Peter Koutroumpis (@pksport)
RALEIGH, NC – There’s always a first time.
For Jeremy Paul, that was posting a bogey-free 8-under 63 in Thursday’s opening round of play at the 2022 REX Hospital Open, recording a career-low round and securing the outright lead.
Paul holds a one-stroke lead, his first lead of any kind on the Korn Ferry Tour over Davis Thompson and Patrick Newcomb heading into second-round play Friday.
“You always have to make a lot of birdies,” Paul said.
“8-under is not going to win this tournament. I have to keep coming out here and shooting low scores, because I expect the winning score to be around 20-under. It helps if you get a couple birdies going early.” –
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Rex Hospital Open – Leaderboard
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Notes from the Field
Paul, Thompson (T2 / -7) and Newcomb (T2 / -7) led the field with eight birdies apiece.
Thompson sits inside the top five of the leaderboard for a third consecutive round; he was T1 after the third round and finished T5 at last week’s NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank.
Newcomb’s 7-under 64 matches his Korn Ferry Tour career-low round, an 8-under 64 from the second round of the 2018 Price Cutter Charity Championship.
Local/College alum notables
Chapel Hill native and University of North Carolina alum Ben Griffin (T19 / -4) positioned himself in the top 25.
Wake Forest resident Akshay Bhatia (T77 / -1) will begin the second round outside the projected cut line.
Jacob Bridgeman (T19 / -4) leads the eight Monday qualifiers in his Korn Ferry Tour debut.
Bridgeman, a Clemson University grad, won six times individually with the Tigers, including the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship en route to being named the 2022 ACC Player of the Year.
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Round 2 – Tee times
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