After last year ended in heartbreak at Q-School, Bryson Nimmer couldn’t have asked for a better start to 2022.
The 25-year-old Bluffton native took full advantage of his Monday-qualifying success to score his best PGA Tour finish yet Sunday, shooting a 12-under 276 capped off by a scorching final-round 65 to finish in a tie for 11th place at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic. It’s his second made cut in as many attempts on the PGA Tour this year and was the highest finish by any Monday qualifier this season.
After earning the opportunity to enter the field back on March 7, Nimmer hit the ground running Thursday with a seven-birdie performance to card an opening 70. He cooled off a bit on Friday with an even-par 72, but it was still more than enough to secure his second PGA Tour cut in as many tries. Despite a rough 3-over back nine, Nimmer made a quartet of clutch birdies on the front side to punch his ticket to the weekend in a tie for 38th place.
But the Lowco product had his sights set even higher. He found the red figures again on moving day, racking up three birdies on the front nine before staying the course the rest of the way and taking advantage of the par-five 14th for a 3-under 69. Sitting right inside the top 30 with 18 holes to play, Nimmer saved his best round of the weekend for last.
On a day that could turn into a career momentum-builder, Nimmer put it all together Sunday to conjure up a blistering 7-under 65. He was impeccable from tee to green, completing a bogey-free round with three consecutive birdies starting at the fourth hole and adding another on the eighth before finishing strong with a 3-under back nine to shoot the second-lowest score of the day.
It looked like his red-hot final round would be good enough to jump into a top-10 finish and send himself to next week’s Valero Texas Open, but some late moves on the leaderboard pushed Nimmer down to a tie for 11th.
The luck may have not been on his side at the end, but Nimmer will head back home with a lot to be proud of and should be in the mix to play at Harbour Town Golf Links for the 54th RBC Heritage in two weeks’ time. Nimmer made his Heritage debut on a sponsor’s exemption in 2021, finishing strong with a 3-under 68 after falling out of contention on Thursday.
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