In the last two months, Chris Stroud has played some of the best golf of his now decade-long career. The Texas native finished T-20 at the Greenbrier, T-19 a week later at the John Deere and then earned his first career victory at the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour's opposite week event during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
The breakthrough victory earned him a spot in the PGA Championship, where he continued to ride the wave of great form. Stroud became one of the feel good stories of the season's final major, playing in the final group alongside Kevin Kisner, ultimately finishing in a tie for ninth.
This fine stretch of golf got him into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, somewhere he hadn't been since the 2015 Barclays. His first round at The Northern Trust wasn't great, a three-over 73 at Glen Oaks Club. On Friday he came out firing, starting on the gettable back nine with five birdies on his first six holes. That's when he went backwards, which produced one of the most colorful nine hole scorecards you will see all season:
For those keeping score at home, that's an even par 35 with five birdies, three bogeys, one double-bogey and not a single par to be found. In other words, just like all of us (minus the five birdies).
The bogey-bogey-double bogey stretch on 16, 17 and 18 sent him back to three-over for the tournament, and he's already dropped two more on his final nine holes. It doesn't look like Stroud will make the cut, but he's safely in the top 100 of the standings, giving him a chance to bounce back at next week's Dell Technologies Championship.