After scraping into the field through a Monday qualifying play-off Greg Chalmers was the only Australian to survive the 36-hole cut at the Valspar Championship in Florida.
After scraping into the field through a Monday qualifying play-off Greg Chalmers was the only Australian to survive the 36-hole cut at the Valspar Championship in Florida.
Chalmers, part of a six man play-off for the final spot,
almost holed an approach shot to eliminate American Mark Hubbard and was the
surprise performer of the Australians after Adam Scott missed the cut.
Rounds of 69-72-73-72 on a difficult Copperhead Golf Course
left Chalmers 2-over for the week and in a share of 47th position.
Scott started the week among the favourites with most
analysts but the rust most expected in his 2015 debut at Doral last week
arrived later than expected.
As good as the World Number 4 was with the short putter at
the WGC he was equally bad at Innisbrook finishing 141st out of the
144 players who teed up.
Scott’s rounds of 71-75 saw miss the cut by three shots, the
first weekend he has missed on the PGA TOUR since the Byron Nelson tournament
in May 2012, a run of 45 events in the US and 57 worldwide.
It was an equally disappointing performance for defending
champion John Senden who got off to a bad start and never recovered.
An opening 3-over 74 proved too much to overcome for the
Queenslander and he missed the cut by two shots.
It was the opposite for Rod Pampling who came into the week
off a close call in Puerto Rico last week.
He rode the momentum to an opening 68 to be in a share of 10th
but unravelled on Friday, slumping to a 77 and, like Senden, missed the cut by
two.
Steven Bowditch, Marc Leishman and Robert Allenby all also
missed the weekend.