Johnson, Combs hope to run away

Kyle Kelly did a masterful job of putting the extraordinarily low scoring in this year’s $120,000 Rosauers Open Invitational in perspective Saturday afternoon at Indian Canyon Golf Course.

“I’ve got to find some other tournaments to play in,” the assistant pro at Spokane Golf & Country Club said. “I shoot 11 under par, and I’m getting lapped.”

Lapped? Not quite.

But after tacking a solid second-round total of 3-under-par 68 onto Friday’s opening-round 63, Kelly still found himself in third place – five strokes behind leader Scott Johnson and three back of defending champion Michael Combs – heading into today’s final round of the nation’s richest PGA sectional.

Johnson, in only his second year as the head professional at Horn Rapids Golf Club in Richland, used an eagle-3 on the second hole and seven birdies to offset a bogey on the easy par-4 7th and post his second-consecutive round of 8-under 63. He enters today’s final round at a 36-hole tournament-record low of 16-under 126.

“Obviously, I’m hitting it pretty good,” said the 30-year-old Johnson, who three-putted both the 287-yard 7th and the 267-yard 17th – which he drove – and still finished 8 strokes under par. “Plus, I made all of my 5-foot putts and a few 10-footers.”

Which means Combs, who is at 14-under 128 after matching Friday’s opening-round 64 on Saturday, and Kelly will both have some work to do if they hope to reel in Johnson.

The three will be paired in today’s final threesome, which tees off at 11:30 a.m. But none seems to care about the intriguing pairing, because they all realize that the secret to playing well on the Canyon’s tight and hilly 6,255-yard layout, is more about playing the golf course than playing your nearest competitor.

“Obviously, Mike (Combs) is the favorite,” Johnson said. “I mean, he’s won this thing twice already. So all I’m going to do is to keep trying to put the ball in play off the tee, hit it to the right spots on the greens a make a few putts. If I can do that, I should be alright.”

Combs, a teaching pro at Canyon Lakes Golf Course in Kennewick, said he never looks at the leaderboard and insists today’s final pairing and the comparative scores of those who comprise it, won’t affect his approach to the final 18 holes.

“I don’t ever hit a ton of drivers and play overly aggressive on this course, anyway,” he said. “Most of the decisions I’ll have to make tomorrow, I’ve already made.”

Kelly said his final-round strategy is centered on making a few more putts, rather that worrying about what his playing partners might do.

After starting on the back nine on Saturday and making bogies on both the par-5 12th and par-4 14th, Kelly settled down and played magnificently until the final three holes when he lipped out three birdie putts, including a 4-footer on the par-3 eighth.

“After five holes, if you’d have come and said I could take 68 and run, I’d have done it,” said Kelly, one of five former players on the now-defunct Eastern Washington University golf team who are at 138 or lower, “because I was going backward in a hurry.”

Kelly’s bogey at the 536-yard 12th resulted from an errant 3-iron approach that drifted right into the trees and forced him to hit this third shot sideways.

“It was an ugly, ugly bogey,” he said.

Combs also made a messy bogey at No. 8, but compensated with eagle-3s at No. 2 and No. 12.

“It was kind of funny,” he said of his second-consecutive 64. “I missed a couple of 6- to 8-footers today, and I didn’t really miss any of those yesterday. But I did make those two eagles, so … “

Bob Rannow, the head pro at Sandpines Golf Links in Florence, Ore., and Ryan Benzel, from Seattle Golf Club, both fired second-round 65s on Saturday and are at 132, a stroke ahead of Matt Bunn, the head pro at The Highlands and another former EWU standout, past champion Jeff Coston and Bellevue amateur Logan Toskey.

Rannow’s round was sullied by a nasty double-bogey at No. 5, where he hit his approach shot over the green into the bushes and lost his ball.

“I was rolling right along until No. 5,” he explained. “I caught a flier lie on my approach and it just kept going and going.”

But Rannow atoned for his mistake by making an eagle-3 on the par-5 18th and will be paired with Bunn and Benzel in today’s second-to-last threesome.

Bunn, who opened with a 66, shot a second-round 67 that could have been a lot lower.

“I actually hit it better today than yesterday,” said Bunn, who aced the par-3 8th during Friday’s opening round. “I hit good approach shots on 12, 13 and 14 and didn’t make any of those (putts). But I still haven’t made a bogey in two days, and on this course and in this tournament, that’s probably as important as anything.”