An Elite Club
Olpe’s Tanner Coble makes adjustment on 2nd day, becomes only area golfer to make cut at Junior Amateur
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, June 21, 2007
A club change from a day earlier perhaps made the biggest difference for Olpe’s Tanner Coble, who survived as the lone area golfer to make the cut after the second round of the Kansas Junior Amateur Golf Championships Wednesday afternoon.
After a first round on Tuesday in which Coble said he needed to “work on his chipping,” he made the switch from a sand wedge to a gap wedge around the greens at the Emporia Municipal Golf Course, and the results were favorable.
Though he said his putting accuracy dipped somewhat, Coble still managed to improve his second-round score by one shot, firing off a 2-over 73 to finish Day Two in a tie for 11th in the 18-year-old age group.
The low 15 scores plus ties and any score within 10 strokes of the leader in each age group made the cut to today’s round.
“Chipping was a big factor,” said Coble, who finished with a two-day score of 147, 10 shots back of Overland Park’s Kyle Smell. “I practiced last night after my round, and I felt that really helped. I went to a different club around the greens ... and I felt like I was striking the ball better.”
As such, Coble advanced to today’s third and final round, where he will try to put together all the aspects of his game in hopes of moving up the leaderboard.
He said he knew it would be unrealistic to think about making up the 10-stroke difference separating him and Smell, so he said the focus today would be battling the conditions and focusing on his own game.
“If I can post a decent score, I think I can move up in the standings a little bit,” he said. “I’ll need to battle the wind — I heard it’s supposed to be pretty windy — and if I want to move up the leaderboard, putting and iron shots will be big.”
The six other area golfers competing in the tournament did not fare as well as Coble, with some coming agonizingly close to making the cut-off score in their respective age divisions.
The closest was Emporia’s Bren Fisher, who posted a 4-over 75 to give him a two-day score of 149, putting him just one stroke away from making the cut at 148 in the 17-year-old age group.
“It’s pretty frustrating considering I had two putts from about a foot and a half that I missed,” Fisher said. “I hit the ball a lot better than I did (Tuesday), I just couldn’t make any putts. I probably hit 12-14 greens, I just couldn’t get any putts to fall. They just lipped out on me all day.”
“Consistent” was the word Emporia’s Eric Reimer used to describe his two days of golf, as he carded identical 5-over 76s on both days of the tournament to finish with a two-day score of 152, just four strokes off the cut in the 17-year-old group.
Nearly midway through his round Wednesday, it appeared Reimer was headed for a sure spot in today’s round.
He was 2-under par through six holes, but back-to-back bogeys on seven and eight dropped him to even, and after a par on the ninth hole, Reimer began the back nine with a double bogey on the par-3 10th.
From there, Reimer said, he was simply “trying to work back to get around even par.”
“I just got on a bogey streak,” Reimer said. “I couldn’t hit a green, and I just kept two-putting after my chips. I just couldn’t get it close enough.”
Also in the 17-year-old category, Fletcher Harder of Emporia finished with a two-day score of 155 (13 over) and Matt McAnarney, also of Emporia, carded a 158 (16 over).
In the 14-year-old age group, Chad Schmidt of Olpe finished with a 192, and in the 16-year-old group, Zach Young of Emporia totaled a 173 over the two days.
Today’s third round was set to begin at 8 a.m., with the awards ceremony following the completion of the final round.
Kansas Junior Amateur
Championships
Emporia Municipal Golf Course
Second Round
14-year-olds
T24. Chad Schmidt 100-92 192 (+50)
16-year-olds
T35. Zach Young 86-87 173 (+31)
17-year-olds
T16. Bren Fisher 74-75 149 (+7)
T26. Eric Reimer 76-76 152 (+10)
T36. Fletcher Harder 81-74 155 (+13)
T46. Matt McAnarney 80-78 158 (+16)
18-year-olds
T11. Tanner Coble 74-73 147 (+5)