Martin Contini goes from Monday qualifier to inside top 10 at The Honda Classic

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Argentina’s Martin Contini never had played in a PGA TOUR event before this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National. What better way to introduce himself to thousands of fans than to climb into the middle of the bleachers next to the 18th green at the Champion Course after hitting his second shot up there?

Contini sat down, said hello, even waved to an NBC camera, the well-served fans loving every moment. He did so with a smile on his face, and why not? Having survived a longshot Monday qualifier – 130 players, four spots – just to get here, the 27-year-old is playing on house money. He shot 2-under 68 on Saturday, and finds himself tied for seventh heading into Sunday.

Contini is one of a handful of dreamers and new faces who have made the most of a great opportunity this week at The Honda Classic, a $8 million PGA TOUR stop in its 50th year. Three of the four players who made it through qualifying at West Palm’s Banyon Cay are still playing, including left-hander Rick Lamb, who survived a 16-for-1 spot playoff early Tuesday morning.

Lamb is 31, a pro for nearly a decade, and has played a season on the PGA TOUR, so he is not as caught up in the bright lights as some others. He has Korn Ferry Tour membership as a past champion (2016 LECOM Health Challenge, where he also was a Monday qualifier), but he is not expecting to get any starts from that. So he’ll chase the PGA TOUR and try to get into events via the Monday route. It may be easier hitting all the numbers in Saturday’s PowerBall.

Lamb, who shot 70 and is in the middle of the pack (T-35) at 2-over 212, had to summon some heroics not once, but twice this week. First came the 16-for-1 playoff at Banyon Cay that spilled into Tuesday. The playoff began on a reachable par 5, and Lamb knew somebody was going to do something special. He wanted to make sure it was him. He hit driver and 4-iron to 40 feet and rolled in the eagle putt. Nobody matched it.

On Friday, Lamb stood in the ninth fairway (his 36th hole) at PGA National’s Champion on the wrong side of the cut line. He needed birdie, hit an approach to 10 feet, and ran in the putt to finish at 2-over 142 and earn a weekend time. In golf, there is nothing given.

“Pretty much every other professional athlete has a guaranteed contract, they know what they’re making (salary-wise),” Lamb said Saturday. “They just go out and try to perform their best. For us, there’s another layer of pressure that, if you don’t make the cut, you’re not making any money that week.”

Andrew Kozan is a young local professional playing the Korn Ferry Tour who grew up playing PGA National (he was a member from age 7 to 15), attending The Honda with his parents each year. He, too, had planned to participate in Monday qualifying, but a phone call on Sunday night from tournament co-chair Gary Nicklaus would alter those plans. Kozan was given the tournament’s final sponsor exemption.

Shortly after sun broke Saturday morning, Kozan, 23, stood on the 18th fairway, the only player on the golf course. Facing 258 yards into the green at the par-5 18th hole, he was given the option not to finish his second round in darkness Friday evening, so chose to return first thing Saturday morning. (The other two players in the group, who were missing the cut, decided to finish and depart).

Kozan made a safe par to complete his second-round 75, making the cut on the number, then went off alone as the first player out in the third round, shooting 68. There would be only 13 scores all day in the 60s. He had his feet up before lunch, which is one effective way to climb the leaderboard at Honda. The Champion Course took its pound of flesh on Saturday, the field averaging more than two shots over par. The Bear Trap alone (holes 15-17) accounted for 13 double bogeys and five “others.”

By day’s end, Kozan was inside the top 20, and with a good round on Sunday, he can collect his largest paycheck as a professional. (Previously, it was the $30,000 he earned at Korn Ferry Q-School.

How long has Kozan pictured himself inside the ropes, playing the Honda?

“Every day since I was probably 7,” he said. “Honda’s in what, February, March? They started putting the stands up in December. You always want to go out and play as close to the event as you can, putt with the stands up, just to feel like you’re playing the event. I mean ... it’s a dream come true this week.”

Same for Contini. He likely has the best shot from the Dreamer Division to potentially make something big happen on Sunday.

“The cut was great, but I didn’t want it to stop there, so I’m going to try to reach the top 5 tomorrow,” he said. Such a finish (any top 10) would get Contini into the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open next week. Walking along with him on Saturday he had his brother and his uncle, who hopped on a plane once Contini surprised them with a phone call telling them he had earned his way into the event.

Contini treated his relatives to a wild finish at 18. He drove it into the left rough, 250 yards from the flagstick. With water short and right, he tried to get his second shot somewhere in or around the left greenside bunker. But the ball jumped on him, flying midway into the stands like a home run ball the Florida Marlins would envy.

He went into the stands to fetch it, his ball resting under a spectator’s feet in the middle of the crowd. What to do? He took a seat next to the fan. It was pure fun up there.

“I should go find him and give him the ball,” Contini said after he had signed his scorecard. “I’m going to do that.”

So much at stake in the final round. At Honda, it will be about more than the man who will leave with the trophy on Sunday. Contini was asked what a high finish would mean to him. After all, with the Korn Ferry Tour on a three-week hiatus, he expected to be off this week, and getting some rest. He smiled.

“It would mean the world,” he said.