PALM BEACH GARDENS — Five Treasure Coast players were in action on Friday for the second round of the 108th Amateur Championship, one of which was paired with the son of the world’s most famous golfer.
Vero Beach’s James Hassell played the opening two rounds of the tournament alongside Charlie Woods, son of legendary golfer Tiger Woods.
Hassell, along with Port St. Lucie’s Tomy Jaunet and Hobe Sound’s Cooper Foegen Rich Buckner, each failed to make the cut while Stuart’s Greg O’Mahony will continue to take swings at the BallenIsles Country Club East and South courses.
O’Mahony is a mere three shots off the pace as he put up a 70 to enter the clubhouse in a tie for 11th at 1-under-par.
The area’s other competitors struggled to keep pace. Jaunet was the next highest on the leaderboard at 16-over-par, followed by Foegen (17-over), Hassell (20-over) and Buckner (26-over).
Derek Busby stands alone atop the leaderboard through 36 holes. The Palm Beach Gardens native is a 4-under-par and holds a one-shot advantage over Ponte Vedra Beach’s R.J. Glod, Melbourne’s Arth Sinha and Plantation’s Thomas Korona.
As for Woods, the Benjamin rising junior is six shots back at 2-over par. Hassell and Woods were joined by Orlando’s Palmer Haynes to form the first group on the East course, with a tee time of 7:45 a.m..
Hassell, a redshirt freshman at South Florida, made par on six of 18 holes in the second round.
He bogeyed six of his first nine holes, including a double on the Par-5 fifth hole. Hassell added a triple on the Par-5 14th. That was sandwiched between birdies on the 12th, 13ths and 15th as he ended the round with an 83.
His performance on Thursday was slightly better as birdies on No. 3 and 13 were the highlights of his first-round 81.
Meanwhile, O’Mahony finished in the green on Friday thanks in large part to an eagle at No. 9 on the South course. The Nova Southeastern Hall of Famer had bogeys on the No. 3 and 4, but did not have another until his final hole of the day. He had birdies on No. 7, 13 and 14 en route to a 70.
Playing on the East course for his first round on Thursday, O’Mahony opened with back-to-back bogey but was steady the rest of the way to 73.
O’Mahony will begin his third round at 8:45 a.m. Saturday.
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Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at 772-985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.
