Byrne Staves Off Elimination, Moves To Episode 8 Of Big Break Indian Wells

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Filled with excitement, suspense and nerve racking moments, former Titan David Byrne saw his championship hopes come down to a playoff, but the 2010 Horizon League golfer of the year was able to avoid elimination on episode 7 of the Golf Channel's reality television show Big Break Indian Wells.

“The whole night was just a rollercoaster and I know what happened,” said Byrne. “I am grinder. I have always said that going into the show and never count me out. I am going to keep on fighting and grinding and we will see what happens here.”

Fans who missed last night's episode can catch the reruns a few times this week, starting with tonight at 8 p.m., and Thursday at 1 a.m. For more times when the episode will air, visit the Big Break Indian Wells website. The series airs on Monday's at 9 p.m. (EST), and episode 8 will be broadcast next Monday, July 4.

For the second time on the series, Byrne had to win an elimination challenge to stay on and this time his opposition was the previously eliminated Piri “Petey” Borja. He started the competition with a half stroke advantage because he was higher on the money list, but he spent half of his money to buy another half stroke.

The challenge was match play from three locations, the first from 120 yards out. Byrne won that hole after Borja missed a putt and he was up by two strokes with two holes to play. The second was from 162 yards out and Borja would get the best of that distance to cut Byrne's advantage to one. On the final hole, Byrne pulled his drive into the rough, but a great chip shot put him in position to take three on the hole as he eliminated Borja to put him in the final five for the last three episodes.

“I know that Petey was eliminated already and had a chance to come back on the show and a lot of people thought that was not fair, but honestly during that challenge, I was only thinking about winning,” said Byrne. “It is what it is and he was able to get back on the show and it was up to me to hit shots and stay on the show.”

The show started out with a head-to-head battle between the two guys at the bottom of the money list in John Lepak and Borja. Borja would win the bout sending Lepak home leaving six players remaining.

The six players would then split up into two teams with the top three players on the money list going against the bottom three. Byrne would join Borja and Robbie “Shank” Biershank as the immunity challenge put forth was for the team to tally as many points from three locations, drive, approach and bunker. Byrne actually scored just one point – on the “Approach” location – but his team fell 6-5 leaving those three players to move to the next immunity challenge.

“I felt that I hit some good shots. My bunker shot was really the exact same as the first groups, but to this day, I still don't know how it rolled that much,” added Byrne.

The next segment had the three players square off in a point system, but their points from the previous challenge carried over meaning Byrne trailed, 2-1, to both Borja and Biershank. The challenge was that the players were 175 yards away from the hole and they had three shots to tally as many points as possible by reaching the green. Biershank would send Byrne to the elimination by finding the green on all three of his shots. Borja would later join Byrne in that battle as he was unable to overtake Biershank.

The Big Break is a 10-episode series that was shot at Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, CA. It started with 11 contestants competing for a chance to earn as much as $55,000 in cash prizes as well as the grand prize of receiving an exemption to a 2012 PGA TOUR event, the Zurich classic of New Orleans. Other prizes for the winner include a paid trip for two back to the Indian Wells Golf Resort, an Adams golf endorsement deal, 10,000 cash, and a 10,000 Shopping spree to Dicks Sporting Goods.

(Release courtesy of DetroitTitans.com)