“We both came out of the blocks strong, but it was kind of knick and knack the whole way. He played really well and I finished 14 and 15 birdie, birdie, that was for 8 birdies for the day and no bogeys so I was pretty happy with how I played, he played really good but just caught me on the wrong round,” Hopewell said.

“We had it planned from the start to make the change. Connor (McKinney), has been playing so well in the past couple months, I think it was only fair to give both of us a crack at number one and yeah, my form is pretty nice so I’m pretty pleased.”

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