COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tag Ridings shot a 6-under 65 on Friday for a share of the second-round lead with Martin Flores in the Web.com Tour Finals’ Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.
The 42-year-old Ridings was 52nd on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list and entered the third of four series events 36th in the race for 25 PGA Tour cards with $9,493.
"I think everybody that hasn’t done their job so far in the first two weeks or first part of the year definitely feels that pressure," Ridings said. "You want to get it done as quickly as possible to take the heat off."
Starting on No. 10, he chipped in for birdie on his opening hole and had five birdies and a bogey on his first seven. He added birdies on the two front-nine par 5s.
"Well, this is kind of my favourite thing to do is play long, tough conditions and tough golf courses," Ridings said. "So, why that is, I wish I knew, but probably more under par after two rounds on this golf course than I was anywhere all summer. It makes you think a little bit. If you mess up, you’ve got to take your punishment and get out of there and I did that a couple of times the last two days."
Flores bogeyed the final hole for a 66 to match Ridings at 8-under 134 on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course. Already guaranteed a PGA Tour card with a fifth-place finish on the Web.com money list, the 34-year-old Flores birdied five of the first six holes on the back nine, making four in a row on Nos. 12-15.
"I’m very happy," Flores said. "I gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdie. I hit it close, hit it well, so extremely happy. I hit the shot I wanted to there (on 18). I thought I hit a good drive, but that’s just kind of how it goes sometimes."
He won the Lincoln Land Charity Championship in July for his first Web.com Tour title.
The series features the top 75 players from the Web.com regular-season money list, Nos. 126-200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings and non-members with enough PGA Tour money to have placed in the top 200 in the FedEx Cup had they been eligible.
Flores and the other top-25 finishers on the Web.com money list earned PGA Tour cards. They are competing against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting in their totals .
The other players are fighting for 25 cards based on series earnings. The last PGA Tour card went at $33,650 in 2013, $36,312 in 2014 and $32,206 last year.
Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton was tied for third at 6 under after a 69. He was 173rd in the FedEx Cup standings and is 63rd among the players vying for the 25 cards with $4,000.
South Korea’s Whee Kim, the first-round leader, had a 71 to drop into the group at 6 under along with Nicholas Lindheim (68), Xander Schauffele (68), Jason Millard (67), Grayson Murray (67), Kevin Tway (70) and Bobby Wyatt (69). Lindheim and Murray have locked up PGA Tour cards through the Web.com money list. In the fight for the 25 cards, Schauffele is 25th at $15,395, followed by Wyatt (33rd, $10,603), Kim (35th, $9,975), Millard (42nd, $8,175) and Tway (52nd, $5,975).