Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship on Thursday and nearly half the field of 130 players Columbus, Ohio….Weather forced a delay in the morning rounds of the were forced to face early wake up calls to finish their rounds on Friday morning.
Homeboy Ben Curtis was in one of the last groups off late Thursday afternoon and made it through his first nine holes before play was halted at 7:40 PM local time. He finished his three-over par first round at 9:30 AM just in time for a 9:57 AM Friday tee time.
Jim Herman, currently ranked No. 73 in the Web.com Tour Finals money list, took advantage of the softer conditions at the Scarlet Course. He was forced to sit out a three hour delay, but posted a seven-under par 64 to hold the first round lead.
Softer greens allowed players to fire at the pins and the result was lower than normal scoring for the Dr. Alister MacKenzie designed Scarlet Golf Course at the Ohio State University.
Scarlet was renovated by Jack Nicklaus in 2007 and is normally one of the more difficult courses the Web.com Tour visits. Cooler temperatures and breezy conditions will make for higher scoring on Friday. The forecast is for sunny, but cool weather to persist throughout the weekend.
Tyrone Van Aswegen is ranked No. 107 in the Web.com Tour Finals and finished just one shot behind Herman at six-under par.
Veteran PGA Tour members Sean O’Hair and Tim Petrovic were tied and will start their second rounds in third place at five-under par.
O’Hair is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour. His last win came at the 2011 RBC Canadian Open. He missed 12 cuts in 2013 and finished No. 171 in the FedEx Cup rankings and is looking to regain his PGA Tour playing privileges for 2014.
Petrovic has one PGA Tour win and has earned over $11 million in his career, but finished 2013 at No. 193 in the FedEx Cup standings.
Two players Andrew Putnam and Miguel Angel Carballo are tied at four-under par.
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship is the third stop in the Web.com Tour Finals. Twenty-five 2014 PGA Tour cards will be presented to the Top 25 money winners at the end of the Web.com Tour Championship next week.
The stakes are high as PGA Tour veterans compete with hungry young golfers trying to make it to the “Big Show” on the PGA Tour.