Jordan goes low yet again to seal individual win

JUST a week after finishing third with a Wingate University record score of 10-under-par over three rounds at the Spring Bulldog Clash, Omagh’s Jordan Hyland went one better when he shot an 11-under-par total to win the Bearcat Classic at Patriot Golf Club in South Carolina.

Hyland was in a confident mood after the previous week’s effort at the Caledonia Golf and Fist Club where he helped his Wingate team to the title, but after improving upon that stellar effort he was thrilled to not only again guide his school to victory but also claim the individual honours for the first time since moving to the fiercely competitive North Carolina region from his spell at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia.

And he believes his upward trajectory in recent form is down in no small part to the mental approach Wingate assistant coach, Brian Murtagh, has helped him develop.

“It feels good [to win again]. I had five wins up in West Virginia but the competition, you’d win tournaments at like even par or one-under, so to win in this region, you do have to go out and shoot double digits under par,” he said.

“I set out a few goals for the week and one of them was to really stay present and be in the moment and not let the mind wander to start thinking ‘how good would it be to win this tournament’ or ‘oh, I’m five-under-par’ or whatever. I was trying to stay focused on hitting each shot as it came and I think coming down the back nine [of the third round], that served me well.

“We’ve talked about conserving your energy and expending your energy on certain holes, when to be aggressive and that whole idea of building your round is good on those really long days, which are more of a marathon than a sprint.

“It’s about grinding your opponent down and it’s not that you have to play amazingly good golf. Every shot doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to sink every putt, you have to stay in it and once your chances come you have to go for it and take advantage of it.”

Taking that approach into the last two tournaments when he has tried to score heavy when he feels the opportunity is there, rather than trying to birdie every hole, has really paid off for Hyland, who admits that having tried to get into the position to score low consistently, it now ‘doesn’t feel real’ having achieved it.

“Six rounds in a row in the 60s for something like 21-under – I don’t know what’s going on!,” he exclaimed.

“I definitely can’t believe it, it’s a bit surreal. You see these guys on the leaderboard shooting silly good scores and I’ve not been one to go out and shoot consistently under par like that. I’ve shot a one or two-under and then a one or two over and an even, maybe, but never six rounds in a row in the 60s.

“It feels like it’s been a long time coming but whenever it does actually happen it doesn’t feel real.”