John

Huh

Huh has backed out of the Sony Open and The American Express over the last two weeks and he’ll remain sidelined for the Farmers. Gamers should remove him from all weekly lineups and wait for a clean bill of health before considering a reinvestment. As for the next alternate, Scott Brown, he is currently T35 at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour. That event has a Wednesday finish and the Farmers is a Wednesday start. Brown will need to make a decision in the next 24 hours or so.

Huh was a pre-tourney WD ahead of last week’s Sony Open and he’ll remain sidelined this week. The last-minute WD this week likely tells us that it’s a touch-and-go injury situation. He’s dealt with back troubles in recent years but has managed 46 starts over the last two seasons.

Huh went 4-for-8 during the fall with a T27 at the Mayakoba being the highlight. He also set the course record in round two of the ZOZO but faded to T45 by week’s end. Huh was set to make his 10th appearance at the Sony Open with nothing better than a T27 (2017) on his resume. He wasn’t likely to be high on the radar but gamers should remove him from all lineups.

Huh was well off the pace after shooting 1 over in the opening round, but he more than made up for that slow start with Friday’s record-setting effort. Huh birdied each of his first three holes, five of the first six and six of the first eight to go deep on the outward par-34 side. He added three more birdies on the back nine to move into solo fourth place, two shots off the lead. The 61 broke the previous course record, shared by Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley, by a shot, and it tied Huh’s all-time low on Tour. The veteran is 10 years removed from his lone Tour victory (Mayakoba Classic) that helped him net 2012 Rookie of the Year honors. While he surprised with a T-2 finish at the Wyndham Championship in August, his recent starts have proved a struggle with missed cuts in Napa and Las Vegas and a T-73 showing at the Sanderson Farms.

Huh won Rookie of the Year honors a decade ago, capturing his lone PGA Tour victory at Mayakoba and adding a runner-up at the Valero Texas Open. Sunday he matched the latter result in Greensboro, shooting a 3-under 67 in the final round to finish the week at 15 under, alongside Sungjae Im and five shots behind winner Joohyung “Tom” Kim.

Huh started the week at No. 111 in the points race and grabbed the first-round lead with a blistering 61 that tied Kim for the low round of the tournament. The runner-up result moved him to No. 66 in points heading into the postseason, meaning he’ll tee off in Memphis inside the top-70 bubble for inclusion in the BMW Championship in two weeks. Huh has not advanced to the BMW since an appearance in 2013 at Conway Farms.

Sunset in Greensboro, North Carolina, is 8:20 pm with last light at 8:48 pm and there are 51 players who have yet to complete their respective rounds. As long as they get back underway at 7:10 pm, there is a possibility that everyone can get done this evening, the last threesome of Austin Smotherman, Bo Hoag and Tommy Gibson were playing their 12th hole when the horn sounded. Prior to the suspension in play at 5:36 pm, R1 leader and World No. 248 John Huh wrapped up a 1-over 36-35=71 from the afternoon wave to post 8-under 132, down three spots to T4 and one swing shy of the clubhouse lead held by three players. After kicking off with a career-low, bogey-free 61, he led by two, but digressed to five (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, losing strokes off-the-tee (-0.431) and around-the-green (-1.712), but gaining 0.734 on approach and 0.377 with the flat stick. The 32-year-old outbalanced five birdies with a bogey-5 at 10, a double bogey-6 at 16 (3-putt from 73'2"), and a triple bogey-7 at 1, but after all that, had a chance to get back to level on the day at the ninth, but missed birdie from 11'9".

Huh opened his morning with a 147-yard approach shot that he landed to 9 feet and poured in for a birdie. That would be a familiar site all day as his irons remained locked in, setting up nine birdie chances from inside of 12 feet before his day was over. Huh converted on seven of those chances while also adding a bonus eagle from 38'7" at the par-5 15th. “It’s kind of strange because like earlier I mentioned, I wasn’t really felt great with my game and shoot my career low, it’s kind of weird. Sort of mixed feeling, but I’ll take this any day. I was able to take advantage of a good break and good shots, that’s all I can say today.” As Huh alluded to, this will go in the books as his new career-low round, and if the lead holds it will be his first time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR.

The Dallas resident, the last of three alternates to crack the field this week when Dallas resident Bryson DeChambeau pulled out on Tuesday (wrist), is chasing leader and Dallas resident Scottie Scheffler (68) and will be in the third-to-last twosome in R4 with Cam Davis. He’s chasing a second TOUR win in 258 events, first since the 2012 Mayakoba during his rookie campaign in his fifth career start, 10 years, 3 months ago this week, where he came from seven back (T13) with 8-under 63, eventually prevailing in a 2-man playoff over Robert Allenby. Today, on nine (of 14) fairways and 10 greens in regulation, the 32-year-old raced out 3-under through his first two holes with an eagle-3 at 1 (from 5'0") and birdie-3 at 2 (4'3"), and then played his final 16 in 1-over (3 birdies, 4 bogeys). At the three-quarter mark, he’s handed in rounds of 69-66-68, totaled one eagle and 13 birdies against six bogeys and a double, and ranks 4th SG: Tee-to-Green (6.948) and 40th SG: Putting (1.267), highlighted by a 1.342 SGP on Saturday.

The Dallas resident will be happy to play so close to home this week in what will be his eighth appearance at the CS Challenge. He is 4-for-7 at Colonial Country Club with notable finishes of T5 (2012), T11 (2013), and 18th (2015). More recently, Huh arrives with missed cuts in two of his last three starts and has gone eight straight events without a top 40. Prior to that, he popped with a T9 at The Honda Classic. Huh ranks 27th in driving accuracy but just 172nd in driving distance. That makes it tough to keep up on a lot of TOUR courses but definitely not a deal-breaker when heading to a course like Colonial CC.