Kevin Hall fired an eight-under-par 63 to sweep past the competition and register his first APGA Tour victory in three years on Tuesday, July 20, in Illinois during the final round of APGA Tour Deere Run at the PGA TOUR-owned TPC Deere Run.
Hall came from six strokes back by fashioning a bogey-free round that included five birdies for a back-nine 31 to triumph by four strokes over Kamaiu Johnson of Tallahassee and Oviedo, Florida, Mahindra Lutchman of Orlando, Florida, and Marcus Byrd of Knoxville, Tennessee. The 38-year-old Hall, a former Big 10 Champion from Cincinnati, posted a score of 73-63-136 in a performance reminiscent of his 2004 Big Ten Tournament individual title, which he won by 11 strokes.
In late June, Hall finished second to APGA Tour star Tim O’Neal in The John Shippen, narrowly missing an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. The John Shippen is a unique event established by a consortium of golf industry-related organizations to identify historical barriers and expand Black representation in golf. Hall was the APGA Tour Player of the Year in 2016 and has started numerous PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour events as an exemption over the years, including the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Courtesy APGA Tour
“I’m just trying to stay calm and play my own game,” said Hall, who became deaf at age two when treatment for meningitis left him with permanent hearing loss. “I try to take what the golf course gives me each and every round. In other words, I’m keeping things simple.” Hall, who won APGA Tour Chicago in 2018, earned the first-place prize money of $7,500 from the purse of $25,000.
Hall was notably celebrated by the golf community when CBS Sports asked him to introduce The Masters broadcast in 2020. His sign language offering illustrated the powerful allure of the iconic major, which would be without its signature roaring crowds at Augusta because of the global pandemic. The 2:44 second video was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award.
First-round co-leaders Seth Arthur of Paducah, Kentucky, and Wyatt Worthington of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, both slipped to seventh place just behind DeVaughn Robinson of Houston and Michael Herrera of Moreno Valley, California tied for fifth. The second best round Tuesday was turned in by Marcus Manley of Kissimmee, Florida. He registered a five-under-par 66 that included seven birdies and a double-bogey.
The Lexus Cup and the APGA Tour Player of the Year title will be up for grabs August 9-10. The Lexus Cup is the APGA Tour season’s final event, contested at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia. Byrd leads the Lexus Cup Standings with 1,497 points and Ryan Alford, Landon Lyons, Rovonta Young, Johnson, Hall and Willie Mack are all within striking distance.
The next event on the APGA Tour schedule is the newly-minted Billy Horschel APGA Tour Invitational presented by Cisco, set for July 29-31 in Jacksonville, Florida. The special event will bring together 18 top APGA Tour competitors at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for tournament play and career development programs in an initiative hosted by the six-time PGA TOUR winner.
