Drenth overcomes elements to take Short Hills Am lead

Jun 28, 2008 09:40PM

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By Ryan Sergeant, rsergeant@qconline.com

For Dusty Drenth, Saturday's opening round of the Quad City Amateur Tour stop at Short Hills Country Club reassured him that no matter the conditions, he can shoot a good score.

Drenth, a former Bettendorf High School standout and St. Ambrose University junior-to-be, leads the 78-player field after opening with a 2-under par 70. That gave him a four-shot advantage heading into today's final round.

Whether it was the recent project on the front-nine greens or the 35 mph wind gusts, scores were relatively high on Saturday afternoon. That being said, Drenth has quite the pack chasing him from behind.

Winner of two events already this season, Chris Wilkins leads the list of players at 2-over par 74. Joining him was the threesome of former Pleasent Valley standout Andrew Townsend, SAU teammate Adam White and Bob McCloskey. QCAm Tour veteran Tim Flaherty is one behind that pack at 75.

"I've always been a good wind player," said Drenth. "I'm a grinder. I made some putts coming in, got in a groove and went with it.

"I did pretty much everything well. I didn't do anything superior. The best thing for me was having Ana caddy for me. We just had a blast."

Drenth gave away caddie duties to former Rock Island High School standout and current Iowa State player Ana North. He noted that they were playing golf together last week and she volunteered to help him out.

Originally, Dusty's dad, Mark (a good golfer himself), was going to take over on the bag for today, but now he admitted he's rethinking that decision. Whatever the case, as long as he is in that same groove, there may be no one that can catch him.

Tight race for the seniors: Bob Moeller and Ron Rode led the senior division after firing 4-over-par 76s Saturday afternoon. Giving chase were Preston Boyd and Carlos Salaber with 78s. The trio of Dan Dalziel, Fred Lukasik and Dave Waugh are just three shots back at 79.

The seniors will lead off today's final-round action at 8 a.m.

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