THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Newberry College rising junior Evan DeGrazia is playing in the MacKenzie Tour-PGA Canada’s Staal Foundation Open in his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the second time in the short history of the event.
DeGrazia qualified for the event last year, but earned a late sponsor’s exemption this year. In Thursday’s opening round, he shot a 2-over par 74 in a fairly consistent round. He bogeyed the fourth, eighth and 11th holes and picked up a birdie on the par 5 seventh hole.
DeGrazia was the Newberry team leader in stroke average in his sophomore season of 2014-15 after transferring from Davis and Elkins. He averaged 74.2 strokes per round.
“I had a couple of three putts, I had a couple of missed short ones there and I left three hanging on the edge. I just couldn’t get them to fall,” DeGrazia told Leith Dunick of TBNewsWatch. “But other than that, my ball striking was phenomenal. I was putting them close, they just weren’t dropping.
“I’m pleased. I hit it how I wanted to, but again, it was the putts. With the little preparation that I had, it was pretty good. Probably anything in the 60s is going to be needed for tomorrow. But (I don’t have any) numbers in mind. I’m just going to go as low as I can and hopefully they add up at the end.”