That was the case Thursday for Jim Renner. Playing at Thornblade to open the tournament, Renner fired a 6-under par 65 that left him two back of leader Darron Stiles. Renner was error-free, with six birdies and no bogeys on his card.
His round was topped only at Carolina Club, yet he doesn't feel that he did anything special out on the course.
"Nothing crazy today," Renner said. "No bogeys obviously helps. I hit the ball really well and rolled it really well, and those are two things you have to do in order to shoot a round like that."
Renner teed off on the 10th hole Thursday, and he got off to the quick start with a birdie on that hole. He continued his steady play with birdies on the 13th and 16th, and he completed his first nine in 3-under.
He birdied 3 holes in a 4-hole stretch on the front nine - holes 2, 4, and 5 - to shoot up the leaderboard and into the top 5 to end the day.
The round was much needed for Renner, considering that he has missed his last two cuts at the South Georgia Classic and Stadion Classic. It has been an interesting year for Renner. He has missed 6 of 8 cuts, but he earned top-11 finishes both times he made the cut.
That's just the crazy nature of golf, Renner said.
"Golf's funny," Renner said. "One day you hit it good but you don't putt good, and the next day it's just the opposite. Today I did everything pretty well."
The erratic play falls in line with Renner's play as a PGA Tour rookie last year. In 22 starts on the PGA Tour, he had only 2 top-20 finishes. Yet two of those were top 5's, with a T4 at the Viking Classic and a 5th-place showing at the Reno-Tahoe Open.
What do these statistics say? When Renner plays well, he's a force to be reckoned with.
If that's any indication, we could be seeing a lot of Renner on the leaderboard this weekend.
Renner tees off tomorrow at Chanticleer at 8:25 a.m., and finishes the rotation Saturday at Carolina Club.
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