It is nerve-wracking enough for those of us standing on the first tee of our local club’s Saturday fourball competition. But imagine how Keith Mitchell felt as he prepared to tee off in the Valspar Championship this week.
It was his first start on the US PGA Tour but he didn’t seem all that intimidated. He thumped a 295-metre drive right down the middle of the first fairway of Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, hit an approach from 201 metres to two metres and sank the putt for an eagle.
The 24-year-old from Tennessee, who normally plays on the Web.com Tour, went on to card a birdie on the fifth, a bogey on the sixth and pars on all his other holes to finish with a two-under 69 and a share of 24th after the first round.
It had been a hectic few days for Mitchell. He flew from a Web.com media obligation in Kansas City to a funeral in Baltimore then directly to the Tampa area for Monday qualifying, earning his spot in the tournament with a birdie in the next morning’s play-off.
"I just had one golf outfit, and a borrowed pair of golf shoes, and two sleeves of balls,” said Mitchell, noting that friends had rallied round to deliver his clubs to the qualifier and a suitcase of clothes in time for the championship.
Mitchell had made the cut in all three of his Web.com starts this season, highlighted by a joint fifth place at the Panama Claro Championship (his career-best Web.com Tour finish), the week after serving as a groomsman at the wedding of his high school friend and Tour winner Harris English.
