The Loop

Brendon de Jonge got off to a worse start than most amateur golfers playing over Labor Day Weekend will

August 29, 2014

Brendon de Jonge arrived at this week's Deutsche Bank Championship with a good chance of advancing to the third leg of the FedEx Cup Championship. But by the third hole of the first round at TPC Boston, his 2013-14 PGA Tour season was all but over.

After a 280-yard opening drive in the fairway on No. 10 (his first hole of the day), things went bad quickly for the 34-year-old Zimbabwean. De Jonge found the water with his approach shot and after taking a drop, he took four more shots to finish.

On the par-3 11th, he found a greenside bunker. His first shot from the sand didn't get out. His second went well over the green. Three shots later, he had recorded a disastrous second straight triple bogey to start his round. "Triple doubles" are good in basketball. "Double triples" in golf? Not so good.

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2015/07/20/55ad79ecb01eefe207f6eef7_blogs-the-loop-blog-brendon-de-jonge-0829.jpg

The top 70 players on the FedEx Cup points list will advance to next week's BMW Championship at Cherry Hills. De Jonge entered this week's event at No. 79 after advancing to the Tour Championship last year for the first time.

De Jonge certainly won't be thrilled with today's round, but he should be more upset with himself about how he finished at the Barclays last week. Following an opening 66, he shot over par the final three rounds to finish T-61 and miss out on a great opportunity to pick up points in the volatile playoff system. Now he needs to pick up shots fast if he's going to make the cut and move on.