Tyler Lagasse improved on his Day 1 score by shooting a 77 (+5) in Tuesday, June 7’s round, putting him in position for an elite leaderboard position and division alongside Matthew Glumac of Southern California, who shot a 75 (+3) and Peter Condon of Washington, who shot a 83 (+11$).
Lagasse teed off on hole 1 with Ian Kelley of Florida and Ben Purick of New York as part of an 8AM shotgun start. He went in with a strategy of consistency.
“I‘ll just try to stay calm, focused, and keep the ball in play,” Lagasse said. “The course is a little tighter than I anticipated.
Similar to yesterday, Lagasse started his round on a high note. He was at even par through the first 3 holes. Then on the 4th hole, both Lagasse and Kelley chipped in for eagle. Lagasse and Kelley were ecstatic after their eagles and made sure to celebrate.
“Those were the two shots of the day in my opinion,” Lagasse said.
Lagasse remained -2 through 8 holes, and right around then Bruins Foundation CEO Bob Sweeney stopped by to watch Tyler for a few holes. However, the momentum began to shift when Tyler bogeyed on two consecutive holes. He made par on 11, but then came hole 12, one of the most difficult holes on the entire course.
Both Lagasse and Purick, who were driving from the same longer distance tee, double bogeyed on 12 after landing their ball in a penalty zone. Lagasse is thinking about how he can improve on hole 12 for the next two days.
“I have to mentally prepare myself, maybe hit my 5-iron a little better… not overcutting the ball, not overswinging,” Lagasse said.
Hole 14, a par 5, was another challenge for Lagasse. He was driving the ball extremely well, but his 2nd shot landed just right of the green. It took 2 more shots after this to get on the green due to a difficult lie. Once Lagasse got onto the green, his first putt nearly made it, but he ended up having to tap in for bogey.
“From outside 10 feet, I could use some more improvement [on my putts],” Lagasse said.
In the final four holes, Lagasse made par twice and bogeyed twice to finish +5 on the day. Purick and Kelley were +11 and +13, respectively. Here’s Tyler’s final scorecard from the day:
Lagasse finished the two rounds that will be used for division placement with a two-day score of 155 (+11), one stroke behind Glumac, whose total is 154 (+10). Glumac and Lagasse are first and second. Peter Condon is in third at 158 (+14). Lagasse’s division and the full leaderboard have not been announced yet, but I will add those to this article when they are out.
See below for clips from my post-round interview with Tyler:
After interviewing Tyler, I ran into Jen Lada of ESPN, who I first met in Seattle at the 2018 USA Games. Today, Jen was covering one of two female golfers in the level 5 competition, Amy Bockerstette. Bockerstette is the first person with Down Syndrome to receive an athletic scholarship to attend college for any sport. I’ll be interviewing Amy myself tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
I also caught up with Travis Curtis of Maine, an autistic level 5 golfer who will be attending a Flutie Foundation event tonight. His cumulative score is a 170 (+26), as he shot an 83 yesterday and an 87 today.
Before I signed off for the day, I reported as if I was called upon for a live update from in front of the entrance to Orange County National Golf Center. Stay tuned for more golf coverage here and coverage of what’s happening at the ESPN Wide World of Sports tomorrow night.
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