Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton burst onto the scene Saturday on the Rocket Mortgage Traditional as he posted the rating to beat.
He signed for a 7-under 65 to sit down at 14-under and just some pictures behind the leaders.
Clanton recorded six birdies, an eagle and one bogey on the day. He was 5-under by way of 11 holes earlier than he dropped a shot on the twelfth.
“We stayed tremendous calm and tremendous within the strategy of what we’ve been doing,” Clanton mentioned after his spherical on Saturday.
“I believe that’s one factor I’ve been scuffling with the final couple of months isn’t getting forward of my recreation and searching into the long run, however in the present day, I believe we did such an excellent job of not attempting to power the birdies on the market, however we simply stayed actually in our course of in the present day.”
By way of three rounds, Clanton leads the sphere in strokes gained off the tee with +4.378. He’s additionally No. 7 in strokes gained placing, choosing up +4.346 on the remainder of the sphere.
Nevertheless, in Saturday’s spherical alone, he leads in strokes gained off the tee (+1.491), placing (3.801) and whole (+4.712).
His flat stick was phenomenal because the Seminole golfer made 117 ft of putts throughout the third spherical. Nevertheless, his eagle on 14 was a veteran-like shot that confirmed what sort of guts he has.
“I smoked a driver means down there, and that was most likely one of many tougher ones I hit all day,” he mentioned. “Had the right 5-iron quantity with left-to-right wind. I checked out Jason and mentioned this might be actually good if I hit this good, and I flushed it. I mentioned, “Be the fitting membership,” and he mentioned it. Hit it shut and tapped in for eagle, so it was fairly candy.”
His 7-under 65 put him proper into competition to win a PGA Tour occasion. Can the 20-year-old make historical past this week? He made the lower on the U.S. Open and completed tied for forty first. Clanton was the second-lowest newbie behind Neal Shipley, who made his skilled PGA Tour debut this week.
“To have the ability to be out right here and even say I’m in competition to win a PGA TOUR occasion’s fairly nuts. It’s fairly cool, man,” he mentioned.
“I shot 7 underneath in the present day, it was superb, however we may have made a pair extra birdies on the market. My recreation plan has been the identical all week, pound driver as exhausting as I can, get it down there and make a number of putts — it’s been good.”
The final newbie to win on the PGA Tour was Nick Dunlap, who received the American Categorical in January. He grew to become the first newbie since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win on Tour.
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Picture by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Pictures
Now, Clanton appears so as to add his identify to the historical past books.
“Me and Nick go means again so it’s superior to see him try this,” Clanton mentioned. “It’s cool, man. I believe amateurs now, we’re so good. I believe a number of guys have nice probabilities of profitable out right here and to be in competition with sooner or later to go is fairly candy.”
The Florida State sophomore had among the finest springs with three consecutive victories on the Seminole Intercollegiate, the Valspar Collegiate Invitational and the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial.
Clanton recorded 10 top-10 finishes in 14 tournaments this previous season, and he completed at par or much less in 30 of his 40 rounds. He’s at the moment ranked No. 6 within the World Newbie Golf rating system.
If the Ben Hogan semifinalist wins on Sunday, it is going to be the primary time in 79 years that two amateurs have received on the PGA Tour. Cary Middlecoff and Fred Haas had been the final to win in the identical season in 1945.
Clanton will probably be in one of many closing teams on Sunday, as his 65 pushed him 22 spots up the leaderboard.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. For extra golf protection, observe us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You too can observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
