Early bird gets lead
Jim Bob Coleman survived a boot camp-like wakeup call and a shaky first hole Friday morning to maintain a share of the lead after two rounds of the 47th annual Lilac Invitational golf tournament.
The 32-year-old professional from Billings, Mont., who is staying with his parents in Priest River, answered the 3:50 a.m. alarm he had set, made the 90-minute drive to The Fairways at West Terrace golf course, hit a few range balls, teed it up at 7 a.m. and managed to post a solid score of 4-under-par 68.
The effort, coupled with Thursday’s opening-round 64, left Coleman with a 36-hole total of 12-under 132 and tied for the lead heading into today’s third round of the region’s only 72-hole golf event.
Also at that number is Bremerton pro Conner Robbins, the runner-up in last year’s Lilac, who added a 65 – the best round of the day – to the 67 he shot on Thursday. Joel Skarbo, Troy Kelly and Peter Sisich are another shot back and tied for third at 133.
Coleman, who coached golf at Montana State University-Billings last year, credited his wife, Kelly, with helping him deal with his brutally early tee time.
“We ended up leaving the house at about 4:30,” he explained. “I really don’t know how long the drive took today, because she drove and I slept most of the way.”
Still, Coleman’s second round started a bit ratty, mainly because of the overly aggressive approach he took to a 20-foot birdie putt on the opening hole.
He ran his first putt of the day 8 feet past the cup, then missed the come-backer and made bogey.
“Not exactly the way you want to start,” Coleman said. “That first putt made me a little gun-shy, and it took me a while to get over it. I left a lot of putts short after that, until later on in the round.”
But Coleman, with the help of an eagle on the 551-yard, par-5 12th, scraped it around well enough to maintain a share of the lead he held, along with Kelly and John Cook, following Thursday’s opening-round 64.
Kelly, fresh off a victory in the A.G. Spanos California Open, tacked a 3-under 69 onto his first-round 64 and is among the three golfers tied at 11-under. Cook, a former Coeur d’Alene resident, shot 70 and is alone in sixth place at 134.
Robbins’ low round came despite a disappointing start to his back nine.
After turning in 4-under 32, he missed a chance to shoot a subterranean number by making pars at the relatively easy 10th, 11th and 12th holes.
“I was really disappointed in that,” admitted the 26-year-old Robbins, who recently earned a spot on the Canadian Tour, “because I was hoping to go real low today, and all three of those are definite birdie holes – especially when 10 and 11 are playing downwind.”
Robbins kept his composure, however, and made eagle on the short, 513-yard, par-4 14th, where he hit a 5-iron off the tee to within 200 yards of the green and then stuck a 7-iron approach just 15 feet from the pin.
“There’s really no reason to get greedy on that hole,” he said of the double-dogleg, where a drive off the tee brings the water on the far side of the fairway into play. “I probably hit it a little bit further than most of the guys out here, but there’s still no need to hit the driver there.”
Heading into today’s third round, eight golfers are still within four shots of the leaders.
Coleman, Robbins and Skarbo will play in today’s final threesome, which is scheduled to tee off at 12:30. The event is open to the public free of charge.