Kisner keeps up the momentum at Quail Hollow

Mandy Snedeker had just dropped her two children, Lily and Austin, off at school near their home in Nashville. Her husband, Brandt, was in Greensboro, North Carolina, playing in the Wyndham Championship. He was in one of the morning’s featured groups, paired with Billy Horschel and Hideki Matsuyama, so she could follow the PGA TOUR Live coverage of his round as she ran errands. “And then all of a sudden, I don’t know what hole it was, but they started mentioning that there was a chance that he could shoot 59,â€� Mandy recalls. “I kind of went, errrk, pulled over in a parking lot, and watched the rest of it.â€� Mandy sat in that parking lot for a good hour on that Thursday morning a year ago, watching the final four holes or so on her cell phone. So, she saw the 20-footer he made on the Sedgefield’s ninth hole, his last of the day, to become just the ninth player in PGA TOUR history to shoot a 59. “Oh, my gosh, I screamed and just went crazy,â€� Mandy says. And then her telephone started virtually blowing up with text messages. In relatively short order, she had probably 40 or 50; her husband’s phone pinged with roughly double that amount – all meaningful in their own way. “We have a lot of friends that are in the music industry … and obviously are huge golfers,â€� Mandy says. “So, they were all texting me. I thought that was cool. “I don’t know if I have anyone that (stood out); it was just so many at one time I couldn’t believe it because I wasn’t sure if everybody knew. It was a Thursday, Thursday morning. So, I was texting people all morning. Brandt shot 59. Brandt shot 59. It was crazy.â€� Of course, her first text was to Brandt. He was whisked away to interviews after he signed his scorecard but called as soon as he could. “He was so excited,â€� Mandy recalls. “You know, golf, it’s crazy. It’s like up and down and he hadn’t been playing that great. But out of nowhere he shoots 59. So, it’s just how the sport rolls.â€� Then came the hard part. At least for Brandt. Take that four-stroke lead he had accrued with the 59, play three more rounds and try to win a golf tournament.  “Fifty‑nine was such a cool moment and such a great place, has such a great place in my memory and the history of the game obviously, but doing it on Thursday when you’ve got three more days to deal with, A, all the questions, B, all the kind of attention you draw on yourself, and then most importantly, the expectations you have on yourself,â€� Brandt says.  “You have a … four‑shot lead after the first day, play that kind of round of golf, you can’t really think of anything other than messing it up from there, to be honest with you. So, it’s hard to kind of deal with that, try to get over it and make sure you get back into what made you successful that first day.â€� The internal pressure was one thing. After all, Brandt had already won eight times on the PGA TOUR. But the 2018 Wyndham Championship was the first time his kids, who were 7 and 5 years old at the time, really understood what was going on. “The second he (shot 59) it was, Dad are you going to win the tournament? Dad are you winning?â€� Mandy recalls with a smile. “We flew in Saturday; we go upstairs to the player dining. Dad, are you leading still? Dad are you leading? Are you going to win? I was like, oh my goodness. Stop. “So, we had joked if he can win with that pressure of the kids constantly reminding him, you know, he’s got it. He’s got it.â€� Steve Holmes, who is chairman of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Wyndham Destinations, had sent a private jet to Nashville to pick up Mandy and the kids. Wyndham has sponsored Brandt since shortly after he won the 2007 tournament at Sedgefield, which was his first PGA TOUR victory. Holmes was the one who presented Brandt with the Sam Snead Cup that year. “It just so happened he was coming up to New York for the first playoff event right afterwards and he offered me a ride up on his plane,â€� Brandt remembers. “And so, I hop on the plane. We celebrated and talked and just kind of grew from there and Steve’s one of the best human beings in the world. Spending that little time with them on a plane, I realized what a quality guy he was and what they stood for. “Just always have been very fortunate in my career, surround myself with really good people and make sure I have the right partnerships and it all started with him and them because they are a bunch of great people and do stuff the right way.â€� So, Brandt wasn’t at all surprised that Holmes flew Mandy and the kids in for what turned out to be another Sunday celebration with Lily and Austin racing onto the 18th green to jump into their dad’s arms. “They’ve been dear friends of ours for a long time,â€� Mandy says. “That’s what made it so special, too. It’s not just shooting the 59 … it was just like a storybook book setting. I mean, with it being Wyndham and his sponsor and just all the years that we’ve been with them and stuff. “So yeah, it was really special.â€�

