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Golfers work the course at Pro-Am
Published 8/2/2009 in Pro-Am
By KEVIN THOMPSON
End of July. Buffalo Dunes. Pro-Am time. A little bit of wind.
It's that special time of year when the course yields low scores for those who play well and punishes those who make mistakes.
Fourteen professionals played well enough to break par Friday under varying conditions, led by Rich Morris and Clay Ogden shooting 68 and Zen Brown, Mark Walker and Clay Devers firing 69s.
Morris was 3-under through the first six holes -- the back nine for him -- in the morning, and pulled out a highlight birdie on his final hole to take the lead just before the afternoon groups teed off.
Morris' final hole was a hybrid club into a bunker. He hit a wedge out of the sand that had eyes for the flag as it hit the pin and dropped just inches from the cup. His tap-in birdie put an exclamation point on his round.
"I drove it really well," he said. "I hit lots of 3-woods and kept it in play."
The light wind on the first three holes was great, Morris said, but after that, it started gusting and stayed the rest of the round.
"I usually don't play into the wind pumping 25 miles per hour. I'm used to swirling winds," he said.
Ogden, of Utah, brought in a 68 late in the day, a round started with a couple of bogeys on the back nine.
He made birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 to get back to even par and parred until No. 2, when he knocked in a putt from the fringe for a birdie.
That seemed to get him going as he birdied holes 4, 5 and 7, all into the wind.
"I hit it really well today," Ogden said. "On a day like this, with this much wind, you have to hit it solid. I played pretty solid. I didn't make many mistakes after the first two holes."
Devers' 69 in the afternoon was a feat made more remarkable considering his three bogeys to start the round. But he kept his focus and turned around the play.
"I just started pounding my driver down the middle really well," he said. "Then I started L-wedging it to five or six feet."
He said he hit driver on every driving hole and he hit it straight.
On the par-three eighth hole -- his 17th of the day -- he found the bunker but got up and down for par.
Going into Saturday's round, both Morris and Ogden say their mindset for Southwind isn't any different.
"I'm just going to try to do everything the same. It's a beast of a golf course," Morris said.
Morris has played Southwind often, both as an amateur and now in his fourth Pro-Am.
And he knows that he needs to stay out of the thick stuff there.
"As much rain as we've had, I've got to keep it in the fairways," he said. "That stuff is dense."
Derek Tolan and Jeremy Leaderer shot 2-under 70s.
Seven golfers -- Shawn Jasper, Chris Thompson, Scott Peterson, Bryan Buie, Ryan Deutsch, Jesse Schulte and Mike Troyer -- shot 71.
Four golfers, including Garden City's Walker Frey, shot even-par 72.
Leaderer's round included an eagle on 13. Using the wind to his advantage, he drove the ball long, hit his second shot 9-iron to within a foot of the cup and knocked it in.
"I hit it pretty well today," Leaderer said. "It's always tough to pull the right club when it's blowing 25. I played conservative off the tee and tried to stay on the wide part of the fairway."
Tolan, from Denver, was the early leader at 70. Besides one practice round, this was his first time around Buffalo Dunes.
"It's set up really well for the wind. You've got to hit some really good shots. There are some holes with doglegs where the wind blows opposite. It's a course that separates the golfers playing well from the ones who aren't," the 23-year-old first-year pro said.
The 7:43 amateur group of Andy King, Nick Hatcher, Kevin Brittain, Jim Littell and Steve Chambers took advantage of a period of calm conditions as they fired a 17-under 55, scoring birdies on 15 of 18 holes, including an eagle on each side.
Maybe playing with professional Jay Osmon was a good omen for the group. Osmon holds the second-lowest recorded score of 17-under, set in 2007 in Alamosa, Colo.
The group birdied their first three holes, parred the par-3 fourth, birdied the fifth, then got their eagle on the par-4 no. 6.
They finished the front side birdie-birdie-birdie for a 9-under 27.
Their back-nine scorecard was all three's, save for a four on the par-5 16th. They got their second eagle on the par-five No. 13 en route to a 28.
"We basically made every putt. It was a team effort," King said of his group's performance. Most of their putts were within 10 feet, he said, and that made things easier for his team.
Osmon helped them out on the par-four 11th when he sank a snaking putt from 70 feet out for birdie, King said.
The first group off in the morning of Kent Colvin, Kelly Hill, David Watkins, Larry Eakes and Greg Brown fired a 58. They got the cool temperatures and light breeze early, Colvin said, but by the start of the back nine the wind had kicked up, affecting their shots by one or two clubs.
"The greens were tough, too," Colvin said. "If you did not get the ball below the hole, you were basically putting from a defensive position. Fortunately for us, several of them fell in," he joked.
His group shot six-under on the front side and eight-under on the back, which he attributed to great putting.
Also shooting 58 was a late group of Neil Hawley, Cody Leonard, Jeff Colburn, Brian Rose and Ken Snook.
"We played great as a team," Leonard said. "No one stood out. One guy would hit a drive, another guy would hit a second shot. One of us would always come through with a good shot."
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