Kokrak's Ohio debut does not end so well

Jason Kokrak’s first PGA Tournament in his home state of Ohio came to an end after only two rounds.

By most measures, it ended Friday on his fifth hole of the day.

After a disappointing 76 in the first round, due mostly on a poor putting performance, Kokrak posted a second-round 77 to finish at +9 and miss the 36-hole cut.

Friday did not start out that way.

As a member of the first tee time of the day, Kokrak came out of the gate looking like a player determined to fire a low round and make the cut.

He said as much on Thursday, and seemed ready.

On his first hole of the day, the demanding uphill 480 yard par four 10th, Kokrak ripped a driver right down the middle of the fairway, flew his iron approach about 30 feet past the hole, an drained the slippery downhill birdie putt to finally make his first birdie of the tournament.

He followed that birdie up with a two-putt birdie on the par five 11th.

And then the momentum really going. He stuck a mid-iron to within 5 feet of the tucked front left pin on the precise par three 12th.

At 7:20 in the morning, he was at +4.

By 8 a.m., he was down to +1.

The Thursday projection was in full steam.

And then it vanished.

That would be as close to even par as he would get for the tournament.

On the very next hole, the dogleg left par four 13th, Kokrak’s tee shot went through the fairway and came to a stop about 2 feet behind a set of trees.

He made a good punch to the greenside bunker, but it couldn’t prevent a momentum-halting bogey.

Back to +2.

Another bogey on the next hole brought him back to +3.

When he failed to capitalize on good birdie opportunities on 15, 16, and 17, it appeared as if Kokrak knew he needed to make something happen to make the cut.

Ideally, an even par finish over the last 10 holes may have been enough to make the cut. In reality, Kokrak’s tee-to-green game started to slowly come undone, leading to a series of bogeys.

A bad final hole capped an unfortunate Ohio debut.

He scored a double-bogey 6 on his last hole.

He dove into the scorer’s tent to sign off on his homecoming, then disappeared into the swelter of Dublin, Ohio, without saying a word.

In golf, no one plays well every day.

Whether it was a swing flaw, putter issues, self-inflicted pressure, bad breaks, or some other factor, for one reason or another, Kokrak’s first Ohio homecoming event didn’t quite produce the results he had hoped for.

He said prior to the event’s first round: “This (playing in The Memorial) is kind of like a bucket list thing for me.”

Hopefully for Jason and his many Valley fans, this experience will only help lead to increased success at The Memorial for years to come.