POPULAR Australian golfer Peter Lonard has given his hopes of retaining his US PGA Tour playing rights a boost by shooting a “course record” nine under par 63 in the final round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Lonard has been struggling to find form all year and the final round performance lifted him from 49th overnight to 12th.
That handed him his biggest cheque of the year – $150,000 – and lifted him on the money list from 186 to 166.
The 42 year old needs to finish in the top 150 after the next four events to retain partial playing rights on the US Tour and in the top 125 to be fully exempt.
Throughout the week Lonard’s long game statistics had been outstanding and the fourth round was no exception as he hit all but one of the 14 fairways.
When the putting came together on the Sunday the unofficial “course record” 63 was the result. (Because the course was played under lift clean and place rules the record will not stand).
Lonard started with eight birdies on his first 12 holes and following an enforced week off because of the President’s Cup will return full of confidence for the Justin Timberlake tournament in Las Vegas next week.