How a missed cut is surprisingly helping one golfer contend at the Wichita Open
Sometimes missing the cut at a golf tournament can be a good thing.
Even though no competitor hopes to be sent home halfway through and event without a pay check, it can sometimes can be a good thing.
Allow Kevin Roy to explain. At this time last week, he was at his house in Tampa after having missed the cut at the BMW Charity Pro-Am. It was his first missed cut since early May, and it dropped him to 54th on the Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. So he was understandably disappointed about the result. But only for a little while. Fast forward seven days, and his emotions have changed.
Why? Roy is now 1 shot off the lead after two days at the Wichita Open at Crestview Country Club. He shot a 66 on Friday to move to 12-under par, which puts him in a tie for second with Tyson Alexander just behind leader Norman Xiong. Roy has played 36 holes at this event without recording a single bogey. He might not have been able to do that had he played a full tournament last week.
“I was pretty wiped out,” Roy said after his round on Friday. “I didn’t really like missing the cut last week, but it was kind of a blessing to have to go home, unpack, do some laundry and hang with the wife, hang with our puppy. I didn’t touch a club for two days, and then I felt refreshed when I got here.”
Roy is a veteran at the Wichita Open, so he only played one practice round this week, on Wednesday. That was enough for his rested body to get off to a hot start. He shot a blistering 62 on Thursday and then followed that up with four birdies and 14 pars on Friday.
During his first round, Roy joked that he played so well he blacked out while he was making one birdie after another. He wasn’t quite that hot on the second day, but he set the stage for another fine round by making birdie on each of the first two holes. He added two more birdies.
“Another solid one for sure,” Roy said. “I just kind of stuck to our game plan. I got off to a pretty good start. I birdied the second hole and then just kind of cruised around and snuck a few more in.”
For the longest time on Friday, it looked like Roy was going to finish the day in the lead. But Xiong bested him by posting the lowest round of the tournament (61) as the sun began to set.
Xiong was scorching hot in his second round. After making a bogey on the first hole, he reeled of 10 birdies and seven pars over his final 17 holes to move atop the leaderboard.
Five of his birdies came on the back nine, including the closing hole.
Even with a blemish on his card, Xiong was slighlty better than Alexander and Roy. Those two have practically been mirror images on the course thus far. After 36 holes, they both have made 12 birdies, 24 pars and no bogeys.
Talk about mistake-free golf.
Alexander had an opportunity to pass Roy and Xiong when he made birdie on the 14th hole on Friday, but he finished with four straight pars.
A pack of contenders will be lurking behind the leaders. Kyle Westmoreland is in sole possession of fourth at 11-under, while Trevor Werbylo, Alex Chiarella, Jimmy Stanger and Kevin Yu sit at 10-under par.
Scores have been low for the most part this week, with golfers needing to shoot 4-under par over the first two days to make the cut in the top 47.
Roy wasn’t so lucky last week. Then again, maybe he was now that he is in position to win his first Korn Ferry tournament with two more good rounds over the weekend.
“I’m going to stick to the game plan and keep doing the same things,” Roy said. “Like i said yesterday, I really like this course. I will keep hitting drivers where I have been hitting drivers and keep sticking to the game plan.”