Rookie Steven Fisk cards first TOUR ace, makes cut on number at Valspar Championship
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Written by Staff
Playing partner Neal Shipley closes with bogey, sliding cut to 2-over and bringing Fisk in
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – At 7-over through 21 holes at the Valspar Championship, the idea of making the cut seemed like a pipe dream for Steven Fisk.
Then he made an ace, his first in competition since a U.S. Kids tournament at age 11. Then he made the cut as his playing partner Neal Shipley made bogey on the final hole, a wild turn of events on a rollicking Friday at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course.
Steven Fisk makes hole-in-one on No. 17 at Valspar
Fisk, a PGA TOUR rookie, opened the Valspar in 5-over 76 and then made two bogeys in his first three holes Friday. He made birdie at the par-5 14th to get back to 6-over for the tournament, where he stood as he reached the tee at the par-3 17th, his eighth hole Friday, which played to 194 yards in the second round. His ball landed roughly 10 feet short of the hole, bounced a few times and rolled in gently. Fisk didn’t see the ball go in, but he could tell by the crowd’s roar: It was an ace roar.
Fisk went bogey-free the rest of the way, adding birdies at Nos. 1 and 6. As he lined up a 40-footer for birdie at the par-4 ninth, his final hole of the day, his playing partner Shipley faced a 15-footer for par from just off the green. Fisk knew he might need the birdie, but he could two-putt for a weekend tee time if Shipley missed.
Fisk two-putted, Shipley missed, and both finished on the cut line at 2-over 144.
Other beneficiaries of Shipley’s closing bogey making the cut on the number at 2-over included Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Michael Kim and Brandt Snedeker.
“Everyone knows where my locker is,” quipped Shipley afterward, “and they can feel free to leave some Waffle House gift cards in there.”
