Las Vegas, Nevada (September 24, 2011)–With the season-long Kodak Challenge coming to an end, Las Vegas Golf Region resident Bill Lunde is two shots in the lead. The next hole on the Kodak scorecard is the par 5, 16th hole at Las Vegas golf course TPC Summerlin. The TPC is the host course of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open that is to be played September 29 – October 2. —By Brian Hurlburt
The Kodak Challenge is a first-of-its-kind competition for PGA TOUR players, who must play at least 18 of the 30 Kodak Challenge holes to be eligible to win. A player's lowest score relative to par on his best 18 Kodak Challenge holes will be counted. The player with the lowest cumulative score relative to par wins $1 million and the Kodak Challenge trophy. Lunde, who was a member of the 1998 NCAA championship team at UNLV, has led the event for much of the season. He stands at 20-under with four holes left to play over the final events of the PGA Tour season.
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Lunde leads Cameron Tringale by two shots. Two other Las Vegas golfers, and former UNLV Rebels, Charley Hoffman and Chad Campbell, are T3 and T11 respectively. Tringale is a former Las Vegas resident and admitted to thinking about the Kodak Challenge a little too much earlier in the year.
"Earlier in the year I found it a bit distracting just to think about that one hole, instead of thinking about playing the course and trying to do well in that tournament," Tringale said recently. "It was kind a micro focus on the Kodak Challenge. So it's in the back of my mind now and, you know, hopefully at the end it will be at the front." Quote courtesy of ASAPSports.com.