Lee, Thornberry, Walker Lee of Texas A & M and Clay Feagler of Pepperdine University, all shot 4-under par 66s – the lowest scores of the second round.
Now in its seventh year, The Patriot All-America Invitational features a field of 84 PING All-America golfers from all three NCAA Divisions, NAIA and NJCAA rankings as well as from U.S. Military Academies and universities outside the United States. Current PGA TOUR stars who have played in The Patriot All-America during their college careers, include: 2017 US Open champion Brooks Koepka (2011), 2017 PGA Championship winner and FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas (2011), Patrick Rodgers (2011), Daniel Berger (2012) and Bryson DeChambeau (2013).
What separates The Patriot All-America from other collegiate golf tournaments is participants play for more than themselves or their school. Each golfer honors a fallen or severely injured soldier by carrying a golf bag bearing the name of that soldier. Before the tournament, participants receive a card with the soldier’s story, so they can be familiar with who that person was, what they represented and how they were killed or wounded in action. At the conclusion of the tournament, the golf bags are shipped to players’ schools and auctioned with all proceeds benefitting the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides post-secondary educational scholarships for children and spouses of military service men and women killed or disabled while in active service.
Final round action will begin at 9:30 AM, with the leaders teeing off at 11:40 AM. The final round is expected to conclude at approximately 4 PM. For more information, visit www.patriotallamerica.com.
Patriot All-America Invitational
2nd Round Quotes
Garrett May from Baylor University:
- Tell us about your round today?
- A little bit more stressful than yesterday. The course played a little harder today. The pin positions were pretty tough. Some of them were easy, but some of them were tough. I didn’t really get off to the start I wanted. I was two-under through seven, which, you know, is nice. But I bogeyed the first hole -- the first bogey I’ve made all week. Just a bad drive. You know, the swing wasn’t as sharp as it was yesterday, but I hung in there. I knew if I could just keep making pars, nobody was running away with it and luckily I could stick one really close on 17 and make some good par saves on the back nine. I played really solid today. Short game was good. I hit the shots when I needed to, just a little bit more stressful than yesterday.
I did a good job today of staying below the hole. The ball goes farther in Texas, so I’ve had to club down a lot, not hit it as hard. So that’s an adjustment, but it actually makes it easier because you don’t have to swing as hard and hit the ball solid. I short sided myself one time on number 8 today and it cost me. I actually had to make a five footer for bogey. I hit it over the green and you just can’t do that. All in all this week, I’ve done a really good job of just playing to my game and playing conservatively aggressive and limiting mistakes.
SM Lee, Dalton State College
- 4-under 66, put you one shot off the lead going into tomorrow, what was the difference today?
- Yesterday I felt like I played better. I only shot one under, but my putting was good yesterday. Putting almost failed me today, but my ball striking was a lot better today. I did not have any putts today where I could potentially have a three putt, so that was really good. I had no bogeys today and that’s always a plus. If you miss a green here, it’s very hard to get up and down, so that’s what I tried to avoid. I only missed two greens today and that was probably the highlight of my day.
- How’d you hit it off the tee today?
- I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but my irons were good enough to save those tee shots and get into play and give myself a chance at birdie on almost every hole.
Mason Overstreet, University of Arkansas
- Your 2-under par 68 currently puts you one shot off the lead, how do you feel about it?
- I feel pretty good about it. I had a rough start. I bogeyed two of my first three, but was able to get it back in the middle of the round and birdied 13 and 14 to get back to 3-under. Unfortunately, I pulled my last putt (on 18), but it’s no big deal.
- Plan coming out for tomorrow?
- Just the same. I’ve been driving it pretty well the last couple days and you’ve got to get it in the fairway to score well. And, being in the final group, I guess, should help.
- What worked well today?
- My wedges were pretty good today. In the middle of the round, when I really scored well was when I was hitting my wedges close and put it in the fairway. That’s really what you have to do, keep it in the fairway and give yourself uphill looks. Downhill putts can be pretty treacherous out here so, probably just more of the same tomorrow.
Braden Thornberry, Ole Miss
- Take us through your 4-under 66.
- Started out knowing 66 was the number I thought I needed today to have a realistic shot going into tomorrow, because I figured the lead would be 6 or 7 under after today and it looks like it’s somewhere in there. Got off to a little bit of a slow start with that tough pin on three, but kinda after that got it going pretty good. Made a couple dumb mistakes but other than that, played pretty well.
- The difference between yesterday and today?
- Not much difference, just had a stretch of eight holes yesterday where I was like five over. Take that out, and it’s a very similar score or even better. You know, the golf game is good. I just had to knock a little tournament rust off, I haven’t played in a month or so. Looking forward to tomorrow though.
- You had seven birdies today, any one stick out that got you going?
- You know it was big, after going one over through three and probably dropping to 25th/26th place, or something like that, for the tournament, I knew I had to get something going. Birdieing four, you know it’s kind of an easier hole, but birdieing there where I’m supposed to birdie, you know that kinda got me going for the rest of the day.
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