Former PGA Tour player Wil Collins continues to show his skill and experience at the 2024 Navajo Trail Open. The reigning Navajo Trail Open winner barely made any mistakes during the second round on Saturday at Hillcrest Golf Club.
With beautiful clear skies and little wind throughout the day, Collins had a hot putter and shot -7-under par on the par 71 Hillcrest course to finish the second round with a tournament-low 64. Collins is -12 after two rounds and leads by six shots heading into the final day of the tournament.
“It was a perfect day,” Collins said. “It's always a little cool and breezy on the first hole or two in the morning but the weather was perfect. The greens were in spectacular shape and I got the putter going early right out of the gate and that just helps get me comfortable quicker.”
Collins said his wedge game was much sharper than in the first round. After his lone bogey on his sixth hole, hole 15, after starting on the back nine, Collins laid up on the par 5 17th which he usually doesn’t do. But Collins used his sharp wedge game to get close on the green and convert a birdie. He said that moment was the turning point in the round.
After 17, Collins went -5 for his last 10 holes and finished his final nine, the front nine, -4.
Although Collins is 45 years old and is in the mortgage business, he sees his experience as an advantage, uses golf as his sanctuary away from the office and looks to relax and have fun on the course.
Through two rounds, Collins has 14 birdies and two bogeys.
Behind Collins in second is Barrett Jones. The former college golfer at UCCS finished -6 on Saturday after finishing even par on Friday.
The round could have been even better for Jones. He started his round with an eagle on the par 5 10th.
“I hit a good drive down the middle,” Jones said about the 10th hole. “I had around 180 in, hit an 8-iron to about 25 feet and made a bomb early on. So that was good, a good start to the day for sure.”
Jones then birdied his next three holes to be -5 through his first four holes. He finished his opening nine -6 for a 30. He continued his fantastic play and was -9 through 16 holes. But then Jones got into some trouble which ended his round on a sour note.
“Those last two, I hit one bad iron shot on my 17th hole and made a bogey there,” Jones said. “Then hit a really good shot here on nine and it was too much club and being long. Being behind that green is dead. So I chipped it short and it barely rolled on. I had about a 20-footer downhill I tapped it and went about 15 feet by so I made double there. That was a bummer I still had a good round just a tough last few holes.”
A part-time caddie in both Scottsdale, Arizona and Eagle, Colorado, Jones is looking forward to playing some good golf in the final round and challenging for the win.
Behind Jones is Christian Muscarello in third place at -3. He shot -2 on Saturday after shooting -1 on Friday. Mucarello was +2 through his first six holes but got his round turned around and birdied four of the next five holes. He then had seven straight pars to end his second round.
“The course is awesome,” Muscarello said. “It's definitely scorable but if you miss in the wrong spots you can have some pretty easy bogeys. The wind has been tricky, it was super windy yesterday and today it picked up toward the end but more so it just keeps switching directions. I’m just trying to figure that out. Then obviously, I never played here before (the tournament) so I’ve played three rounds out here. So I’m still trying to learn.”
Muscarello wasn’t happy with how he hit the ball but was able to grind out some birdies and then pars toward the end of the round.
In fourth behind Muscarello is former winner Jere Pelletier who shot a -4 round on Saturday after shooting par on Friday.
Pelletier had an up-and-down day with only seven pars along with eight birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey on the par 3 12th hole.
Behrod Keshtavar had a tough day after holding second place after the first round. Keshtavar shot an 80, +9 over par, today after shooting 67 on Friday.
Keshtavar started his round two over on the back nine but had two double bogeys on his final nine on the front which pushed him out of contention.
“It was just one of those days,” Keshtavar said. “You feel like you can't find the center of the face. I had a couple of bad breaks when I was pulling my wedge shots today, which is uncharacteristic. It was just one of those days, but it's golf. I think we all have them.”
The top professional players should be teeing off around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
