Breezy Bend’s Johnson takes early lead at amateur

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This article was published 21/07/2015 (4045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BREEZY BEND’S Eric Johnson was the lone man under par on Monday afternoon at the Men’s Amateur Championship, shooting a two-under 70 on the challenging 6,952-yard Bridges Golf Course.

As beautiful as the day appeared — blazing summer sun with a cool breeze to keep things reasonable — it proved less than ideal for those competing as the first round kicked off.

Apart from Johnson, Ben Bandura and Luke Meadows-Birch, who both shot even-par 72, none of the 120 golfers in attendance scored better than 73.

“I played really good, I hit it really, really good,” Johnson said. “If you can hit under par on this course, that’s good no matter what. I thought coming into the week being even par would be good, so I’m pretty pumped to be under par.”

Johnson drained four birdie putts and dropped a three on the par-5 11th for eagle.

Johnson’s round could have been even better if not for a double bogey on the 381-yard, par-4 17th.

“That happens, I played good otherwise,” Johnson said.

“There are a lot of weird lines off the tees that a lot of guys might not know. On the second hole today I hit a perfect tee shot that went into the water. It was downwind and I didn’t know it would get there. I’ll hit a three-wood on that hole now knowing that. There’s a lot of tricky tee-shot landings that, if you haven’t been out here a lot, it’s tough.”

Johnson tees off at 1:06 p.m. this afternoon.

Meanwhile, University of Manitoba Bisons golfer Devon Schade and University of Nevada’s Travis Fredborg came in with the early lead, both shooting one-over 73.

Fredborg, particularly, cursed his round as he filed into the scorer’s table following a par on the 500-yard par-5 18th.

Much of what was said can’t be repeated here, and even finding out he was tied for the low round at that point did little to settle him down initially.

Fredborg immediately made his way to the practice green to make things right.

“I knocked in about 50 four-footers, just to get my confidence back up,” he said. “I got it now.”

After having some time to think over his round, Fredborg found the positives of being three shots back.

“It was really good out there, course was pure and in great shape,” he said. “The wind obviously played a factor, especially in our front nine.

“I played really good. I striped it, I hit it probably the best I could all year, but I could not putt. I had five three-putts. I had 18 greens in regulation. I just got to make sure it’s a little better tomorrow.”

Reigning champion Todd Fanning shot a two-over 74, nestling him four shots off the lead.

Charles Boyechko, who made the weekend at the Players Cup two weeks ago, shot a three-over 75.

The second round gets underway at 8 a.m. this morning.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca