Coody has golf in his blood – Winnipeg Free Press

Parker Coody is playing the same Southwood golf course as every other competitor in the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open. It just doesn’t really look that way, given the commanding lead he’s built through the first two rounds.

A stellar 65 on Friday afternoon followed by a sizzling 62 on Saturday morning — just one stroke off the course record — has the 22-year-old PGA Tour Canada rookie at 17-under par heading into Sunday’s final 36 holes.

“I knew if I could capture the same feeling I had (Friday), the same rhythm, all of that stuff, the same mindset — I was able to do it. The conditions were a lot better, I got better greens this morning, all of the things that contribute to going low,” Coody said of a round that included eight birdies, an eagle and nine pars.

The Texas product is five clear of the field and seems poised to become the latest member of his family to capture a golf championship.

Coody’s grandfather, Charles, is best known for fending off the great Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller to capture the 1971 Masters at Augusta, one of three career PGA Tour victories. (He also won five times on the senior tour). Coody’s identical twin, Pierceson, is currently a member of the Korn Ferry Tour and won in just his third career start this past June in Maine.

“My dad and my granddad are my biggest supporters. It’s a wealth of knowledge that’s always there. I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” said Coody.

First-round leader Derek Oland of Colorado followed up his opening round 64 with a 68 on Saturday to get to 12-under. Right behind him is China’s Wocheng Ye, who had rounds of 68-65. A group of six golfers are seven strokes back at 10-under.

The top Canadians are Joey Savoie of Quebec, Wil Bateman of Alberta and Noah Steele of Ontario. They are all at eight-under. The cut (top 60 and ties) was set at five-under par, with 62 making the grade.

“Just the same mindset that I came out with (Saturday) morning. Just keep going,” Coody said of the marathon final day, which was caused by Thursday’s scheduled first round being washed out by rain. “There’s no point in stopping and all I can worry about is the first tee shot (Sunday) and after that, we will see what happens.”

The Coody brothers have had a whirlwind last year, which somehow included both breaking bones in their arms during a training session in which they crashed into a wall while doing sprints.

“I wish I had a better explanation, but it’s as weird and as crazy as it sounds,” said Coody.

Fully recovered, they teamed up to lead the University of Texas Longhorns to the NCAA golf championship in June. Both then turned pro, going slightly separate ways. Pierceson got conditional status on the Korn Ferry as the No. 1 ranked collegiate player in the nation, while Parker came up north after earning his way through qualifying school this past spring. His father, Kyle, who also played pro golf in the 1990s, was his caddy.

Given their early success and obvious talent, it seems like just a matter of time before the twins are together on the biggest golf stage in the world.

“My plan is to meet him on the (PGA) Tour, so I’m trying to get there as fast as I can. He’s making it hard because he’s moving really fast,” said Coody.

He made his PGA Tour Canada debut in mid-June at the ATB Classic in Edmonton, finishing tied for 15th. He followed that up with a tie for 52nd at the next event in Prince Edward Island. But Coody cooled off significantly, missing the next three cuts heading into this week’s stop in Winnipeg.

The most recent, two weeks ago in Quebec, was followed by a return home to work on his game. It seems to have helped.

“Only a couple of months into professional golf. I haven’t gotten off to the start I would have liked but this is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Coody, who has pretty much been focused on playing pro golf since he was a young child.

“When I was younger, I would go to the range and stuff because that’s what dad was doing and I wanted to go and do what dad was doing. So my brother and I would go,” he said.

“Then, around fifth grade or so, that was when team sports were happening — football, basketball and baseball — and you wanted to play with your friends. Played all of those sports up until eighth grade. I played golf in the summers, kind of hit some balls and stuff, but the eighth grade was the turning point, going into high school and the ninth grade where my options were golf and I wasn’t big enough for football or baseball, and definitely wasn’t big enough for basketball.”

Although he didn’t arrive in Winnipeg on fire, he loved what he saw of Southwood during a practice round earlier in the week.

“You have room on the fairways but once you miss the fairways, the fescue is pretty penal. And then the greens you’ve got to place it in the right spot and that’s another element with controlling your spin and all that fun stuff. The course definitely looks good,” said Coody.

“As annoying as this may sound — I’m leading the tournament — I’ve had two three-putts and I’ve missed a couple of putts inside eight feet for birdie. Trust me, I don’t want to go back and redo it. I’ll take where I stand.”

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