NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Marcus Byrd faced an age-old dilemma for golfers on Sunday: a short putt, about 30 inches, downhill on a smooth green, with very slight right-to-left vibe.
Refine the break and sink it into the 18th hole, or add some weight to the shot, remove the break and go bankrupt?
The slight break to the left was “very slight,” Byrd said, “but I was going to hit it pretty hard to make sure it didn’t break.”
“Hit it hard enough and hopefully she doesn’t miss the hole,” he said.
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It didn’t, and the 27-year-old Washington, D.C. native won the Florida Golf Tour’s 60th annual Indian River Open at 12 under par (65-67) at New Smyrna Beach Golf Club. He finished one shot better than recent Florida Gator golfer Quentin Debove, who birdied the 17th and 18th holes to keep the pressure on Byrd.
“I stayed pretty steady,” Byrd said of his play Sunday. “I hit some good shots, just kept the ball in front of me, took advantage of the par-5s (he birdied all four). I tried to make sure I didn’t make too many mistakes and took advantage of the holes where I could.
Byrd is a former Middle Tennessee State golfer now living in Atlanta. He played on the PGA Tour’s Korn Ferry Tour this year, but not well enough to maintain his exempt status. This year, mini-tours and Monday qualifying attempts will be integrated into Tour events.
“You have to love it,” he said of the difficulty so many young golfers face in their attempts to play golf for a good living.
The Central Florida-based Florida Professional Golf Tour returns to the area in mid-January for the New Year’s Open at Cypress Head in Port Orange.
This article originally appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida Tour Golf: Marcus Byrd returns home to win Indian River Open