Bud Cauley’s solo 4th at the True South Classic was
his best result since March.
There are a lot of positives a young pro can take from a week
like this. Bud Cauley’s furious Sunday charge that featured
eight birdies in 16 holes put the 22-year-old in his best position
to win a PGA TOUR event. A late bogey left the rookie alone in
fourth – his second consecutive fourth-place finish at
Annandale. Cauley was two back with two holes to play before
getting up-and-down for par on the 17th and hitting two poor shots
on the closing hole which led to a bogey, taking him out of
contention at the True South Classic. “I knew I had to make
birdie or eagle on 18, probably eagle,” he said. “I was
just trying to get the ball in the fairway somehow, made a bad
swing, and hit it about the worst place I possibly could.”
Cauley’s tee shot found a fairway bunker, eliminating any
chance he had of going for the par-5 green in two. After laying up,
Cauley attacked a tough pin from 176 yards away and found the water
hazard guarding the front and left sides of the green. He wound up
finishing five shots behind Stallings but the leaderboard would
have looked much different down the stretch had Cauley post 21 or
22 under. After earning his TOUR card straight out of college via
last season’s non-member money list, Cauley got his rookie
campaign off to a very good start with seven top-30 finishes in his
first 12 starts. Since then, however, he’d missed four cuts
in seven starts with no top 30s. After 16 consecutive rounds in the
70s, Cauley has posted rounds in the 60s in six of his last eight
times out, including three this week. “I’ve been kind
of struggling a little bit but worked really hard on my game with
my coach last week,” Cauley said. “A lot of positive
things this week and (I’ll) try to keep it going.”
Cauley will look to carry his momentum north next week. He is
scheduled to play in the RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton G&CC
that gets under way on Thursday.