Patrick Rodgers: Will the Bermuda Champs be his breakthrough PGA Tour week?
Patrick Rodgers was inches from missing out on his PGA Tour card this year after finishing 128th in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
At the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, Patrick Rodgers was having a fantastic round and looked on course to earn another PGA Tour card, before disaster struck.
He hit his tee shot on the 15th hole into deep grass and a search party was desperately looking for it, knowing full well what was on the line.
With two seconds of the allotted time of three minutes left to look for the ball, his playing partner Tyson Alexander found out. Rodgers made a miraculous par and came tied 15th.
This was enough to earn the 23rd of 25 PGA Tour cards available. And now look at him, he is one shot behind the leader at the halfway stage of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
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However, it has not always been on a knife-edge like this for the 29-year-old. This will be his 7th season on the PGA Tour and last season was the first that he didn't qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The man from Indiana has finished runner-up three times on tour, most recently at The RSM Classic in the 2019 season. He will be hoping this week won't be the fourth.
"It was really difficult, to be honest with you. My mindset and I think the mindset of most players out here is that I got my card a 22 and I didn't feel like I would ever be in that position," said Rodgers.
"I felt like I had the game to not put myself there and it was maybe a slice of humble pie and more so just kind of managing stress on the golf course.
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"I really wasn't that far off most of last summer, I had plenty of chances to be in contention. I just never kind of walked through that door.
"I'm definitely feeling like I'm able to breathe a breath of fresh air here as the new season started. I'm really grateful to be out here and I'm playing stress-free golf, which is nice."
Rodgers is one shot behind Taylor Pendrith on 10-under-par at Port Royal Golf Course. His second-round 64 helped him to rise up the leaderboard, one shot ahead of Vincent Whaley.
