The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn., Mike Strange column

Source: The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.儲存倉Aug. 17--Back home in Spring, Texas, Lyndsey Hurley probably expected a call Friday. Her newlywed husband, John Hurley, would be home later in the evening.It's a phone call made or a text message sent by hundreds of professional golfers every Friday.Translation: Didn't make the cut.Hurley's call was different this particular Friday. Lyndsey didn't have to pick him at the Houston airport."It's nice to have a tee time on the weekend,'' Hurley said after blazing a 7-under-par 64 round at Fox Den Country Club.If you want a long-shot story to pull for in the final two rounds of the News Sentinel Open, I submit Hurley, a second-year pro and rookie on the Web.com Tour.It's been a rough year out there on the links for the 2011 Texas A&M graduate. Momentum hasn't been Hurley's ally. Prior to Friday, he had made one cut on the Web.com Tour, way back in March in Louisiana, earning a whopping $1,512.Hurley wasn't even supposed to be here this week. After six consecutive missed cuts scattered over four months, he had tumbled south on the tour status totem pole.Being down the alternates list, he decided to visit his wife's family in Upstate New York rather than battle the odds of Monday qualifying in Knoxville. After all, he had a gig waiting -- defending his title in the Iowa Open, a mini-tour event in Des Moines.On Tuesday, he was on a layover in Detroit on the way home to Texas when the phone call came. There was a last-minute cancellation. He had a spot in the News Sentinel Open after all.Hurley went back to Texas, did some laundry and ventured to Knoxville. The Iowa Open will have to crown a new champ.It crossed Hurley's mind that the safer call might be Iowa. The purse is considerably smaller but the competition consid迷你倉沙田rably less fierce."But if you want to get to where you want to be, you've got to play against the best players,'' Hurley said, "and these are the best players I can play against right now.''He hit town Wednesday afternoon. No time for a practice round. Thursday, in his first look at Fox Den, he shot a 75.Thus, he wasn't supposed to be here Saturday. Another cut loomed.But Hurley changed the script with a 64, his best round of the year on any tour and the best round by anybody this week at Fox Den. That got him to 3 under after 36 holes, just enough to make the cut."My Fridays all year have been, 'Well, we've got to make ground from what we did on Thursday,' '' Hurley said. "My Thursdays have been so awful.''Most of his Fridays have been spent changing flights, scrambling to find the next best event available in the coming week. If golf doesn't work out, he'd be a pretty good travel agent.But a couple of weeks ago he made the cut at the Texas Open, another mini-tour stop. Now, he's done it again."I didn't know what golf was on the weekends any more,'' Hurley said. "It had been forever since I made a cut.''Making the cut makes all the difference. It means you get a check. Even a small one helps defray expenses. But, more importantly,the money list determines status.Hurley knows his 64 Friday won't save his season. It's not his ticket to Augusta. He'll have to follow up with another round (or two) in the mid-60s to make enough money this weekend to matter.But it's a start and Hurley will happily take it.He's got a tee time in Knoxville, not idle time back home in Texas.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.) Visit the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.) at .knoxnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉價錢