After his first two rounds of 72 and 70, Brendan Steele knew he needed a really-remarkable turn-around performance to make the cut on Saturday at the Humana Classic in La Quinta—likely a 65. But as it turned out 65 wouldn’t do; he would need a 64. And he got it.
Playing the Nicklaus Private course at PGA West Saturday, Steele carded four birdies against one bogey to score 33 on the course’s back nine and was five under par at the halfway mark. Then he posted six more birdies against one bogey to fire 31 on the course’s front nine to finish off an eight-under-par round and go to ten under for the tournament, making the cut on the number.
It was the lowest score against par he had posted thus far in his PGA Tour carreer, Steel said. He has had lower gross scores on courses that were shorter than par 72. Steele noted that he still didn’t have the game that he had in practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that his two mistakes were the very type that he had been working on eliminating.
But he will make some official money this weekend and go into this coming week’s tournament at Torrey Pines with a start on both the money list and FedEx Cup races.I n the West Coast Swing, Steele plans to play at Torrey Pines (La Jolla), Riviera (Los Angeles), and TPC Scottsdale (near Phoenix), but will pass on the Pebble Beach event.
Steele has to earn his card for the next year’s new-format 2013-2014 season by his play during this 2013 season, which will have no Fall Finish. He says that he probably will play in a few more official PGA tournaments this year, and whether he goes to Europe later this season depends on how well he does during the first part of this year.
Steele teed off at 10:30 a.m., Sunday morning on the tenth tee at the Palmer Private course at PGA West in La Quinta.
