Upham leads going into final round of Rosauers Open
The winds stayed down during Saturday’s second round of the $135,000 Rosauers Open Invitational golf tournament at Indian Canyon Golf Course.
And so did the scores of amateur Cody Upham and local professional Mark Gardner, who were among the few competitors who found a way to deal with the severe weather conditions that disrupted play and raised general havoc during the midafternoon stages of Friday’s opening round.
Upham, a 23-year-old Portland-area amateur and former member of the University of Washington golf team, tacked a 6-under-par 65 onto Friday’s near-flawless 62 to post a 36-hole total of 127. He increased his lead over Gardner, the head professional at The Creek at Qualchan, to two strokes heading into today’s final round of the 54-hole Pacific Northwest PGA event.
Gardner, who sits 13 strokes under par at 129 on the 6,255-yard, par-71 Canyon layout, lost ground, despite backing up his opening-round 63 with a solid 5-under 66.
Past champion Todd Erwin, after shooting 67, is two more strokes back at 131, followed by Ryan Benzel, another past champ, who finished at 132 after matching Upham’s 65.
Three golfers are tied at 133 and four more, including defending champion Jeff Coston and Tim Morton, the head professional at Prairies Fall Golf Course, are another shot back at 134.
Coston, when asked where he thought his so-so round of 2-under 69 had left him, said, “Eating dust.”
Upham fashioned the lowest round of the tournament on Friday, despite an afternoon tee time that put him in the middle of the wind, rain and lightning storm that forced PNWPGA officials to suspend play for almost two hours. He started slowly in the second round and made the turn at 34 – six strokes more than the 28 he shot on the front nine Friday.
But he turned things around by making birdie on the first three holes on the back nine and closed with birdies on 17 and 18 to finish with an impressive 31.
“Yesterday, I knew the storm was coming, so I went out and tried to make a bunch of early birdies, which I did,” said Upham, a left-hander, who is playing in only his second Rosauers. “Today I got off to a slow start, but I was able to make a couple of birdies coming in and turn an OK round into a good round.
“I actually felt like I hit the ball better today, but yesterday I made every putt. Today, it was important to just stay patient, because you feel like you can birdie every hole out there on this course.”
Gardner used a torrid start to fuel his second round and said he “thought I was going to shoot 20” on the front nine after making an eagle on the par-5 second and playing the first five holes five strokes under par. But he birdied only one hole the rest of the way and on No. 10 “hit it in my favorite spot” in the trees to the left and made the first of his two back-nine bogeys.
“I’ve been hitting it really well,” Gardner said. “It’s just a matter of being able to keep the putter going.”
Upham knows the seasoned pros biting at his heels probably like their chances of chasing down a leader with an “(a)” in front of his name, but insists he won’t treat today’s final round any different than the first two.
“It’s just another round of golf,” he said. “The only thing I can control is how I play, and if I hit the ball and putt like I have the last two days … well, we’ll just have to see what happens.”
Coston, a two-time Rosauers champion, was playing well until he hit what he thought was a decent shot into the par-3 11th green, only to watch it bounce over the green, from where he made the first of three straight bogies.
“I made some mistakes today,” he said. “After that approach on 11, I kind of fell asleep for the next two holes. I’m happy I made birdies on the last two holes, because right before that I said I was going to starve myself tonight.
“Now, I can eat – but it might just be salad.”
The field was cut to the low 65 professionals and all amateurs within that range following the second round. Today’s final group threesome of Upham, Gardner and Erwin will tee off at 11:30 a.m.