The eyes of Texas were upon Uplands Golf Club on Thursday.
University of Texas graduate Gavin Hall took the first-round co-lead at 7-under 63, with Canadian Michael Blair, in the $200,000 Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by the sa国际传媒. It came a day after the current edition of the Longhorns won the NCAA Div. 1 championship Wednesday.
“I’m off to a good start and [fellow-Longhorns alumni] Bobby Hudson, Taylor Funk and Steven Chervony are playing here as well,” said Hall.
The quartet certainly had a common topic of discussion at Uplands.
“For coach [John] Fields to get a national championship is pretty incredible. It’s been 10 years,” said Hall, who graduated in 2018.
As far as his own game went, the native of Rochester, New York, recorded six birdies on his blistering back nine.
“There were not too many long putts. I just kept the ball in front of me,” said Hall, in his PGA Tour sa国际传媒 interview, following the opening round.
“You have to keep it on the fairway to score out here. It’s pretty tough to score from the trees or the rough with the pin locations and the way the greens are. At the same time, if you do put the ball in the fairways, then you can be aggressive.”
Also shooting 63 was Blair, from Ancaster, Ont., and out of NCAA Div. 1 Eastern Michigan University.
“It’s nice but this is Thursday. It’d rather be on the top of the board Sunday,” Blair said.
“But as they say, you can’t win it on Thursday, but you can lose it on Thursday.”
Blair has been in this heady position before, winning the Prince Edward Island Open last year in a playoff over Maxwell Sear of Royal Colwood.
Co-leaders Hall and Blair are trying to follow in the footsteps of the likes of the top-two finishers of the last normal pre-pandemic Victoria Open in 2019 as winner Paul Barjon and runner-up Doc Redman both went on to the PGA Tour. They are part of a total of 54 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 alumni to have advanced to play on the PGA Tour since 2013 with 16 PGA Tour victories between them. More than 250 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 alumni have gone onto play on the Korn Ferry Tour, one step from the PGA Tour, since 2013 with 50 victories between them.
“Why are you out here if you don’t think you’re good enough to play on the PGA Tour?” said Blair.
“When you’re playing well, you think you’re right there on the verge. But then the opposite when things aren’t going well.”
The golfers this season are chasing the full-season exemptions into the 2023 Korn Kerry Tour for the top five in the 2022 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 Fortinet Cup season points standings, with other selected 2023 Korn Ferry Tour exemptions for the sixth-to-10th place finishers in the Fortinet Cup season standings.
“You’re a few good weeks away from being right there on the doorstep [of the Korn Ferry Tour],” said Blair.
The top-two season finishers, and top Canadian, on the PGA Tour sa国际传媒 this year will also earn exemptions into the 2023 RBC Canadian Open.
American Danny Walker was third after the first round at 6-under. Nine golfers, including Canadian Joey Savoie, were tied at 5-under. Top Islanders Sear and Riley Wheeldon of Comox were at 1-under and tied for 58th.
The Royal Beach Victoria Open, which begins the 11-event 2022 PGA Tour sa国际传媒 season, continues with the second round Friday, after which the 156-player field will be cut down. The third round is Saturday and final round Sunday.
