Miami (AFP) – Keith Mitchell grabbed a share of the lead at the US PGA Tour Valspar Championship on Thursday, saying he’s still learning from his agonizing last-round collapse in the event last year. Mitchell carded seven birdies and three bogeys in a four-under par 67 that left him in a five-way tie for the lead when darkness halted play with a handful of players still on the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida.
He was joined by Germany’s Stephan Jaeger, Finland’s Sami Valimaki, and fellow Americans Jacob Bridgeman and Ricky Castillo, with another three players in the clubhouse on three-under on a tough, windy day in which the early starters had a distinct advantage. Given the conditions, Mitchell said he couldn’t be too upset to close his round with back-to-back bogeys that dropped him from six-under into a share of the lead. He three-putted his penultimate hole, the eighth, then found the right rough off the tee on the way to a bogey at the ninth.
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“All in all I kept it together,” he said. “Number eight was playing really hard today, and nine, the wind just off left I couldn’t get it started far enough left and made bogeys there. But you take those two out of the round and sprinkle them somewhere else. I’m feeling good,” he said.
Mitchell started last year’s final round at Innisbrook with a two-shot lead but carded a 77 that left him tied for 17th as Peter Malnati snapped a nine-year title drought. Asked how he moved on from that, Mitchell said he didn’t. “I still think about it,” he said. “It’s still definitely in the back of my mind and I want it to stay there, hopefully for the rest of my career to just motivate me to remember what it feels like when you let those kind of nerves get in your way.”
A round like today feels like the opposite of that,” added Mitchell, who is trying to add a second tour title to his 2019 Honda Classic crown. Jaeger, who claimed his first title at the Houston Open last year, closed with back-to-back birdies, getting up and down from a bunker to pick up a stroke at 18 and join the leading group. He said he was actually aiming for the bunker after his wind-whipped tee shot found the right rough.
“To be honest with you that’s the only play I had,” he said. “I knew the bunker shot wasn’t terribly difficult, but obviously making that is a bonus. I would have taken par any day of the week.”
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