Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño began his participation in the Quicken Loans National this Thursday and shot a 66, which goes to show that no matter how tough the challenge, the Spanish golfer is always prepared. The Quicken Loans is one of the last three bullets left in Gonzalo’s cartridge to maintain the 2016 PGA Tour card. He needs to do it well, and a round like yesterday’s at the Robert Trent Jones GC in Gainesville helps a lot. It’s just the first step, but it was solid and resolute.
Gonzalo put on an excellent display once again from tee to green. He caught six fairways and thirteen greens, statistics that may not seem out of this world, but which put him at the fourth best long game of the tournament on the first 18 holes. He started with two birdies and an eagle on the first five. The eagle came on the fifth, a par 5 where he sank the ball from the bunker, around 25 meters away from the flag.
Apart from the game well played, morale is in tact. He made two bogeys on the 7th and 8th, but then came back with three more birdies on the back nine (10th, 14th and 17th). He had an even clearer option on the 15th, from one meter away, but it slipped out from under his fingertips.
Good start in Virginia for Gonzalo, who will attempt to make the cut and to play in the next four rounds, his grand objective and one of his main problem points of the season. This Friday he’ll play starting at 2:43 pm, Spanish Peninsular time.
