Double delight for Hurley after police locate his father

[August 01, 2015]  (Reuters) - American Billy Hurley III had double cause to celebrate on Friday when he made the cut at the Quicken Loans National in Virginia, then learned that his father had been found by police after going missing 12 days earlier.

Hurley sank a four-footer to par his final hole, the 18th, for a one-under-par 70 in the second round at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville to make the cut right on the number at two-under 140.

As he walked off the 18th green, he was informed by a PGA Tour security official that his father, Willard Hurley Jr., had been located earlier in the day in Texarkana, Texas after mysteriously driving away from his home in his truck on July 19.

"So my dad's been found. He's alive and well and in Texas," Hurley, who on Tuesday had made an emotional appeal for help in tracking down his father, told Golf Channel.

"We just wanted to say thank you very much for helping us find him --- the public, the law enforcement, all the media throughout the country. Ironically he was found in a public library watching me play golf on a computer."

Hurley, a 33-year-old Naval Academy graduate who served as a U.S. Navy officer for five years, realized that news about his father was likely when he noticed a television cameraman following him during the second round.

"I knew something was going on," he grinned. "I was trying to make the cut and I am being followed by a TV camera."

Now that his father has been located after going missing from his home in Leesburg, Virginia, Hurley will try to put the emotion of this week behind him as he competes over the weekend.

"I did make the cut so I think that I will try and continue to play," said the American, who has recorded just one top-10 in 25 starts on the 2014-15 PGA Tour, a tie for eighth at the CIMB Classic in November.

"This is kind of a weird time where I don't really have the luxury to take a week off as far as keeping my (PGA Tour) card and all that stuff. I'll try and finish this week and hope that dad's watching some more."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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