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Darren Clarke carded a second round 73 to end hopes of a weekend at The Greenbrier Classic having signed for an opening round of 71 at The Old White TPC to finish outside the cut line.
Bill Hurley though provided his own fireworks at The Greenbrier Classic, shooting a bogey-free 63 that propeled him to the top of the leaderboard at 9 under.
The only military veteran currently playing on the PGA TOUR owned a one-stroke advantage over Kevin Chappell and Chris Stroud when he polished off the lowest round of his 2014 season. The significance of the day and what he accomplished in the scenic Alleghany Mountains was not lost on Hurley, either.
"Anytime you play good, it's great; right?" he said with a smile. "But certainly, there's special days of the year for our country, and ... being the only person playing this week who has served (in the military) ... it adds kind of stuff. So it's kind of pretty cool, I guess, to shoot 7 under on the Fourth of July."
And just as Hurley's military roots run deep, so do those of The Greenbrier, a sprawling, 710-room resort decked out in abundant red-white-and-blue bunting and nestled in the lush and verdant West Virginia mountains.
The resort, which has hosted 26 U.S. Presidents, changed hands between Conferedate and Union forces during the Civil War, and served as an army hospital during World War II. German and Japanese diplomats were interned here, too, and a top-secret facility to house Congress in the event of a nuclear attack was built at The Greenbrier during the Cold War.
So the synergy between the lieutenant and the location could not be missed on Friday.
By the time he reached junior high school, Hurley had known he wanted to attend the Naval Academy. It was the only college he applied to -- and luckily, he was admitted.
"Just kind of fell in love with the Naval Academy, and the tradition, honor, courage, commitment, all the ideals and the whole place really," he said. "It was definitely the right school for me."
Hurley was a talented golfer when he got to Annapolis, where he still lives, now with his wife and two sons. But as he is quick to point out, Hurley wasn't exactly an teenage phenom who would be putting a golf career on hold while he fulfilled his five-year service obligation after graduation.
"I obviously became a very nice player in college, but it wasn't like one of those sure things, like some of the guys out here who were pretty much going to be out here since they were 17 years old," he explained.
By the time he was a senior at the Naval Academy, though, Hurley was the No. 2-ranked amateur in the country. He graduated in 2004 with a degree in quantitative economics and began to think a career in golf might be a possibility after he got out of the Navy.
"That said, golf was completely a secondary kind of thing," Hurley said. "I was a naval officer first, and if you ask the people that I served with, they'd say that's for sure."
Hurley was first stationed on the USS Gettysburg in Mayport, Fla. But after six months, the Navy moved him off the ship so he could play amateur golf in what was a successful attempt to make the 2005 U.S. Walker Cup team. He turned pro in March of 2006 while still on active duty and took advantage of sponsor's exemptions and Monday qualifiers to play in six PGA TOUR events, making two cuts.
Hurley petitioned the Navy to allow him to be released and transfer to the Reserves, not unlike David Robinson did. The NBA great, who was 2 inches above the height limit when he was admitted to the Naval Academy, was placed in a Reserves program to train civil engineers and only had to serve a two-year commitment after he graduated.
But Hurley's request was not accepted, so in July of 2007, he was transferred to the USS Chung Hoon, which was stationed in Pearl Harbor. During that time, Hurley calls himself "recreational golfer," averaging a round of golf a month during the two years he served on the 10,000-ton guided missle destroyer.
Hurley was deployed twice, spending time in the Persian Gulf, protecting Iraqi oil platforms, as well as the Red Sea and South China Sea. The highlight was being the officer on the deck and driving the destroyer through the Suez Canal.
"(That) was awesome," Hurley said, grinning.
Once he completed his Naval commitment in 2009, Hurley spent about 18 months on the mini-tours before getting his Web.com Tour card for the 2011 season. A year later, after finishing 25th on the Web.com Tour money list, Hurley was a PGA TOUR rookie.
Hurley, who said the military taught him discipline and time management skills he now applies to his golf career, had two top-10 finishes on TOUR in 2012 but finished 151st on the money list. So he spent one more year on the Web.com Tour before regaining his TOUR card.
The 2014 campaign has been much more successful for Hurley, who posted his third top-10 of the season last week at the Quicken Loans National. The tournament, which is held at Congressional Country Club and hosted by Tiger Woods, has a strong military presence -- and Hurley has carried over the momentum this week.
"It's awesome," said Stroud, who played with Hurley on Friday and shot a 65. "... He went to the military and took off three, four, five years of golf and comes out and gets his game back and gets on TOUR.
"There's a lot to be said about that. He couldn't be a more solid guy."
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