Round 1: Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — For the third straight season, Billy Mayfair has come to the Children’s Miracle Network Classic on the outside looking in.

This year the challenge isn’t quite as great as it was the last two years. Mayfair is 127th on the money list — trailing the all-exempt bubble boy, James Driscoll, by just over $12,000.

Mayfair got himself headed in the right direction on Thursday, too, when he opened with a 68 at the Palm Course. The round of 4 under was just his second in the 60s in his last 16 rounds at Disney and left him two strokes off the lead. 

"I’ve played good the last four weeks, since Vegas, and played well last week and finished good (tied for 20th)," the five-time PGA TOUR champ said. " So I got a lot of confidence. … Just got to go out tomorrow and see what I can do."

Mayfair says a player can never really can banish thoughts of finishing outside the top 125 on the money list and losing his card. But you can’t obsess about it.

Besides, there are other options. When he finished 142nd on the money list last year, Mayfair went back to q-school to improve his place in the pecking order and ended up finishing as the medalist.

"You just go out there and you try to make this as a normal tournament here,’ Mayfair said. "… So I think once you tee off and get going out there, you just try to get into the heat of the moment.
   
"Sure, I want to play well and get my card, but still want to try to win this week. That’s your goal. That’s what we’re really doing here. We all have little goals and all that stuff, but you don’t put it out of your mind.
   
"But if you start playing good, it’s a lot easier, that’s for sure."