Mini-tour legend Michael Visacki of Sarasota and Chase Haygood of Orlando, both former University of Central Florida players, are atop the leaderboard on July 18 after the second round of the 80th Florida Open at the Longboat Key Club.
Visacki birdied three of his last six holes and shot 68 at the Harbourside Course and Haygood faltered after a quick start but still posted a 70 at the Links Course. The two are tied at 7-under-par 136, two shots ahead of 2012 Florida Open champion and past All-ACC player for Florida State, Chase Seiffert of Panama City (70, Links); past NCAA champion Matt Hill of Palm Beach Gardens (66, Links); and Tyler Gulliksen of Daytona Beach (70, Links).
The players return to the Harbourside Course on July 19 for the final round. The winner, if a professional, will earn $20,000 from a total purse of $125,00.
Visacki, who has won more than 50 mini-tour events and is the all-time leading money winner on the West Florida Tour, achieved notoriety in 2021 when he made a 20-foot birdie putt in a Monday qualifier playoff to earn a start in the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship. It remains his only Tour start.
Visacki has 10 Korn Ferry Tour starts and missed the cut this spring at the LECOM Suncoast Open.
“I made it.” ❤️
Michael Visacki fights back tears as he tells his father that he’s reached a lifelong goal of competing on the PGA TOUR.
He successfully Monday-Qualified for the @ValsparChamp. pic.twitter.com/5ci5L1KoLp
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 26, 2021
Haygood, a Daytona Beach resident who was second at UCF in scoring average as a senior in 2025-26, won the SeaBest Invitational in February at the Atlantic Beach Country Club.
Hill, a native of Canada, won the NCAA title in 2009 while at N.C. State and led the PGA Tour Canada in earnings in 2012.
Moses Compaan continues comeback from quadruple bogey
Moses Compaan of Jacksonville, playing out of the Bent Creek Golf Club, has rallied from a quadruple-bogey 8 at the par-3 third hole of the Links Course in the first round and shot 67 for a 2-under-141 and a tie for 13th, the low finish by a First Coast player.
Compaan managed to shoot 74 in the first round despite his quad, and responded to an early bogey at No. 13 of the Harbourside Course (he began the second round at No. 10) with birdies at Nos. 15, 16, 18, 1, 3 and 8.
Former University of North Florida player Kevin Aylwin (72, Links) is tied for 17th at 1-under. Bolles graduate and former Florida Gator A.J. Crouch (72, Harbourside) is tied for 19th at even-par.
Andrew McLauchlan of Neptune Beach (75, Links) is tied for 24th at 1-over with defending champion J.C. Deacon (72, Harbourside), the University of Florida golf coach.
Andrew Riley (75, Links), a Creekside and UNF graduate, and Emmet Kuhlenkamp of Fleming Island (72, Links) are tied for 35th at 2-over.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: It’s an All-Knight twosome at the top of the Florida Open leaderboard
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