In an historic accomplishment, Caymanian amateur golfer Aaron Jarvis shot three under par early on Friday 15th July to make the cut after 36 holes at the British Open Championship.
He had to wait until 9pm local time to be certain of playing another two rounds at one of golf’s four major tournaments.
Tiger Woods – who has twice won at St Andrews – finished 9 over par and did not make the cut. Neither did last year’s champion Collin Morikawa.
He has been paired with South Korea’s Sung-jae Im on Saturday and will tee-off at 9:50 a.m, UK time, 3:50 a.m in Cayman.
Jarvis did not look at his early-morning round Friday at the Old Course as simply one last chance to take in his surroundings at the Home of Golf while competing against the best in the world.
After a whirlwind year that also saw him compete in the Masters, Jarvis, 19, might have been excused had he simply wanted to enjoy the scene and not worry too much about his score.
But the first golfer from the Cayman Islands to compete in a major championship had loftier goals: he wanted to make the 36-hole cut, and did his best to make it happen.
With a 3-under-par 69 that included a three-birdie stretch in the middle of his round, Jarvis finished the second round at 144, even par, after shooting 75 during the first round.
There was a long way to go when he finished, and at that point he was exactly on the cut line. Either way, Jarvis was proud of his performance, as he gave himself a chance.
“It was great,’’ he said. “The whole day, I just had that mindset of going out and playing some golf today and making a charge to hopefully make the cut. I’m on the number right now, so we’ll see. But it’s been a good day.
“I had a three-putt on 17, but besides that, I knew that even or 1-under hopefully will get in. We’ll see what the weather does.
“I stuck with the same process and went out and had a good game plan with my caddie and just stuck with it. Made some more putts today than yesterday. It was good.’’
When Jarvis finished at around 12:30 p.m. local time, he was in a tie for 68th place. The top 70 and ties make the 36-hole cut and well more than half the field still had to play. If conditions got easier, which seemed to be the case, it would make his prospects dim.
After a birdie at the par-5 14th hole, Jarvis had four holes to play and was 1 under for the tournament. But he ran into trouble at the 17th, the famous Road Hole. Despite having just a wedge in for his second shot, Jarvis came up well short, leaving himself a 60-footer for birdie. He lagged it up short and missed the par putt to drop back to even par.
At the 18th, Jarvis tried to drive the short par-4 green but pulled his drive to the left and was unable to get it up and down for a birdie that might have been the difference.
“I played a practice round with him at the Masters and he’s obviously swinging much better,’’ said Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion who played with Jarvis during the first two rounds here and shot 66 on Friday. “I think he’s probably getting used to being out here a little bit more. A little better. It isn’t easy. He played very well today and we had fun. Hopefully he makes it. I’m afraid it might be a little short. But at least he gave himself a chance.’’
Source: Cayman Compass
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