Hossler shoots 10-under 60, leads rain-delayed Wyndham Championship

GREENSBORO, NC — Beau Hossler shot a 10-under 60 Friday at the rain-delayed Wyndham Championship, squandering an opportunity for a 60-under round with pars on the final three holes at soft and vulnerable Sedgefield Country Club.

Hossler had a doubles lead over Billy Horschel in the tournament that started a day after heavy rain and wind from Tropical Storm Debby washed out play on Thursday. Play was also delayed on Friday, with Horschel among the afternoon’s 66 starters unable to complete the round due to darkness. He had two holes left.

With players allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls on the fairways due to wet conditions, Hossler was 6 under after an eagle on the par-5 fifth and added a birdie on the par-4 eighth before. -nine 28. He opened a back birdie-bogey-birdie and made the last of his nine birdies on No. 14 and 15.

“I hit it really well and maybe the highlight of the round was the irons,” Hossler said after the lowest round of his tour. “I hit a couple of 6-irons pretty close, a 5-iron I almost made one hole. It was one of those days where it felt like everything was going well.”

Without a win on the PGA Tour, the 29-year-old University of Texas star missed birdie putts from 30 feet on the par-3 16th and 17 feet on the par-4 17th. 4 18th, he drove into the difficult left fairway, hit the left fairway and blasted to 7 feet for the par-saving putt. He fell victim to the 59th course record set by Brandt Snedeker in the first round of his 2018 victory.

“Anytime you can make 4 out of 18 here, you’ve done well,” Hossler said. “I knew if I was going to get a chance to make birdie, I had to put it in the fairway. Once I was in the rough to the left there was no way I was going to be able to get it on that shelf to get a real look.”

Hossler entered the PGA Tour’s regular-season finale 87th on the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 70 qualifying for next week’s playoff opener in Tennessee. He needs to finish alone in third place or better to have a chance to reach the play-offs.

“This course hasn’t been very good for me in the past, so I was coming here to try to play well and see what I got,” Hossler said.

Horschel, ranked 27th in the FedEx Cup and runner-up three weeks ago at the British Open, finished the day with a 4 1/2-foot birdie putt on the 16th. -4 second.

“If you can put the ball in the field, which has always happened here, you can be aggressive,” Horschel said. “Especially, with soft conditions, that makes it even more important to have the ball on the fairway.”

In April in the Dominican Republic, he won the Corales Puntacana tournament for his eighth PGA Tour title.

Canada’s Nick Taylor was 7 under with four holes to go.

Matt Kuchar, Brendon Todd, Austin Eckroat and Ben Taylor shot 64s.

The only player to qualify for every postseason in FedEx Cup playoff history, Kuchar enters Week 111 and needs a win to break into the top 70.

“I was able to find a lot of roads,” Kuchar said. “Playing the lift, the clean and the area means I get to kind of cherry pick lies, hit some good shots, see a few putts go in.”

Ben Taylor matched Hossler with a front-nine 28, then played the back nine in 1-over 36. He birdied the first five holes and parred seven of the first eight. He closed with a bogey on 18 after opting to finish in the dark.

Jordan Spieth, ranked No. 62 at the top, he went for eagle on the par-5 15th 67. He is playing this event for the first time since 2020.