Danville graduate Ben Fuqua shot 76 Thursday and finished tied for 29th with a three-day score of a 2-over par 218. Fuqua started the tournament on fire, sitting at 5-under after the first seven holes Tuesday before finishing with a 71. He also shot 71 Wednesday.
"Today was kind of a disappointing ending to a very good week of golf. I played solid all week, played a good all-around game. I came out here Tuesday morning with a load of confidence knowing I was going to play well. I was real eager to play in this tournament," Fuqua, a redshirt freshman at Kentucky, said. "I couldn't make any putts on the back nine.
"It's kind of hard to play well when you're facing 10- to 15-foot putts for par. Earlier this week I had 5-foot par putts."
Tied for the lead after two rounds
Hendrickson was in even better position than Fuqua and had a chance to claim his first Open title after several years in the tournament. Two solid days of golf (70-67) put had Hendrickson tied for the lead with Charlie Woo at 7-under par entering Thursday.
But neither of the second day leaders would finish in the mix. Kentucky golfer Cale Barr, who finished at 8-under par, won the tournament on the second hole of sudden death over Grover Justice. Woo shot even par and finished the tournament at 7-under. Barr won the J.E. Butler Invitational at Danville Country Club in June.
"When I was in at 7-under (Wednesday), I knew I'd be right there. I thought 10-under would be leading, so I was kind of surprised I was leading," Hendrickson said. "I came in today and felt pretty comfortable starting off.
"I went to the back at 3 under. I knew I had to shoot at least a 32 (on the back nine) to have a chance. I knew pretty much my chances were over after the first couple of holes."
Danville's Luke Lovell shot 78 Thursday and finished the tournament with 228, tied for 67th place.
"It was not my week. My swing was not there," said Lovell, a senior at Campbell (N.C.) University. "Hopefully, I'll get it back before too long."
Great experience
While the ending wasn't what they had hoped for, Hendrickson and Fuqua said it was a great experience .
"I played with two guys that are trying to play golf for a living, so it was definitely a good experience," Hendrickson said. "We both had pretty good summers, and playing in the last group of the Kentucky open gave me some confidence, no doubt."
The two play together almost every day. Fuqua and Lovell waited around Thursday for Hendrickson.
"We kind of feed off each other. We're pretty much each other's biggest rival. We play against each other every day. We get better together," Fuqua said. "One of us will get better and the other one will catch up and back and forth. That's the way we get better at our games.
"When we finish, it's back to the drawing board. We've got two solid weeks where we'll practice really hard and learn from this and go right into school with some momentum hopefully."
