Brian

Stuard

The Michigan native missed the cut last week at a home game (Rocket Mortgage Classic). It was his 11th straight MC but he’s flipping that script early this week at the Wyndham. “I’ve been fighting it a little bit, just trying to kind of find my swing. Today it worked well, I was able to control my misses better than I have been, I think. Just I wish I knew what the difference was really, but yeah, hope to keep it going.” Stuard walked off the course ranked second in strokes gained approach (+3.7). The Oakland alum entered the week at just 137th in the FedExCup race, needing at least a 14th-place finish to crack the coveted top-125 position to crack the Playoffs.

Next week’s start at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., will mark the seven U.S. Open appearance for 39-year-old Stuard, who shot 68-65 on Monday and has qualified for all previous six appearances through the Springfield qualifying site. Also advancing to next week are Beau Hossler (67-68), amateur Maxwell Moldovan, Troy Merritt, Bo Hoag, Sam Stevens and amateur Adrien Dumont de Chassart from Belgium. Nick Hardy finished as first alternate with Jim Herman as second alternate. Missing out on qualifying were world No. 81 Cameron Davis, Scott Piercy, Brandt Snedeker, Robert Streb and Sahith Theegala.

The straight shooters circled nine birdies on day one but traded four circles with two bogeys today. Things got off to a rough start when they had to take a drop after an errant tee shot on their opening hole, leading to a bogey. They chipped away from there with birdies at 5, 7, and 11 with a pair of missed opportunities from the 10-to-12 foot range at the 9th and 13th. This duo arrived with a combined five top 25s in 15 career starts at the Zurich Classic, including Stuard’s solo win in the weather-shortened 2016 edition. Today was nothing to write home about for the duo but they held their position on the live leaderboard, currently tied for ninth with the afternoon wave still out on the course.

The Michigan native finagled two birdies against one bogey on nine greens in regulation on Sunday for his first top 10 at the Honda in 10 visits and his first top 10 of the season in 14 events. It’s also his first top 10 since T6 at last season’s 3M Open 17 starts ago, and got there after trading 10 birdies with 10 bogeys and carding a hole-out eagle-2 in R1 from 152 yards away. The 39-year-old signed for rounds of 70-70-69-69, one of just three players (of 73) to put all four laps in the books at par-or-better, and ranked 30th in SG: Putting (1.966), highlighted by a 2.786 in R4, and 17th in SG: Tee-to-Green (5.239), despite a 53rd-ranking Off-the-Tee (-0.324). He is in the field at this coming week’s opposite-field Puerto Rico Open.

The Michigan native missed the cut by seven points at last week’s opposite-field Barracuda but preceded that with three straight top 15s, including two of his three top 10s on the season. At 91st in FedExCup points on arrival, this is about positioning in the postseason, which he’s now qualified for in four consecutive campaigns and five of his last six. On 12 (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, the 38-year-old offset one bogey with five birdies, losing 0.378 strokes on approach but gaining 1.156 off-the-tee and 1.844 with the flat stick. This is his fifth time this season in 34 events that he’s in the top 10 at the halfway mark, third in his last four.

Stuard fired out of a cannon with six birdies on his opening eight holes, all of them poured home from inside of 13 feet. As the weather warmed up, Stuard’s game cooled off. He gave himself just one scoring chance from inside of 20 feet on his homeward nine and dropped two shots at the par-4 17th. It will be interesting to see if Stuard can hit the reset button on Friday or if this back-nine decline will still be haunting him. The 38-year-old arrived with top 15s in three of his last four starts and he’s right back in the hunt at Sedgefield Country Club. At 91st in the FedExCup race, he is in no danger of falling out of playoff contention.

The Michigan native improves to 18-for-32 on the season with three top 10s, and bags his third straight top-15 finish after T15 at last week’s opposite-field Barbasol (as an 18-hole co-leader), and T8 the week prior at the John Deere. He’s a cumulative 43-under in his last three events, recording nine (of 12) rounds in the 60s, highlighted by a pair of 64s, including a day-low and week-tying-low 64 here in R2. For the week, the 38-year-old carded laps of 70-64-70-69, totaled 16 birdies against three bogeys and a double, and ranked 54th in SG: Off-the-Tee (-0.340), 10th in SG: Approach (5.324), 27th in SG: Around (1.097), and 29th in SG: Putting (2.540). On Sunday, he began T12, one shy of the overnight top 10, and found 10 (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation. The Oakland University alum squared two bogey-4s at holes 4 and 13, camouflaged by four circles at 5, 7, 10 and 18, each from between seven and 15 feet. He lost ground in all strokes gained categories in R4 with the exception of a 2.014 SG: Putting.

The Michigan native, who posts the low round of the day thus far, kicked off last week’s opposite-field Barbasol with 64 (8-under) to co-lead after R1, eventually fading to T15 (64-69-70-68). He arrived this week 105th in the FedExCup standings with two top 10s in 31 events, a back-door T8 at the Deere two weeks ago (69-67-66-67), and a T3 at the season-opening Safeway back in September as a 54-hole co-leader (67-67-66-70). On 11 (of 14) fairways and 17 greens in regulation, the 38-year-old did the most damage on approach (3.404) and on the green (2.591), converting four of his seven birdies from between seven and 13 feet. He opened with a three-birdie one-bogey 70. (See link to post-round comments below.)

Stuard is known for his precision off the tee but he split just 8-of-14 fairways today at Keene Trace Golf Club. Luckily, the course allowed for scoring from the rough today, “I didn’t think I drove it well, but there’s not a lot of rough so you can kind of attack from anywhere, so that’s what I was able to do.” To finish things off, he caught fire with the flat stick, gaining 4.259 strokes putting on the day. That would go in the books as one of his five best measured putting rounds on the PGA TOUR. If this lead holds then it’ll be his third career first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR (T43/2014 Puerto Rico Open; WIN/2016 weather-shortened Zurich Classic).