Tyler McCumber has good energy at Corales Puntacana

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Tyler McCumber is playing well, again, at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.

The ocean views tend to agree with him.

McCumber, who Monday Qualified for the 2018 edition of the event in the Domincan Republic and found himself in the final group Sunday before finishing T19, is back near the top of the leaderboard in 2020.

He heads into the weekend at 8-under and was inside the top five mid-afternoon Friday after rounds of 65-71.

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A noted lover of surfing, McCumber said he’s got good energy at Corales, with the waves crashing adjacent to a good handful of holes. He even said Thursday there was a 10-15 foot swell hitting about 90 minutes up the coast from the course.

He had a job to do, of course, and he’s probably got enough surfing in for one year.

During the first half of the COVID-19 break, McCumber said he got “stuck” in Costa Rica and spent over a month with a friend of his near Tamarindo (a beach town on the island) where he surfed “quite a bit.”

“It’s a good place to get stuck,” he said with a smile.

Upon returning to the U.S. he was locked down in Jacksonville, Florida. Once the restrictions lifted he went back to the outdoors because that’s where he felt safest.

He camped out in Ashville, North Carolina a few times, he said.

McCumber, who finished 22nd on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List in 2019 to earn a TOUR card – after being the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year in 2018 after three victories – is trying to find the spark for success on Tour like his father, Mark McCumber – a 10-time TOUR winner.

McCumber’s T19 at the 2018 Corales event remains his best ever TOUR result. He finished T20 at the Puerto Rico Open in 2020 – yet another island event on the schedule.

“They're great hosts here,” said McCumber. “And obviously the circumstances are a bit different this time around, but it's been enjoyable every time I've been down here.”