harry Higgs lost his full PGA TOUR card toward the end of last season and took a step Friday at Sea Island toward getting it back. Higgs played bogey-free on the more difficult Seaside course for a 7-under 63, giving him a share of the lead with recent Texas grad Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam going into the weekend of The RSM Classic. Plenty is at stake in the final official PGA TOUR event before a six-week break to end the year. Hammer, who had a 66 at Seaside, is playing on a sponsor exemption and has no full status on any tour. Putnam, whose only PGA TOUR title was in 2018, had a 65 on the Plantation course. He is playing for the eighth time in 10 weeks, having missed only the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in the fall because he’s made every cut — he was a runner-up in Japan — and because the weather isn’t all that great at home near Seattle. Higgs is an everyman, popular among his peers, and it stung to finish last season the way he did. After he tied for 14th in his Masters debut, Higgs missed the cut in 10 of his last 14 events to finish out of the top 125 in the FedExCup. He went to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and missed the cut in all three of those tournaments. Now he has conditional status, and this presents a great opportunity. Job security can be stressful on the PGA TOUR, especially going into a season in which only 70 will qualify for the lucrative postseason. “It’s in the back of your mind. It always is for almost everybody except for some of the top players in the world,” Higgs said. “But it can motivate you to work a little bit harder, make better decisions. The goal is to not really have to worry about it come March or as early as possible, right?” The leaders were at 12-under 130. Joel Dahmen (64 on Plantation), Beau Hossler (67 on Plantation) and Sahith Theegala, who matched Higgs with a 63 on Seaside, were one shot behind. Dahmen won in the Dominican Republic last year and his exemption runs out after this season. He often rooms with Higgs, so he can appreciate the feeling of playing with the pressure of trying to keep a job. “Golf is very hard and it can go sour quickly. To play with freedom for … two-and-a-half years, really, never had that in my career. So yeah, teeing up in Napa was like, `OK, we’re back at square one. If you don’t play well, you don’t have a job.’ I was very aware of that. “I don’t think about it necessarily when I’m out there, but there’s been a couple extra days of practice, for sure.” The weather wasn’t quite as cold as the opening round, and scoring remained low. The cut was at 4-under 138. Hammer, who made his first PGA TOUR cut as a pro last week in Houston, made bogeys from the fairway on the seventh and eighth holes at Seaside — two of the easier holes for the day — and then turned it around with an approach to 3 feet on No. 9 and then a birdie putt from 18 feet on the next hole. He was bogey-free the rest of the way and will be in the final group on the weekend. “I was a little bit depressed after 7 and 8. I put myself in great position to make birdies and I walked out with two bogeys, and that’s almost inexcusable,” Hammer said. “But coming back firing on 9 and then making a birdie on 10 — erasing those bogeys on two of the tougher holes right away — was huge for momentum and for confidence.”
Fear a factor in Joel Dahmen’s fall successFear a factor in Joel Dahmen’s fall success
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Joel Dahmen has earned nearly $10 million on the PGA TOUR. He’s kept his card for five consecutive seasons, won for the first time in 2021 and contended at this year’s U.S. Open. Yet Dahmen admits that he was afraid at the start of this season. Why? Because if playing professional golf is akin to tightrope walking — both professions have severe penalties for those on the wrong side of small margins — then Dahmen embarked on the 2023 season without a safety net. The two-year exemption that Dahmen earned with his win at last year’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship expires at season’s end. He’ll have to earn his return to the TOUR for 2024, and if there is one thing that Dahmen does not want to do it is lose his TOUR card. “I’m scared to death of having a job,” said Dahmen, whose vocational experience includes working at a golf course and as a valet. “Golf is very hard and it can go sour quickly,” he added. “Teeing it up in Napa (in September for the season-opening Fortinet Championship) was like OK, we’re back at square one. If you don’t play well, you don’t have a job. I was very aware of that.” Dahmen doesn’t have to dust off his resume quite yet. His quest to keep his TOUR card is off to a good start. He arrived at Sea Island ranked 19th in the FedExCup, including top-10s in his previous two starts. He’s made his last five cuts and four of those finishes have been T16 or better. Dahmen also is just a shot off the lead at The RSM Classic’s halfway point and in good position to earn another of those coveted two-year exemptions. He opened this week with a 67 on Sea Island’s Seaside Course and a 64 on Friday at the Plantation. Dahmen played the first two rounds with FedExCup leader Seamus Power, another player who’s saved his best golf for his mid-30s. They offer a stark contrast to the young studs on The RSM leaderboard, such as Sahith Theegala, Cole Hammer and Chris Gotterup. Hammer and Gotterup are both competing on sponsor exemptions after turning pro earlier this year. Gotterup was this year’s collegiate player of the year, while Hammer is a former No. 1 in the world amateur rankings who made headlines after qualifying for the 2015 U.S. Open at age 15. Theegala was college golf’s top player just two years ago and is coming off a rookie season that concluded at this year’s TOUR Championship. Hammer holds a share of the halfway lead at 12-under 130 (64-66), while Theegala (68-63) is one back and Gotterup (65-68) is three back. Gotterup and Hammer were each in the top 10 of this year’s class for PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global and have Korn Ferry Tour status for next year. Dahmen and Power first met during their freshman year of college, so along ago that the course they were playing (Arizona State’s Karsten Course) no longer exists. They both spent several years on the mini-tours before making it to the Korn Ferry Tour, then waited a few more seasons for that first TOUR title. Now one of them could start 2023 atop the FedExCup standings. Power currently holds that position after earning his second career TOUR win at last month’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship and then finishing T3 in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Power is just four off the lead at The RSM after shooting 66-68. “I’m like, if I can keep up with Seamus it means I’m probably in a really good spot today,” said Dahmen, who’s 35 years old. “It wasn’t so much competition, it’s like, hey, this guy’s kind of leading right now and he’s ahead of the game, so if you can hang with him, you’re probably going to be in a good spot.” They were tied with four holes remaining Friday, but Dahmen made three birdies while Power played those holes in even par. Dahmen said his ability to convert some breaking short putts on Sea Island’s slick greens was one of the most satisfying parts of his play this week, “I’ve been improving a lot on my putting. Stats aren’t showing that, but I promise it’s improving. My short game’s improved a ton this fall,” Dahmen said. “Obviously this fall’s been really good for me, but I think my best golf is in front of me, yes.” Fear can be a great motivator.
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