The simple fact that they are playing the Puerto Rico Open this week at Coco Beach Golf Club is somewhat miraculous.
Consider that in September of 2017, Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, lashed the island with furious wind and rain. Coco Beach, like most of the island, was wiped out. Trees were uprooted, most of the course was completely under water, no pumping station, no electricity, no nothing.
Fast forward to this week and it’s a testament to the people who work at the club that this event is underway.
You won’t see many big names on the leaderboard. They’re not here, they’re in Mexico. This one has a lot of has-beens. There are a lot of guys with basically no PGA Tour status. Charlie Wi has zero status, he’s not even trying to play professional golf anymore, he’s teaching. But Wi is in this field.
Frank Lickliter got in, past winner’s status. He hasn’t been able to play anywhere. But he showed up and shot 71 with a decent chance to make his first PGA Tour cut in who knows how long.
Your round one leader is Andres Romero, a guy with past-winner status but that’s about it. He shot a nifty six-under par 66, a shot better than Sepp Streka, whoever he is.
Nine players are tied at 68, four-under, including up-and-comer Ollie Schniederjans — who doesn’t wear any sort of cap and might want to talk to a dermatologist about the risks of melanoma.
Biggest name in the field is David Duval, a guy who was once the top-ranked player in the world. Sadly, double-D shot 79 and won’t have to worry about embarrassing himself over the weekend.
There are some refugees from the Champions Tour who don’t have status out there. Neal Lancaster was at the bottom of the board with 83.
Okay, so the field basically stinks. But such is life in these “opposite field” events, as the PGA Tour calls them.
The miracle of it all is professional golf being played in Puerto Rico two short years and about $90 billion in damage from the aftermath of Maria.
