A three-month break from the PGA Tour apparently didn’t faze Tyler Duncan.
The Columbus native stormed back with an opening-round 65 when the tour made its return from a COVID-19 hiatus last week in Fort Worth, Texas. He shot 70 in each of his final three rounds and finished in a tie for 38th.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Duncan said of the first-round 65. “I’ve been playing really well and made some good progress during quarantine. It just kind of confirmed that what I had worked on was working. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t continue playing that well the rest of the tournament, but I learned some things, so I should be ready for (this) week.”
Most of the time the tour was shut down, Duncan was at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He lives on the TPC Sawgrass course and was able to play and practice there most days, outside of a three-week break in the middle of the quarantine.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Duncan, a 2008 Columbus North graduate, returned to Indiana to visit family and friends the first week of June, but didn’t play much golf while he was here. He went back to Florida last week before heading to Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
“It was a pretty good feeling to be back competing for sure,” Duncan said. “Not being able to have that the last three months was definitely a little bit of a struggle. It was good to be able to work on my game the past couple of months and relax a little bit, but it was nice to be back playing.”
The PGA Tour is being contested in front of no fans for at least the first five weeks of its return. Players are being tested twice a week, and the PGA has chartered a plane to take players from event to event.
On Monday, the players flew from Texas to the next tour stop, the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
“They strongly recommend that we stay at a few selected hotels,” Duncan said. “But there’s 250 caddies and 250 players, so it’s hard to keep them all in the same hotel. It’s more of just, ‘Be smart and stay safe.’”
By virtue of his win in the RSM Classic in November, Duncan has qualified to play in the PGA Championship Aug. 6-9 in San Francisco, the World Golf Championships Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in Shanghai, China, and The Masters Nov. 12-15 in Augusta, Georgia.
Duncan currently is battling to earn an exemption to the U.S. Open, which will be Sept. 17-20 in Mamaroneck, New York. He said his chances right now are about 50-50.
Duncan is ranked 36th on this year’s money list and 28th in the FedEx Cup Standings, four spots ahead of Tiger Woods. This weekend, Duncan will look to build on what he was able to do last week in Texas.
“It’s always nice to play the weekend, but you always look back and say, ‘I could have done better here or there,’” Duncan said. “There’s always some shots you’d like to have back, but you have to learn from it and move on.”
