FLORIDA – Cameron Percy of Australia raced out to a three-stroke lead at the Constellation Furyk & Friends by opening with an 8-under-par 64 on Friday in Jacksonville, Florida.
Percy had seven birdies, an eagle at the par-5 sixth hole and a single bogey in his round at Timuquana Country Club. The 51-year-old has a healthy lead on Chad Campbell and Fiji’s Vijay Singh, who carded 5-under 67s.
“I didn’t drive it great early and then I played really nice after that,” Percy said according to Reuters. “I think I hit on the par 5s, I think I hit every par 5 in two, so that made life a lot easier.”
Percy is in stellar position to make a run at his first win on the PGA Tour Champions. The way his countrymen Richard Green and Steve Allan have played this year has served as motivation.
“Stevie was awesome. He’s a really good friend of mine,” Percy said. “Hadn’t played a tour for like almost 10 years and he still loved the game, and it’s just crazy to see him win not once but three times.
“But then Richard Green, that was awesome too because he played incredible last year and only had seconds.”
Where Percy is a journeyman whose biggest win came on the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour), Singh is at the other end of the spectrum as a former World No 1.
Singh has won five times on the senior tour, but only once since 2018. He said he hopes he’s trending in the right direction.
“Depends on how I wake up tomorrow morning, all the aches and pains I’ll be dealing with,” he said. “I’m hitting the ball good, my mind’s in a good place.”
Campbell fired a bogey-free round with five birdies. Like Percy, he’s 51 and hunting for his maiden PGA Tour Champions win.
“I was warned that you don’t just show up out here and start beating up on everybody,” Campbell said. “I was pretty warned. Competition’s great. Everybody can still play and everybody works pretty hard at it still.”
Tied for fourth at 4-under 68 were Matt Gogel, David Duval, Gene Sauers, Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark and Robert Karlsson of Sweden.
