Benzel in front at Rosauers

Ryan Benzel grew up in Ritzville and played collegiate golf for the University of Idaho. He considers the Rosauers Open Invitational something of a homecoming and he put on a pretty good show Friday for friends and family.

Benzel birdied the first three holes en route a bogey-free 7-under par 64 and the first-round lead of the 18th annual tournament at Indian Canyon Golf Course.

“It’s nice to come back to Spokane every year,” said Benzel, a 2001 UI grad who is an assistant pro at the Seattle Golf Club. “It’s fun to get to see some people, and my parents still live in Ritzville.”

The 26-year-old Benzel, a parade of young guns, and numerous perennial contenders combined to form an interesting leader board. Michael Combs, the 1996 and 2003 Rosauers champion, used an eagle-eagle finish to shoot 65. He was joined by Hayden Lake Country Club’s Kyle Kelly, Ferris High grad Craig Leslie, Bob Rannow and Tom Sovay, who lost in a playoff to Combs in 2003.

With nearly ideal weather and course conditions, the first day of the 54-hole event produced a bundle of low scores and 37 players within four shots of Benzel.

The Prugh brothers, Alex and Corey, each shot 66, one shot better than their father, Steve, the head pro at Manito. Todd Erwin, who won the 2000 Rosauers, Ronnie Espedal, Ken Jenson, Chris Griffin, John Kawasoe and Ryan Malby also had 66s.

A 14-player cluster at 67 included Portland’s Chris Mitchell, who won the Rosauers in 1989 and 1992, 2001 champ Casey McCoy, Indian Canyon’s Gary Lindeblad, The Fairways’ Jerry Zink, amateur Bill Witte from The Creek at Qualchan, Jarrod Batchelder of The Club at Black Rock and Clarkston High senior Joel Dahmen, who recently committed to play for the University of Washington.

Benzel started his round on No. 10, where he nearly holed his approach with a lob wedge from 80 yards. He followed that with a short birdie putt on 11 and a two-putt bird on the par-5 12th. He needed an up-and-down to save par on 17 before adding four birdies on his closing nine holes.

“Pretty much every hole out there you can make a birdie, but I’m trying not to worry about my score,” said Benzel, who is second on the Pacific Northwest PGA Section player of the year points list. “I just want to keep playing well.”

The Kennewick-based Combs was plodding along at 2-under after missing a four-foot birdie putt on No. 15 and a 2-foot par putt on 16.

“I needed quite a finish with the way I was playing,” Combs said.

Combs typically hits iron on No. 17, a 267-yard par 4 that entices many to go for the green off the tee. Combs, irritated after missing from short range on 16, chose 3-wood and came up 3 feet from the cup. He made that downhill putt and another slick 15-footer to eagle the par-5 18th.

“I was just lagging that putt down the hill but it just got on line,” Combs said. “Truth be told, I was lagging the 3-footer on 17, too.”

Leslie, 19, also finished strong with birdies on the last three holes, giving him eight for the round.

“I had two-putt birdies on all the par 5s,” said Leslie, who was a member of UCLA’s golf team last year but didn’t play in any varsity matches. “I was hitting my wedges great and giving myself 3- to 5-foot putts all day. I think my longest birdie was a 15-footer on No. 4.”

Kelly, 27, played the final three holes in 4-under, capped by a 20-foot eagle putt on 18.

“I hadn’t made anything all day and it just hung there on the left and on the last roll it turned over and went in. I’d been leaving everything short,” said Kelly, who shot 65 in the Pro-Am on Wednesday and Thursday. “That (65) is a pretty good number to be stuck on.”

Sovay, from Harbour Pointe Golf Club in Mukilteo, Wash., didn’t make a bogey and he birdied the 178-yard 13th, which dealt bogeys to Leslie, Erwin, Espedal and Alex Prugh.

Alex Prugh, a junior at Washington, jump-started his back-nine 32 with a birdie on No. 14 after a wayward tee shot into the trees. “I was barely in the left rough, about 220 yards out and I hooked a 5-iron within 6 feet,” said Prugh, who counts Leslie as one of his closest friends.

Corey Prugh, an assistant at The Club at Black Rock who graduated from UW last June, polished up his round with birdies on 17 and 18.

“Our dad just taught us how to play this golf course,” Corey said. “He grew up playing here when he was like 10.”

Erwin, from Gig Harbor, Wash., closed with a birdie on 15 and an eagle on 18.

With mild weather in the forecast, Combs expects the low scores to continue. The Prugh brothers suggested it’ll take 15-18 under to be in the hunt.

“I was fortunate enough to be in the last group last year on Sunday and I played in front of (2004 champion) Scott Johnson the first two days and watched him shoot 63, 63, 67,” Kelly said, “so I’m thinking 17-20 (under) would be a pretty good number to shoot at.”