Area pros Byrd, Lundy have eyes on Web.com Tour status

Zack Byrd of Murrells Inlet and Patrick Lundy of Little River will attempt to earn status this week on the Web.com Tour by advancing through the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament’s Second Stage.

Byrd has been assigned Southern Hills Country Club in Brooksfield, Fla., while Lundy is entered at Plantation Preserve in Plantation, Fla. Both are playing Tuesday through Friday.

All players who reach the third/final stage are guaranteed at least conditional status on the 2017 Web.com Tour, though finishing near the bottom won’t afford many opportunities on the Web.com, which is the PGA Tour’s feeder tour.

There are five second stage sites, each with approximately 70 to 80 players, and the top 19 players and ties have advanced through each of the two sites that have completed play. A similar number are expected to advance through the three sites this week.

“Everybody has the ability to get through, it’s just who can handle the nerves the best,” Lundy said. “It’s my fourth time going to second stage so I feel I am prepared for it. I feel pretty comfortable.”

Lundy is looking to reach the final stage for the first time – it was the PGA Tour Q-School through 2012. Byrd has reached the final stage twice, but hasn’t played well on either occasion.

Byrd advanced through Southern Hills the last time he reached the final stage in 2013.

“I like the golf course a lot,” Byrd said. “It’s long. It was not a golf course that I wanted when I got through there, it was my second pick that year. But it fit my game and fit my eye. There weren’t a lot of holes that I didn’t like off the tee. It was my first pick the last two years.”

Southern Hills changed its greens this summer to TifEagle ultradwarf Bermudagrass, so they should be firm. Byrd’s home course, Wachesaw Plantation, also installed new ultradwarf Bermuda greens recently, so Byrd believes that will work in his favor.

Byrd said he hasn’t played many rounds lately but has shot in the mid-60s recently at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club and Reserve Club. “I’m not playing a lot but my game feels great,” he said.

He changed putters two days before competing in the first stage, changing from a Clearball putter from the Canadian company Innovations Golf that he used for four years to a Scotty Cameron putter that had been made for him a few years ago. It was a belly putter but he cut the shaft down to 34 inches. “It feels great. I putted probably the best I’ve ever putted in a tournament at Florence (Country Club in the first stage),” Byrd said. “I’m just trying to keep that going and clean up the ball-striking a little bit.”

Lundy doesn’t know much about Plantation Preserve, but he didn’t want to return to Southern Hills, where he played last year.

“I’d heard Plantation Preserve is the hardest to go through and I feel that plays into my favor,” Lundy said. “It’s in Fort Lauderdale so I knew the weather would be perfect. I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have to deal with [bad] weather.”

Lundy recently won a Coastal Players Tour event by seven shots, and shot a 68 in a Thursday prequalifier for the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss., but failed to get through the Monday qualifier.

Lundy spent a few days last week working with instructor Brad Redding or International Club of Myrtle Beach. “Since I started working with him I’ve started playing the best I’ve ever played,” Lundy said.

Roberto Diaz of Myrtle Beach already has full Web.com Tour status for 2017 based on his finish of 51st on the 2016 Web.com Tour regular season money list. He plans to play in this week’s $7 million PGA Tour OHL Classic at Mayakoba in his native Mexico, as well as the upcoming Argentina Open before the Web.com Tour season starts up again in late January.

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Area pros Byrd, Lundy have eyes on Web.com Tour status."