Officialsportsbetting.com Golf Betting Race to the finish is on for young and old at the Safeway Open

Race to the finish is on for young and old at the Safeway Open

NAPA, Calif. - If the Safeway Open had spectators on Sunday they wouldn't know where to look. As it stands, the PGA TOUR season opener is set for a Sunday sprint as an incredible 35 players sit within six shots of the lead, with 32 of those within five. And it is an eclectic group at that. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Higgs’ walk-off albatross From 18-year-old teenage star Akshay Bhatia to 47-year-old wily veteran major winning Stewart Cink those in contention span almost three decades. Of the 35 players, 22 of them have yet to win on the PGA TOUR making Sunday one full of potential. One of those players is Cameron Percy, the Australian journeyman who at 46 is one of the veterans in the mix. Percy sits tied for the lead a 16 under with Brian Stuard and James Hahn. Stuard has one win from 2016 on his resume, Hahn is a two-time winner but the last of his triumphs also came in 2016. Percy had a chance to win just shy of a decade ago at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. He found himself in a playoff with Jonathan Byrd and Martin Laird only to watch as Byrd made an ace in the playoff for a heartbreaking loss. In eight seasons on the TOUR, Percy has never made the FedExCup Playoffs but a win here would see him leading the FedExCup given it's the season opener. "Winning would mean the world to me. It would be fantastic. I've got a bit more focus and set a few goals and it’s amazing what happens when you set some goals. You’re not just out here running in circles," Percy said. Hahn is returning from an elbow injury and has 14 starts to make 305 FedExCup points. A win is worth 500. "It’s the same as trying to win a golf tournament, I can tell you that, because you’ve heard it before, winning takes care of itself. It takes care of a lot of problems," Hahn said of the battle to regain his status. "The medical is just something in the back of my mind, to be honest with you. I come out every week trying to win a golf tournament, so if I can keep my focus there, I think I’m doing things right." While the three on top have a combined 590 starts on TOUR the three one shot behind have just 105 starts between them and not a win to speak of yet. Harry Higgs, Sam Burns and Kristoffer Ventura are all 20-somethings looking to kickstart their careers with a bang at Silverado on Sunday. Higgs and Burns have been close with a runner-up and third place finish respectively in their young careers but Ventura's previous 20 starts on the TOUR have yet to yield a single top 10 finish. On Saturday though, the former college teammate of Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland spent some time in the lead. "On nine after I made that chip for eagle, I saw that I took the lead and I told my brother, ‘Hey, like it’s pretty cool, that’s the first time I ever led in a PGA TOUR tournament’ and kind of marked that off, I guess if you want to call it that. It’s just cool," Ventura said. With Hovland and Wolff already winners on TOUR, Ventura is ready to add himself to the list. "It’s just more motivation," he said about his friends success. "Obviously they’ve proven they can win out here and hopefully I’ll get the next one, but if anything, there’s no jealousy or anything, it’s just motivation." Cink sits just two shots back of the lead after a sublime 30 on the front nine on Saturday. The six-time TOUR winner is one of three major winners in the mix. Jason Dufner and Charl Schwartzel are four shots back. "I don’t get in these positions every time I play anymore. I would like to," Cink said. The veteran is in the midst of his 596th TOUR start and hasn't won since his Open Championship triumph in 2009. "My son, Reagan’s on the bag, it’s a really special week," he added. "We’re having a great time and he’s doing an awesome job. I’m just going to enjoy tomorrow and keep on pushing." With Cink in the 14-under crowd are fellow TOUR winners Emiliano Grillo, D.J. Trahan and Russell Knox. Grillo won the Safeway Open five years ago while Knox's has two wins, the last of which came just over four years ago. The last of Trahan's two wins was in 2008. Scattered throughout the rest of the contenders are youngsters Sahith Theegala (seventh start), who shot 64 on Saturday to move within three shots of the lead, and Bhatia who is just four behind. Neither has banked a top 25 finish on TOUR yet with this marking the first made cut for Bhatia in his eighth start. Ben Taylor (21st start, 0 Top 25s, three back), Nelson Ledesma (19th start, 0 top 25s, four back), Vincent Whaley (16th start, five back) and Michael Gligic (23rd start, 0 Top 10s, five back) also have the chance to change their lives early in their careers. Joining Percy as veterans still searching for the difficult breakthrough are Kiwi Tim Wilkinson (179th start, three back) and Canadian David Hearn (288th start, four back). Both have been runner up before on TOUR but failed to clear the final hurdle. Ricky Barnes (311th start, four back), Tom Hoge (158th start, four back) and Bud Cauley (185th start, five back) also fit this category. Whoever comes out on top one thing is certain. They will have well and truly earned it.

