IVINS, Utah – David Ford admits he might have thought about his second-round restart on Saturday morning at the Bank of Utah Championship just a hair too much. After leaving Black Desert Resort on Friday evening on a bit of a low note – he was on No. 12 when the horn blew due to darkness and finished with a bogey at 12 – he thought he had shaken it off.

“I felt okay about that one,” the 23-year-old Ford said of the bogey. “I hit not a great tee shot; made a fine bogey; slept on it fine.”

But when he opened his eyes the next day, his mind wandered right to the treacherous tee shot he was set to face when play resumed. No. 13 – a 519-yard par 4 – is playing as the hardest hole on the golf course this week, but Ford striped a 292-yard drive down the middle and thought he was off on the right foot.

“I was thankful to hit the fairway on 13,” he said. “I slept great, but I was thinking about that when I woke up – just a tee shot with water and lava.”

But after coming up short on his second shot, Ford proceeded to three-putt for a double bogey and found himself four shots behind clubhouse leader Michael Brennan. That’s when the recent No. 1 on the 2025 PGA TOUR University Ranking regrouped and reeled off four birdies over his last five holes to finish tied for the lead at 10 under.

“I don't think I've missed inside 8 feet. If I have, doesn't feel like I have,” said Ford, who earned his PGA TOUR card through 2026 via his U Ranking. “… Everything is working decently well, but the putter has been especially the bright spot for me.”

Ford has made nine TOUR starts since earning his card, but missed the cut in his first five events before making his first cut in July at the 3M Open. Two more missed cuts followed before notching his next weekend appearance – at the Sanderson Farms Championship earlier in October, where he finished T44.

“This whole summer I think my results don't show how good I was playing, and especially how good I was driving it,” he said. “So it's just getting comfortable and getting my feet under me. It's a new environment but reminding myself that the game is still the same.”

He’ll look to keep the momentum rolling when he tees off for the first time in the final group of a PGA TOUR event alongside Brennan, whom he calls a friend.

“We played a practice round this week,” Ford said of Brennan. “I was pumped to see him in the field. Obviously after seeing what he did in summer, it should be really fun. I know it's striping it, and his game looks great. I'm really excited. It's good to be out there with a friend, too.”