From the late wave and making his major debut, World No. 296 and Springfield, Ohio, final-qualifier MJ Daffue styled a 3-under 33-34=67 in R1 of the 122nd U.S. Open in Brookline, Mass., currently in a seven-way T2.
The Lamar alum and Korn Ferry Tour member after a six-birdie, three bogey debut (link below): “I actually wasn’t going to do it (attempt to U.S. Open qualify) because before Kansas City I hadn’t locked up my status and I didn’t want to skip a week, but then I locked it up there (PGA TOUR card for next season), and I said, oh, I’m going to do it.” The Kansas City reference was a solo 3rd four weeks (and three starts ago) at the AdventHealth Championship, his second straight solo 3rd in as many weeks and fifth top 10 of the KFT season, four of those top 5s. This is the 33-year-old’s 14th overall TOUR event, second of the season after a hometown T64 at the Houston Open back in November on a sponsor exemption, while his best finish among two top 25s is a T12 on debut at last season’s Sanderson Farms as an open-qualifier, where he was T18 after 18 holes (68-73-72-75).