Neal Shipley is fortunate that his start in the inaugural Biltmore Championship Asheville is vastly better than how he began the 2026 PGA Tour season.
The popular pro from Pennsylvania shot a career-best, nine-under-par 62 on Friday at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove to get to 15 under and hold a four-shot lead late in the afternoon. The round couldn’t have started much better, as Shipley went birdie-birdie-eagle on the first three holes in shooting a front-nine 29.
The strong round followed Shipley’s opening 65, and he’s yet to make a bogey heading into an extremely important weekend. The 25-year-old, who first became nationally known during his runner-up finish in the 2023 U.S. Amateur and has since become a prominent pitchman for his club company, Ping, entered the Asheville event as a long shot to re-earn his card for 2027. He is 183rd in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, with the top 100 after the eight fall events getting full-time status.
Now, if he were to win, Shipley would rocket up to 74th.
“Pumped for the weekend. It’s always great to be in this position,” Shipley said. “It’s what you work really hard for. I’ve been focused on trying to win this year and we’re in a great position to do so. Just got to take care of businesses and keep doing what we been doing.”
A year ago, Shipley won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour and finished fourth in the points standings to earn his PGA Tour card. But he got off to a rough start to the ’26 season, missing nine of the first 10 cuts. And even when Shipley reached the weekend, he didn’t contend once in 20 appearances, with a T-38 in Myrtle Beach in May.
In a remarkable juxtaposition of stats in the regular season, Shipley topped the tour in strokes gained/off-the tee but was outside the top 120 in SG/total, SG/approach, SG/putting.
“I had a great year last year. Had a great start to my pro career,” Shipley said. “Yeah, just kind of start of the [2026] season wasn’t really what we wanted. Been kind of clawing back to get my game back where it should be.
“I feel like a lot of that work is finally showing. It’s weird. Golf is one of those sports where you don’t get instant gratification. You got to work for a long time to see results.
“I feel like I’m seeing kind of the fruits of that labor, and really pumped about where we are right now. Had a lot of great experiences in my amateur career and throughout my professional career that have prepared me to be in this situation, so really excited for it.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
