Keefer riding wave of success

John Keefer is having a PGA Tour Americas rookie season to remember, missing just one thing on an otherwise remarkable resume: A tournament victory.

He’s come painfully close in the form of four second-place finishes so far this summer in Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Throw in three more strong showings — a fifth, a sixth and a 19th — and the 23-year-old from Baltimore, Md., has been in the mix in the seven events he’s played since graduating from Baylor and turning pro last spring.

No surprise, then, to see Keefer’s name on top of the leaderboard during the first round of the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open at Southwood Golf & Country Club.

A sizzling nine-under 63 has him a three-way tie for first and looking down at 153 other competitors.

“It’s always a good start to go nice and low the first round and put yourself in a good position,” said Keefer, whose round included seven birdies, an eagle and 10 pars.

“It was a flawless round. I hit the ball really well. I putted really well. I gave myself a lot of opportunities. Really happy with the day.”

Two other first-year players right out of college — Michael Brennan of Virginia and Neal Shipley of Pittsburgh — shot 63. Brennan, 22, was 10-under par through 13 holes before coming back down to Earth a bit.

Morning thunderstorms meant a two-hour delay to the start of the first round, and play was suspended due to darkness late Thursday evening with 22 players left with anywhere from one to four holes left to play. They’ll complete things first thing Friday morning prior to the start of round two.

Keefer entered this week at No. 2 on the points list, which puts him in strong position to graduate to the Korn Ferry Tour — the feeder to the PGA Tour — next season. The top 10 at the end of this current campaign will get their cards.

In that sense, his confidence is sky-high right now.

“Having that trophy would be really nice. It would be a good addition,” Keefer said. “You just have to keep on going. You can’t let up. It’s really tough golf out here. It’s really tough to win — I think I’ve proven that.”

Keefer got his PGA Tour Americas status by virtue of being in the top 25 on the PGA Tour university standings. He needed a strong finish to his collegiate career to just get in and finish 25th.

Now he’s already cashed US$99,608 in earnings — with plenty more to come, it seems.

“I think my game has been trending really nicely. I’d like to say that I would make that a staple and be very consistent,” said Keefer, who was named the Big 12 Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the year three consecutive times.

“But I know that I might reach a tough stretch and am going to have a few bad rounds eventually. I’ll ride this wave as long as possible and try to get a few wins.”

One shot behind Keefer, Brennan and Shipley is fellow American Daniel Hudson, who birdied six of his final eight holes for his 64. Did such a fantastic finish have him wishing the round could have continued given the momentum he’d clearly built?

“To be honest with you, no,” Hudson said with a chuckle. “I was getting kind of tired out there. It was obviously nice to finish well, but I’m looking forward to getting some rest.”

The 29-year-old from Chicago has been grinding it out for seven years as a pro with career earnings of US$40,298 over 44 events. He’s only made 23 cuts and has one top-five finish to his name. Hudson entered this week having made the cut in four of 12 tournaments and 113th on the points list, but was coming off a tie for 18th last week in Saskatchewan.

“That was nice. I had not played well for pretty much the whole season. I hadn’t really had a good week,” he said.

The soggy start meant a golf course which otherwise may have played tougher due to gusty winds was rather vulnerable.

“Soft is always going to be low scores,” said Hudson. “There’s not a whole bunch of holes where you can get in trouble off the tee. So if you’re driving it OK the greens are nice, so you can make a lot of birdies.”

Five golfers are sitting at seven-under par, while 13 more are six-under. All told, 128 of the 156 players were in the red on Thursday, 14 more were at even par and only 14 were over.

There’s a bit of local flavour to this tournament, led by four-time reigning Manitoba Amateur champion Braxton Kuntz. the 20-year-old Breezy Bend member, playing on a sponsor’s exemption and in one of the final groups of the day, was at two-under through 14 holes when play was halted.

“I was pretty comfortable out here. Felt pretty good about my game going into it. I started off well, hitting greens and giving myself opportunities but I didn’t really make too many putts out there,” said Kuntz, who is playing in the tournament for the third time and trying to make the cut for the first.

“As the darkness kind of came, I started making them and made a couple birdies. I’m hoping that coming out (Friday) morning there’s some birdies coming in and hoping to put myself in that three, four-under range going into the second round.”

Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg had an impressive debut, sitting at two-over par through 15 holes. He’s the fourth member of the team to tee it up in a promotional crossover, with the previous best single-round score belonging to teammate Mark Scheifele (six-over 78 in 2022). Morgan Barron (80) and Kyle Connor (90) were the others.

Speaking of the Jets, the younger brother of ex-Jets forward Andrew Copp is also playing this week. Tyler Copp, a rookie, was at one-under through 15 holes.

The field will be cut to the top 60 and ties after 36 holes.

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