David Lingmerth breaks 36-hole tournament scoring record, doubles lead at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship

COLUMBUS, Ohio – David Lingmerth followed a course-record 9-under 62 with a 5-under 66 in Friday’s second round of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, extending his lead to six strokes. Lingmerth’s 14-under 128 is notable because it broke the 36-hole tournament scoring record by three strokes, and because only three past champions of the event finished at least 14-under par.

It is the second 36-hole lead in Lingmerth’s 95 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, with his previous lead being a one-stroke advantage through 36 holes of the 2012 Neediest Kids Championship at TPC Potomac, which he eventually closed out for his only Korn Ferry Tour victory. Lingmerth also held two 36-hole leads on the PGA TOUR, as he eventually closed out the 2015 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday in nearby Dublin, Ohio, but settled T5 at the 2017 Quicken Loans National, which was contested at TPC Potomac and marked Lingmerth’s last top-10 in PGA TOUR-sanctioned play.

“I should play a lot more tournaments around here, that would be good for me,” Lingmerth jested. “It's a good spot… with Memorial and U.S. Open qualifiers, yeah, this course has been pretty good to me as well.”

Lingmerth’s six-stroke lead is the largest 36-hole lead on the Korn Ferry Tour since Dylan Wu led the 2020 The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay by seven strokes (although he ultimately finished T2). It also ties the third-largest 36-hole lead in Korn Ferry Tour history, only behind Wu’s aforementioned lead in 2020, and Steve Wheatcroft’s seven-stroke lead at the 2011 Melwood Prince George’s County Open, which he eventually won by a Korn Ferry Tour-record 12 strokes.

The only players in history to finish the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at 14-under par or better were: 2011 champion Harris English (14-under), 2017 champion Peter Uihlein (14-under), and last year’s champion Adam Svensson (17-under) and co-runners-up Stephan Jaeger and Bronson Burgoon (both 15-under).

“I haven't been paying too much attention to the board. I know obviously a great round yesterday and a solid round today, but there's a lot of birdies to be had out there,” Lingmerth said. “I'm going to try to keep the same approach for the weekend and we'll see where we end up.”

The 35-year-old native of Tranas, Sweden once again made easy work of the difficult back nine, making birdies on three of his first four holes (Nos. 10, 12, 13) and back-to-back birdies at the par-4 15th and 16th. The University of Arkansas alum added three more birdies on the front side (Nos. 1, 2, 7), running his total up to a field-leading 17 birdies. No other player in the field has more than 12 thus far.

The only Achilles heel for Lingmerth through two rounds proved to be the par 3s at Ohio State University Golf Club’s Scarlet Course. Lingmerth bogeyed all three of them (Nos. 5, 8, 17) Friday morning.

“I don't know what was going on there,” Lingmerth said. “Some bogeys that I feel like could have been avoided, but, you know, we try our best.”

Lingmerth has essentially split time between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR since 2019, his play slumping mostly as a result of battling nagging injuries, and is making his third Korn Ferry Tour Finals appearance since 2018. Lingmerth’s Finals appearance this year stems from a No. 193 finish on the 2021-22 FedExCup Eligibility Points List.

Lingmerth left Sweden for the University of West Florida, an NCAA Division II program in Pensacola, Florida, where he played for one season. Lingmerth transferred to Arkansas and played his final three seasons there, eventually turning professional in 2010. Lingmerth played the Korn Ferry Tour in 2011, finishing 27th on the money list and two spots shy of a PGA TOUR card.

The following year, Lingmerth won the 2012 Neediest Kids Championship and finished 10th on the money list for his first PGA TOUR card. Lingmerth enjoyed immediate success as a TOUR rookie, posting a pair of runner-up finishes in 2013.

A season later, Lingmerth finished just outside the FedExCup Playoffs, sending him to the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour Finals. A pair of top-10s and a T14 at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship sent him back up to the PGA TOUR as a member of The Finals 25. Lingmerth’s career breakthrough came in June 2015, when he won the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday in nearby Dublin, Ohio; he was the 118th man on the priority ranking for the 120-player field. Lingmerth finished the 2014-15 season 37th in the FedExCup, barely missing out on a trip to the TOUR Championship.

“I remember quite a bit from that tournament,” Lingmerth said of his win at nearby Muirfield Village Golf Club. “When you have fun weeks like that, you kind of try to put those in the memory bank. I think it was my dad's birthday the day I won. Jack [Nicklaus] found out and when I had my parents on the phone, he was nice enough to come over and grab the phone for a few seconds.”

Lingmerth made another pair of FedExCup Playoffs appearances in 2015-16 and 2016-17 before playing the bulk of the last five seasons on TOUR with conditional status.

“With the status I've had the last few years, just scheduling has been so tricky,” Lingmerth said. “Not knowing where you're going or when you're going to get the call… you're not allowed to like take breaks because you're that close to getting into tournaments, so you've kind of got to be ready to go because you have to go. Scheduling's been a really, really hard.”

A victory would solidify a place in The Finals 25 for Lingmerth, which would put him in a far better position to start the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season than continuing to play as a past champion. However, Lingmerth was reluctant to approach the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with a do-or-die mentality.

“I've played out of that category the last few years, so I know I'm going to get starts either way. That's kind of a nice feeling, I guess,” Lingmerth said. “I'm trying to not be too urgent about it, but obviously having a chance to improve your status for the next year, it's very big, yeah.”

Third-round pairings will run from 7 a.m. through 1:20 p.m. local time off the first tee.