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Harry Higgs’ walk-off albatross sets up title push at Safeway OpenHarry Higgs’ walk-off albatross sets up title push at Safeway Open

NAPA, Calif. - Harry Higgs body slammed his 4-iron into the Silverado Resort and Spa North Course fairway and jumped in the air in what one could kindly call a chaotic celebration. The 28-year-old character then raised his arms outstretched, signaling to a non-existent crowd to show him love, before accepting elbow bumps from those in his group. Welcome to an albatross, Higgs style. Higgs had just made an incredible two from 230 yards on the par-5 ninth hole, his final hole of the second round at the Safeway Open, to card a 10-under 62 and move to just two shots off the clubhouse lead held by Sam Burns. With the Safeway Open another being played without on-site spectators thanks to COVID-19 protocols it was a strange moment for Higgs, who is without doubt one of the bigger personalities and characters on the PGA TOUR. "I don’t think anybody really would have seen it anyway. No one really goes and watches that hole, they’re all behind one drinking wine and champagne like my family was last year," Higgs said. "If that was on 18, that would have been obviously sick and then Lord knows what the reaction’s like when there’s people around ... I tend to do some crazy stuff if people start chanting my name." In fact, rather than take it up a few more notches Higgs revealed he suddenly had a serious concern on his mind as he continued walking towards the green to retrieve his ball. How would he get his nap in now. Higgs, who finished 55th in the FedExCup as a rookie last season, was bouncing off the walls after the sensational finish to a bogey-free round. Just moments before the shot he'd been telling his brother, who acts as his caddie, that he couldn't wait to finish and get to bed. "I hope that I can calm down in an hour so I can take a nap. I was looking forward to a nap all day long and I might be too jacked up now to actually fall asleep," Higgs laughed. "What a wonderful way to end the day. I couldn’t see it disappear ...but I finally hit one like on the button solid. Drew a little bit, obviously landed soft, rolled right in the hole. The volunteer off the left just started screaming and then he said, “It’s in the hole, it’s in the hole!” and then I had a little panic freak out, jump for joy and then I threw my club. I’m sure it looked funny and ridiculous. I’m sure it could probably be a “not top‑10 play” just based on the poor reaction that I gave it." That volunteer was George Kennedy who couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. Of the three stationed around the ninth green only Kennedy saw it. Another was getting lunch at the time and the last had his head down entering data into the ShotLink tablet. "I'm still on a high from it. The ball went pop, bop and clunk. It was a once in a lifetime type deal that you see," Kennedy said. "It’s really weird out here without the fans because they add so much energy and we have to be the energy of a couple thousand people." Another volunteer, Rufus Arther, was the beneficiary of the ball itself. Arther had acted as walking scorer for the round and was stunned when Higgs signed it and handed it over to him. "It was incredible. This is going to go in my trophy case and it’s going to be a special memory from not just this tournament but all my volunteering experience because you just don’t see something like this every day," Arther, who is in his seventh year as a walking scorer at the Safeway Open, said. "I’m definitely a Harry Higgs fan now. He’s such a likable guy and it couldn’t happen to a better person. I’m hoping he continues to do well as it was such a pleasure sharing this experience with him." Higgs could have kept the ball as a keepsake but was, as always, up front and honest as to why he didn't. "I would lose it, and I don’t have a cabinet. I thought about just tossing it in the bag but Rufus was with us today, I just signed it, “Thanks for going with us, 2 on No. 9” a couple exclamation points, signed it and handed it to him," Higgs added. "I figure that was better than me keeping it and losing it." Prior to the albatross Higgs had seven birdies, six of those came on the back side of the course, his front nine on Friday. Through two rounds he is 8 under on the back side and 5 under on the front. Three of those gained shots on the front side came from the one incredible shot. With a career best finish of runner-up at last season's Bermuda Championship, where he held the 54-hole lead only to be run down by Brendon Todd, Higgs is excited for the chance to go one better. "I’ve not played that front nine very well. I’ve got the back nine down, played the front nine fine, just haven’t made enough birdies, so I figured I’d make up for it holing my second on the last," he grinned. ‘"It gives me a nice little boost going into the weekend. I’ve got to keep doing it. It’s not like 13 under is going to win. Maybe sprinkle in another albatross on nine or whatever other hole. Those help, for sure."

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