Richy Werenski misses cut at Travelers Championship, gets a couple days at home in South Hadley
Published: 06-24-2017 12:42 AM |
CROMWELL, Conn. — The bogeys piled up for Richy Werenski.
Unlike in Thursday’s first round, Friday’s second round brought no birdie relief for the South Hadley native at the Travelers Championship.
He shot a 7-over 77 at TPC Sawgrass. That left him at 8 over for the tournament and well over the cut line of even par.
“Obviously it sucks when you miss the cut and you’re nowhere near home,” Werenski said. “Now I missed the cut, and I get to go spend a couple days with (my parents).”
Mike and Susan Werenski walked all 18 holes both days with Richy. They’ve seen him play this year on the PGA Tour, but readily made the trip south of Hartford for the Travelers.
“It’s all he’s ever dreamed of, getting here. It’s fun to see him achieving his dreams,” Mike said. “You’re gonna have your good weeks and bad weeks out here. You always want to see him play well, but you’re going to have plenty of bad rounds. You’ve just got to wait for your good ones.”
Richy Werenski probably would have settled for waiting for a good hole Friday. He didn’t find any birdies after shooting three on the back nine Thursday.
Werenski started on No. 10 with a morning tee time and bogeyed his first hole. He also bogeyed 15 and 17 to finish the front nine at 4 over.
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“It was tough to get anything going on (my) front nine,” Richy said.
His back nine, the course’s front, began with two pars before he bogeyed No. 3. Bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes all but ended his run at the tournament.
“I just didn’t really make any putts,” Richy said. “Tough to get any momentum.”
Werenski struggled with his driving in the first round, but hit 10 of 14 fairways in round two. His approach shots hurt him Friday. He hit 7 of 18 greens after landing on 13 in the first round.
“It’s frustrating because I felt bad the past month and felt like I had some stuff going in the right direction,” Werenski said. “I feel a lot better with my ball striking. It got to a point today where it really didn’t matter.”
His tee shot off No. 9, his last hole of the day, landed in a sand trap on the right side of the fairway. In an attempt to reach the green, Werenski drifted further right and out of bounds into the spectator area. Course marshals told the spectators not to scramble and stay put so they wouldn’t move the ball.
He chipped back onto the fairway then chipped again to hit the green. A 3-foot 7-inch putt ended his round.
Werenski will stick around the area for the weekend before heading out of the Quicken Loans National at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, Maryland.
“Now I get to go home,” Werenski said. “Honestly I just love the area. I miss it up here, especially during the summer. I don’t miss the winters.”
He plans to do some fishing in western Massachusetts as well as take his kayak out on the Connecticut River.
Then it’s back to the tour. Werenski’s best finish on the season was a tie for ninth at the CareerBuilder Challenge. It was his lone top-10 finish. He’s played in 19 events and made the cut 10 times. He has missed the cut in the four events he’s played since playing the weekend at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He’s earned $334,009 on the season.
“I feel like I’m making progress,” Werenski said. “I feel like I’ll probably have some good stuff.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.
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