01 Aug 2020 | Professional golf |
Veteran Percy bobs up in Reno
by Martin Blake
Ten years and 152 starts into his PGA Tour career, veteran Australian Cameron Percy is pushing for his first win.
Percy, 46, completed two outstanding rounds at the tour's Barracuda Championship outside Reno with 18 points in the modified stableford event, just four points from the lead.
The North Carolina-based Melburnian, who was spawned by Southern Golf Club in Melbourne, is tied for seventh with two rounds to play.
Percy first played on the main tour in 2010 when he suffered the indignity of one of the most unfortunate playoff defeats ever -- when Jonathan Byrd holed out at a par-three in Las Vegas to beat him.
That second-place finish remains his best result, although back on the main tour in 2020, he was tied-seventh in the Safeway Open and has picked up $US450,000 in prizemoney.
Percy, a five-time winner in Australia, picked up two birdies today but the highlight was his hole-out for eagle at the par-four eighth hole, where he drove the green. His only big mistake came at the par-three 15th, where a pushed tee shot into a fairway trap led to a bogey.
MINJEE Lee began the second part of her 2020 season with a nice opening round on the LPGA Tour's resumption in Toledo, shooting a three-under par 69 to be on the leaderboard in the three-round event. Lee, Australia's top-ranked female player, is three shots from Danielle Kang's lead.
RYAN Ruffels shot a second-round 70 in the Korn Ferry Tour's x in x to continue his push for a maiden win as a professional. Ruffels is at six-under par, just two shots from the lead.
JASON Day's split from longtime coach Col Swatton has not had a negative impact in the short-term, the Australian in the running at the $US10.5 million World Golf Championship St Jude Invitational in Memphis at the halfway point.
Day added a 67 today to his opening 68 and at five-under par is tied-eighth overall, six shots from the lead held by American Brendon Todd. Marc Leishman (70-69) is the next-best of the Australians.
IN EUROPE, Jason Scrivener is the most prominent Australian through two rounds of the English Open. Scrivener has consecutive rounds of 69 to be just inside the top 20.