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Argentina’s Martin Contini never had played in a PGA TOUR event before this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National. What better way to introduce himself to thousands of fans than to climb into the middle of the bleachers next to the 18th green at the Champion Course after hitting his second shot up there? Contini sat down, said hello, even waved to an NBC camera, the well-served fans loving every moment. He did so with a smile on his face, and why not? Having survived a longshot Monday qualifier – 130 players, four spots – just to get here, the 27-year-old is playing on house money. He shot 2-under 68 on Saturday, and finds himself tied for seventh heading into Sunday. Contini is one of a handful of dreamers and new faces who have made the most of a great opportunity this week at The Honda Classic, a $8 million PGA TOUR stop in its 50th year. Three of the four players who made it through qualifying at West Palm’s Banyon Cay are still playing, including left-hander Rick Lamb, who survived a 16-for-1 spot playoff early Tuesday morning. Lamb is 31, a pro for nearly a decade, and has played a season on the PGA TOUR, so he is not as caught up in the bright lights as some others. He has Korn Ferry Tour membership as a past champion (2016 LECOM Health Challenge, where he also was a Monday qualifier), but he is not expecting to get any starts from that. So he’ll chase the PGA TOUR and try to get into events via the Monday route. It may be easier hitting all the numbers in Saturday’s PowerBall. Lamb, who shot 70 and is in the middle of the pack (T-35) at 2-over 212, had to summon some heroics not once, but twice this week. First came the 16-for-1 playoff at Banyon Cay that spilled into Tuesday. The playoff began on a reachable par 5, and Lamb knew somebody was going to do something special. He wanted to make sure it was him. He hit driver and 4-iron to 40 feet and rolled in the eagle putt. Nobody matched it. On Friday, Lamb stood in the ninth fairway (his 36th hole) at PGA National’s Champion on the wrong side of the cut line. He needed birdie, hit an approach to 10 feet, and ran in the putt to finish at 2-over 142 and earn a weekend time. In golf, there is nothing given. “Pretty much every other professional athlete has a guaranteed contract, they know what they’re making (salary-wise),” Lamb said Saturday. “They just go out and try to perform their best. For us, there’s another layer of pressure that, if you don’t make the cut, you’re not making any money that week.” Andrew Kozan is a young local professional playing the Korn Ferry Tour who grew up playing PGA National (he was a member from age 7 to 15), attending The Honda with his parents each year. He, too, had planned to participate in Monday qualifying, but a phone call on Sunday night from tournament co-chair Gary Nicklaus would alter those plans. Kozan was given the tournament’s final sponsor exemption. Shortly after sun broke Saturday morning, Kozan, 23, stood on the 18th fairway, the only player on the golf course. Facing 258 yards into the green at the par-5 18th hole, he was given the option not to finish his second round in darkness Friday evening, so chose to return first thing Saturday morning. (The other two players in the group, who were missing the cut, decided to finish and depart). Kozan made a safe par to complete his second-round 75, making the cut on the number, then went off alone as the first player out in the third round, shooting 68. There would be only 13 scores all day in the 60s. He had his feet up before lunch, which is one effective way to climb the leaderboard at Honda. The Champion Course took its pound of flesh on Saturday, the field averaging more than two shots over par. The Bear Trap alone (holes 15-17) accounted for 13 double bogeys and five “others.” By day’s end, Kozan was inside the top 20, and with a good round on Sunday, he can collect his largest paycheck as a professional. (Previously, it was the $30,000 he earned at Korn Ferry Q-School. How long has Kozan pictured himself inside the ropes, playing the Honda? “Every day since I was probably 7,” he said. “Honda’s in what, February, March? They started putting the stands up in December. You always want to go out and play as close to the event as you can, putt with the stands up, just to feel like you’re playing the event. I mean … it’s a dream come true this week.” Same for Contini. He likely has the best shot from the Dreamer Division to potentially make something big happen on Sunday. “The cut was great, but I didn’t want it to stop there, so I’m going to try to reach the top 5 tomorrow,” he said. Such a finish (any top 10) would get Contini into the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open next week. Walking along with him on Saturday he had his brother and his uncle, who hopped on a plane once Contini surprised them with a phone call telling them he had earned his way into the event. Contini treated his relatives to a wild finish at 18. He drove it into the left rough, 250 yards from the flagstick. With water short and right, he tried to get his second shot somewhere in or around the left greenside bunker. But the ball jumped on him, flying midway into the stands like a home run ball the Florida Marlins would envy. He went into the stands to fetch it, his ball resting under a spectator’s feet in the middle of the crowd. What to do? He took a seat next to the fan. It was pure fun up there. “I should go find him and give him the ball,” Contini said after he had signed his scorecard. “I’m going to do that.” So much at stake in the final round. At Honda, it will be about more than the man who will leave with the trophy on Sunday. Contini was asked what a high finish would mean to him. After all, with the Korn Ferry Tour on a three-week hiatus, he expected to be off this week, and getting some rest. He smiled. “It would mean the world,” he said.

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