Remember former U.S. Amateur runner-up Derek Bard? He just Monday-qualified for Houston Open

It’s been nearly a decade since the best stretch of Derek Bard’s golf career.

Bard was a standout at the University of Virginia when he finished runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the 2015 U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields, where Bard’s run to the final included victories over Sepp Straka, Davis Riley and Jon Rahm. That next year he competed in the Masters and U.S. Open, and despite missing the cut in both, he turned pro the following summer with plenty of optimism after amassing 18 top-10s, including three wins, for the Cavaliers.

Bard was a former teammate of PGA Tour veteran Denny McCarthy, but Bard, now 29, is still waiting for his big-league breakthrough after years of grinding in the minors.

McCarthy is ranked No. 36 in the world rankings.

Bard? Try No. 2,162.

And yet, Bard’s fortunes could finally change this week at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, which Bard qualified for on Monday with a 10-under 62 at Westwood Golf Club to earn his first PGA Tour start since the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship.

Bard will be joined in this week's field at Memorial Park by three other Monday qualifiers – Wilson Furr (62), a former Alabama standout who lost his PGA Tour card after his rookie season last year; Pierceson Coody (64), part of Texas' 2022 NCAA title squad who also failed to keep his PGA Tour card as a rookie last season; and Charlie Reiter (65), the long-hitting San Diego product who prevailed in a 4-for-1 playoff.

“I’ve always believed I could do this, that has never left,” he told Monday Q Info’s Ryan French last winter after advancing to the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School after a five-year hiatus.

Though Bard, who also got married last November, didn’t earn guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, he did get into the Argentina Open earlier this year and made the cut, his first weekend on the KFT since the 2018 Club Colombia Championship.

While playing a full GPro Tour schedule the last couple years, Bard worked outside services at Atlantic Beach Country Club outside of Jacksonville, Florida, to help fund his golf career. That same club is home to 16-year-old phenom Miles Russell, who won again last weekend at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, as well as last year’s U.S. Amateur medalist, a 39-year-old landman by the name of Jimmy Ellis.

Consider Bard’s career, at least right now, firmly in between those two extremes.

“He’s a gritty competitor,” McCarthy said last fall at the RSM Classic. “Things really haven’t gone his way in pro golf. … I know he thought about possibly giving it up a time or two, so for him to stick through it this long and get to this point is really impressive; it’s not easy to do.”

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Remember former U.S. Amateur runner-up Derek Bard? He just Monday-qualified for Houston Open

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