The last time we heard from John Peterson, he was putting his one-week retirement on hold to play in the Barbasol Championship after getting in as an alternate. He went on to finish T-21, another decent result following his T-13 at The Greenbrier, but still not enough to earn conditional status on the US PGA Tour. It was enough, however, to earn one more shot in the Web.com Tour Finals, where an additional 25 tour cards are up for grabs.
On Thursday, the opening event of the finals, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, began at the Ohio State University Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio. It’s an event Peterson has fared well in before, tying for second in 2011 when it was still part of the Web.com Tour’s regular season, then placing solo third the following year when it became part of the finals. Perhaps those good memories could get Peterson off to a good start for a potential late-season run.
Unfortunately, Thursday was not a round to remember for the former NCAA individual champion, and not just because of his final score of four-over 75. After starting two-over through five holes, Peterson couldn’t stop the bogey train at the par-4 15th, which caused him to take out some frustration on his putter as he snapped it in two pieces. Check out the video:
Always nice to see @JohnPetersonFW back in the competitive mode! pic.twitter.com/RHpfrElUv8
— Tim Kay (@tkcaddie) August 23, 2018
The Golf Channel commentator seems to think this was a par putt, but if you catch the very top right corner of this video from Tim Kay on Twitter, you’ll see Peterson is on the 15th hole. Judging by his card on PGATour.com, and Bo Jackson-esque putter snap, this would appear to be his third straight bogey and the fourth of his first six holes:
That means he was without a putter for the final 12 holes of his first round, and, somewhat impressively, played those holes in one-over par with two bogeys and a birdie on his final hole of the day. According to Peterson’s Twitter replies, his 52-degree wedge served him pretty well the rest of the way:
https://twitter.com/JohnPetersonFW/status/1032799370129952769
https://twitter.com/JohnPetersonFW/status/1032803294673027073
Never change John.