Ben Martin Leads But Low Scores Abound at Zurich Classic

By Fred Altvater on Saturday, April 26th 2014
Ben Martin Leads But Low Scores Abound at Zurich Classic

Ben Martin turned in a 10-under par 62 on Thursday to take the first round lead and fired a five-under par 67 on Friday to post 15-under par and lead the Zurich Classic by three shots.

Martin finished runner-up in the 2009 U.S. Amateur and turned professional in 2010. He originally made it to the 2011 PGA Tour by finishing runner-up at the 2010 Q-School. He made the cut in 12 of 25 starts, but failed to retain his card for 2012.

Martin earned eight top-10 finishes on the 2013 Web.com Tour, including two wins. He finished third on the Web.com Tour money list and earned a second chance at the PGA Tour.

In 14 starts on tour this year, he has only made five cuts. After finishing T-38 at the Sony Open in January, he missed three consecutive cuts before he finished third in Puerto Rico.  

Four more missed cuts followed before he tied for third at the RBC Heritage last week. Evidently something finally clicked for the 26-year-old. With two solid rounds under his belt in New Orleans, he should earn a good check this week.

Bo Van Pelt turned in a nine-under par 63 on Friday to get to seven-under par for 36 holes and move 105 spots up the leaderboard to T-5.

J.B. Holmes, Retief Goosen and Mark Anderson fired seven-under par 65’s on Friday. Holmes is at eight-under par T-10. Goosen and Anderson moved up 71 spots to T-12 at seven-under par.

Another 2013 Web.com Tour graduate Andrew Svoboda posted 64-68 over the first two days to inhabit second place at 12-under par three shots behind Martin.

Seung-Yul Noh will enter the weekend tied with Robert Streb at 11-under par and tied for third.

Two-time heart recipient Erik Compton is tied with Peter Hanson for fifth at 10-under par.

Brooks Koepka is trying to play his way onto the PGA Tour. He made it into the Zurich Classic field by firing an eight-under par 64 in Monday qualifying. He posted 71-68 good for five-under par and is T-27. If he can finish strong over the final 36 holes he will earn a tour membership and special temporary exemption.

TPC Louisiana is yielding very low scores. The leaders will need to keep firing at the flags and making birdies to stay atop the leaderboard on the weekend. 

Stay In Touch

Golf
Golf
Golf
Golf
Golf
Golf