Jarrod Lyle’s long road back to the PGA TOUR begins in earnest this week when he is among five Australians to tee up at the Humana Challenge in California.
Jarrod Lyle’s long road back to the PGA TOUR begins in earnest this week when he is among five Australians to tee up at the Humana Challenge in California.
It is the 33-year-old’s third event of the wraparound season and first since the new year as he relies on sponsor’s invitations for most of the 20 starts he is eligible for throughout 2015.
Lyle made the cut in both events he played in October last year posting mid-field finishes at the Fry’s.com and Shriner’s Hospitals for Children events to amass $53,795 of the $283,825 he needs to regain his TOUR card.
In three previous appearances at the Humana Lyle has a best result of T26 in 2012 but comes into the week fresh from a several week break and having showed signs of form during the Australian summer.
Joining Lyle at the PGA West complex this week are Stuart Appleby, Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones and Cameron Percy.
Appleby will be looking to recreate his form of last year where he posted the first of three top 10s for the year at the Humana with four sub-70 rounds.
It was the nine time TOUR winner’s best finish at the tournament where in eight attempts he has missed the cut only once but been better than 30th just twice.
Of the remaining Australians Matt Jones has the best record at this event with one top 10 in 2010 and a T13 last year.
Jones has teed up five times at the Humana and never missed the cut and will be looking to improve on his play from Hawaii last week where he finished last at the Sony Open.
Bowditch has had limited success at this event with a missed cut and two mid 40’s finishes in three tries while Percy has missed the cut in his only two appearances.
Robert Allenby, who has been in the headlines after being assaulted on Friday night in Hawaii, has indicated in several interviews he is considering playing the Humana event but his name does not appear in the field list.
Greg Chalmers is listed as an alternate but seems unlikely to gain a start.