Playing this season out of the Beyond 150 category, World No. 818 George McNeill handed in a 3-under-par 33-36=69 after the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship to post 15-under 273, dipping one spot to T6, which earns him a top-10 exemption into next week’s Safeway Open if he chooses to accept it.
This was the 43-year-old’s seventh SFC, second top 25 and second top 10, joining a T2 in 2011 (Annandale GC). It’s his first top 10 of the season in two starts (CUT, Greenbrier), and overall, his 21st in 286 events, first since T7 at the last season’s opposite-field Corales back in March. For the week, the Florida State product carded rounds of 67-67-70-69 and totaled one eagle and 17 birdies against four bogeys. In R4, he hit eight (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, offsetting one bogey-6 at hole 5 with four circles at 1-3 and 7, before finishing with 11 straight pars. The Floridian gained 1.263 strokes off-the-tee and eked out a 0.002 SG: Putting, converting two scoring tries from between 10 and 18 feet, but missing five from inside of 13 feet.