A hot-handed Californian made it back-to-back bogey-free qualifying successes from one coast to the other in Tuesday’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Open qualifier at The Links at Hiawatha Landing.
Tim Bogue, from Windsor in Sonoma County, made eight birdies at the Apalachin golf course in a round of 64 and closed three clear of next-best in a field of competitors seeking to gain one of the final four berths in the $2.1 million tournament proper .
Bogue — who has worked as a longshoreman since 1999, loading cargo on and off ships in Oakland — told pgatour.com that he slept in a van on Monday night after making the long trek from California to Syracuse, then driving the last 90 minutes to Binghamton.
“Thank goodness the guy at (the rental counter) gave me a van,” Bogue told the website. “As a longshoreman, we sleep in our cars a lot, so I’ve got a lot of practice.”
When Bogue isn’t unloading freight, he’s a golf coach in California who also frequents the skins games near his home. Bogue has reached the Final Stage of PGA Tour Champions Q-School three different times, but has yet to crack into the circuit full-time. His best finish at Q-School was T56 in 2019.
Also securing starts in Friday’s opening round at En-Joie Golf Course were Ricardo Gonzalez (67) and, emerging from a seven-way playoff, Andrew Johnson and Michael Muehr (69).
Bogue was 1-under through six holes before making birdie on six of his next seven. He tacked on birdie at the par-5 18th and will make his second PGA Tour Champions start in as many weeks.
In last week’s Boeing Classic qualifier, he finished birdie-eagle for one of four 6-under 66s. He proceeded to shoot 76-75-75 (T68) at The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge outside Seattle, his first senior tour start since the 2018 US Senior Open (75-76 missed cut).
Gonzalez, from Argentina, was level-par on the seventh tee and 4-under walking off the 12th green. He bogeyed the 14th but made eagle-3 at the last.
His three senior tour appearances this season include a T20 in the late-May Senior PGA Championship. He shared seventh in the 2021 Senior British Open.
Johnson (Maitland, Florida) played the front side even and made three birdies from 12 on in. Muehr (Bethesda, Maryland) scraped into the playoff despite playing his final six holes in 1-over.
Twice the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open champion emerged from the open qualifier: Doug Barron in 2019 and Willie Wood in 2012.
Story originally appeared on GolfWeek