When Ted Potter walked off the 18th green yesterday at the NV5 Invitational, he had moved up from a tie for 53rd to a tie for eighth, courtesy of a sharp 66 performance. He was 5 under par for the day over the par-71 Glen Club course in Glenview, Illinois, and 9 under par for 54 holes. Ted's position was euphoric considering he had recently missed the cut in so many Korn Ferry Tour events plus several on the PGA Tour. He finally made his first Korn Ferry cut last week and cashed for a meager $2,925. 

    Of course, the euphoria lasted just a short time since all the players on the upper part of the leader board had not teed off yet. Several hours later, Ted's 66-72-66-204 had dropped him back to a tie for 25th, but another good round today can vault him up substantially again, since he's only seven strokes behind leaders Davis Thompson, Nick Hardy and Harry Hall, all at 16 under. That leaves 21 players who are between 15 and 10 under, and Ted has a chance to pass a bunch of them, if he keeps making birdies. So far, it's a great showing considering he began last weekend as the first alternate in the $750,000 event.

    Ted began on the front nine and made birdies on 1, 4 and 9, turning in 3-under 33. On the back, he birdied 12, 13 and 15, took just one bogey on 14, and held his position with pars on the final three holes for another 33. He tees off today at 11:40 in a twosome with Sam Stevens. 

SCHEFFLER STILL ON FIRE - It's only the last week of May and Scottie Scheffler is already threatening to break one or more PGA Tour records. He's 11 under par at the Charles Schwab Challenge, two strokes up on Brendan Todd and Scott Stallings, looking for his fifth victory this season en route to establishing a record for single-season earnings.

    Scottie has won the WM Phoenix Open on Feb. 13 ($1,476,000); the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 6 ($2,160,000); the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play on March 27 ($2,100,000) and the Masters on April 10 ($2,700,000). He currently leads the Tour with $10,299,587 in the bank, more than $3 million ahead of Cam Smith, and about $2 million behind Jordan Spieth's record. If Scottie wins today's event with its $8,700,000 purse, he'll be close to Spieth's mark with 13 events remaining on the schedule. He's a cinch to eventually pass Spieth, win or lose today.       

 

     

 

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