By
Tom Johnston, tjohnston@qconline.com
With bogeys in his first three holes of the Short Hills Country Club Amateur
golf tournament, Steve Schwabe could have very easily packed it in nearly as quickly
as Saturday's first round started.
Instead, the
On a day when the greens were tough, the breezes tricky and trouble lurked
on seemingly every hole, Schwabe's was the only round
under par. In fact, of the 54-player championship flight field, only 21 players
shot 79 or better.
Heading into today's final 18 holes, veterans held the top two spots as the
usually steady Tom Miler shot an even-par 72 in a round that included two
double bogeys. Dan Fisher, playing with Schwabe,
loomed two back after his round of four bogeys and three birdies left him at
1-over 73. Pieter Hanson and Greg Rios came in with 74s. Mike Jump and
That Schwabe was near -- or at -- the top of the
first-round leaderboard shouldn't have been a
surprise; he's been lurking there almost the entire NCB Am Tour just about all
season.
Even he didn't seem to be surprised being under-par despite the inauspicious
start. He wasn't about to panic despite having to get an up-and-down from the
bunker on No. 3 (opening on No. 18 in the shotgun start) to snap that streak.
``I was just thinking try not to make any more bogeys and get to the meat of
the back nine where you can make some birdies,'' said Schwabe.
``That, and it's a 36-hole tournament. I don't think
you can lose it in the first three holes; you can put yourself a little farther
behind the 8-ball than you want, though.''
He did, admittedly, make it tougher on himself with that start. And that
forced him to grind things out the final 15 holes. He closed the front nine
with birdies on holes 8 and 9, but gave those two back with bogeys on the par-3
11th and par-4 12th. Then he hit ``the meat'' of the back nine and finished
four under in his last four holes. After birdieing
the par-3 14th, he made it back-to-back deuces with a chip-in on the 267-yard
par-4 15th. He then birdied the par-5 17th.
Miler doesn't usually stray too far from par on any hole, but ran into his
share of troubles on the back nine with doubles on 10 and 18 -- the closing
hole one that took its toll on many in the field. But Miler, winner of the 2001
Quad City Amateur, answered with five birdies to help offset one other bogey.
Schwabe was surprised to be sleeping on the
18-hole lead, figuring his early posted score wouldn't stand. There were others
trying to make their runs, but ended up de-railed along the way. Among those
was Rios, who made a run at last week's Riverboat Days tournament title. He was
3-under after five holes (starting on No. 4), but had five bogeys, a double and
two birdies in his final 13 holes.
Jump, who went toe-to-toe with Tyler Swanson for last year's Player of the
Year honors, wasn't able to make anything exciting happen as his back nine 36
consisted of all pars.
-- Seniors: Bill Brewster had an exciting run to his share of the
18-hole lead in the senior flight. He ran into trouble on the par-5 9th hole,
carding a 9 for an outward 42. He responded with a 32 on the back to tie Ed
Dooley at 74, both one shot ahead of Ron Rode.