At Valspar Championship, one round brings nothing but joy for Korn Ferry Tour's Kevin Roy

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Kevin Roy is well-versed in the art of grinding. That’s what he did all last season as a rookie on the PGA TOUR, and more often than not, he was getting in his own way. In 31 starts, he missed far more cuts (22) than he made (nine).

Roy has taken a positive attitude on his bus ride back to the Korn Ferry Tour, where the 34-year-old from New York gave himself another season to play better and get back to the bigs. When he got a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s Valspar Championship, he approached that, too, with the proper attitude.

“He’s playing the Korn Ferry this season,” said his caddie and friend, John Clare. “This is pretty cool. We look at this like, 'What do we have to lose?' He always hits it on the button, that's kind of his thing. But today, he just made a lot of putts. I really didn't have to read too many.”

On Thursday, heading off on the 10th tee of Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course in one of the afternoon’s final groups, Roy put together a round he won’t soon forget. Standing on the ninth green (his final hole) and only able to even see one last 27-footer for birdie beneath the lights of a scoreboard lit up about 100 yards down the fairway, Roy finally met a putt he couldn’t sink. That was rare. Roy barely missed, then tapped in for a 6-under 65 that left him just one shot behind leader Kevin Streelman.

In front of friends and family, which included his wife, Annie, his 8-month-old daughter Mia, and his father, Jim, himself an excellent player, Roy had been wandering the golf course as if his spikes never touched the turf. He said the putter got a little hot, but he wasn’t telling the whole truth. Hot? It was ablaze.

Where to start? Maybe where he did, with a 27-foot birdie at the par-5 11th, or the great par save he canned on the par-4 15th. There were the back-to-back 20-footers he ran in on 17 and 18 to turn at 3-under and the 8-footer and 19-footer he coaxed in at Nos. 1 and 3 after he turned to keep pushing forward. He must have bored by the sixth, or just wanting to show off. There, he chipped in. Birdie.

It was near darkness when he finished his round, gave Mia a smooch off the ninth green and tried to find his way to the scoring area. In 14 hours, weather permitting (heavy rains were expected down the Gulf Coast, beginning overnight), Roy was due on the first tee to do it all over again. He couldn’t wait.

Already he is off to a solid start on the Korn Ferry Tour (he finished second in his first start, and ranks 13th in the early standings) so this week at Innisbrook, why not roll the dice and see where it all sorts out?

“My pace was really good,” Roy said. He made nearly 100 feet of putts on his day. “They were falling just over the edge, which was nice to see.”

Some might view Roy’s difficult 2023 season as an opportunity lost, but Roy looked at the bigger picture, and thought it best to pull away and save all the good parts. Yes, he missed the cut seven times in his final eight starts, but sandwiched in there was a T8 in Bermuda at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

He missed the cut in eight of his starts by a single shot. That can wear on a player. A golfer can either bang his head against a cement wall or convince himself that he is pretty close to breaking through. He chose the latter. And he didn’t do it alone, either, consulting a mental coach to help him see the positives he otherwise might not see.

When he received word a couple of weeks ago that he would be getting an exemption into the Valspar field, Roy was about an hour away in Lakewood Ranch, playing golf with his dad, Jim, who spent time both on the PGA TOUR and on PGA TOUR Champions.

“We were really happy,” Roy said Thursday, now standing in darkness. “Luckily, the beverage cart was driving up and we had a nice cold beer. We were really excited about it. ... It’s awesome having him kind of along this journey with me, because he’s been through it all.”

What a day it had been. A late dinner awaited, it was way past bedtime for a very tired baby, and a quick turnaround beckoned for a guy who probably would have slept in the locker room had he been asked to. His 2024 sights mostly remain fixed on the Korn Ferry Tour, and getting a card that way, but should he keep playing well at Copperhead, he could turn this into a very big week.

“I'm going to try to keep the pedal down,” Roy said, “and see where it takes us.”

And why not? There is nothing to lose.