Kelly rides putting to Rosauers lead

Just like last year, defending champion Corey Prugh went into Friday’s first day of the 2010 Rosauers Open Invitational golf tournament with a specific game plan.

And just like last year, he executed that game plan to near perfection, taming Indian Canyon Golf Course with an opening-round 64.

Being two strokes off the lead, however, was not part of Prugh’s plan. Yet that’s where the 29-year-old assistant pro at Manito Golf & Country Club finds himself – courtesy of former Spokane resident Kyle Kelly’s opening-round 62 – heading into today’s second round of the $135,000 54-hole Pacific Northwest PGA event that concludes on Sunday.

“Hey, that’s golf,” Prugh said after making an eagle and six birdies on the pristine 6,255-yard, par-71 Indian Canyon layout. “Kyle is a good player, and he shot a great score. But there’s really nothing I can do about that.

“I thought I stuck to my plan really well, keeping the ball in play and making birdies on most of the holes you should birdie. I like my position.”

But Kelly, who is in his fourth year as the head professional at Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., likes his even better after finally settling on a putter and posting his career-low round in the Rosauers.

“I just putted so much better than I have been,” said the 32-year-old Kelly, who alternated between a belly putter and short, conventional flat stick during the two-day Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery Pro-Am that preceded the Rosauers. “When I got here today, I told my caddie we were going to try the short putter, and it worked.”

Kelly, who drove the ball exceptionally well and ranked his iron play as “as good as it has been in maybe forever,” didn’t make any bombs with his new putter. But he knocked in every 4- or 5-footer he stood over, which was the key to a round that included eagles on the par-5 12th and short, uphill par-4 17th, where he knocked a 3-wood off the tee to within 4 feet of the cup.

Kelly, who worked under Rosauers host professional Gary Lindeblad at Indian Canyon and Mark Gardner at The Creek at Qualchan before being hired as an assistant pro at Tamarisk eight year ago, heads into today’s second round with a two-stroke lead over Prugh and four shots ahead of a quartet of golfers at 5-under 66.

Former Indian Canyon assistant Chris Mitchell, who is now the head pro at Portland Golf Club, is among four others who are another stroke back at 67.

“This is absolutely my favorite time of the year, by far,” said Kelly, who has been back in town for almost three weeks, playing golf with Gardner and some other friends almost daily since arriving. “I’m lucky that we’re really slow down in the desert in the summer, so I can come back up here and see everybody and just kind of hang out.

“And this golf tournament fits perfectly into all of that.”

Still, Kelly admitted he had been playing “horribly” in the company of old friends.

“I played in the Oregon Open this year and placed third,” Kelly said, “so my competitive golf has been pretty good. But my goofy, beer-drinking golf has been a struggle. Apparently, when the focus is a little bit better, better things happen.

“I’ll stick to the same exact game plan tomorrow and, hopefully, it’ll all fall into place again – just like it did today.”

Among the other highlights of Friday’s opening round was the hole-in-one carded by Dave LeBeck, from Astoria (Ore.) Golf & Country Club on the 161-yard, par-4 fourth hole.