Despite less-than-ideal prep, Justin Suh out front at Honda Classic
Justin Suh wasn’t afforded the ideal preparation for his Honda Classic debut.
Yet, the reigning Korn Ferry Tour player of the year finds himself atop the leaderboard through 36 holes.
Not only had Suh not played PGA National prior to this week, but he didn’t see the Bear Trap (aka hole Nos. 15-17) until Thursday’s first round. Suh was called off the golf course at the end of a slogging pro-am on Wednesday. Playing his final five holes basically blind, Suh carded two birdies, playing the closing stretch in 2 under to fire an opening 4-under 66.
“I obviously would’ve liked to have seen it,” Suh said. “We drove by it, but it was too dark to even see anything. But this golf course is all about picking shots and just hitting to it, and I think my caddie – he’d already walked it, he’d seen the course, so for us to just work together and pick a number and just trust that number with this wind, I think that’s just key out on this golf course.”
That mindset continued to pay off Friday, as Suh again carded just one bogey while moving into double digits, 10 under, with a second-round 64.
He also managed to play the Bear Trap without any blemishes for the second straight day, making three pars, including a nice up and down after short-siding himself in the greenside bunker at the par-4 16th hole; he rolled in a 7-footer to avoid the bogey.
Full-field scores from The Honda Classic
Suh capped a great putting round by rolling in a birdie putt of similar length at the par-4 finishing hole. He also had three birdie makes between 25 and 30 feet.
“The putter just kind of got hot,” said Suh, who so far has missed four of 12 cuts with just one top-20 finish in his rookie campaign. “It was just fun to see putts go in, especially when we were hitting good iron shots, and down the stretch we made a good par on 16 and a good birdie on 18. Hopefully, it just keeps going.”
One shot back of Suh is Chris Kirk, while Monday qualifier Ryan Gerard is tied with Ben Taylor for third at 8 under.