Kuntz takes early lead at men’s amateur championship

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This article was published 21/07/2022 (1516 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Braxton Kuntz still has the hot hand.

The 18-year-old, who defended his provincial junior golf title at St. Charles Country Club last week, shot a 4-under 67 to lead the Golf Manitoba men’s amateur at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club on Thursday.

“It was just keeping the momentum going from last week,” Kuntz said after his early-morning round.

“I hit it really well off the tee. There’s a lot of holes where you can get in trouble if you’re not hitting it straight. There were a couple of shots that maybe weren’t my greatest, led to a couple of bogeys, but really, I mean 4-under par, I really can’t complain too much.”

Kuntz rolled in two of his six birdies on the first two holes and was 3-under on the opening nine, which is typically Elmhurst’s back nine.

He leads Elmhurst’s Nathan Wazney (69) by two strokes and fellow Breezy Bend Country Club member Eric Johnson (70) by three. They’re the only players under par, with Elmhurst’s Jordy Lutz alone in fourth at even par.

While Kuntz started hot in the first group of the day, he’ll enjoy a later alarm as the pairings reset for today’s second round with the lowest scores going out last.

“It’s a really hard start now. It’s 7 in the morning, I’m still half asleep and to have Hole 2 playing 220 (yards), uphill,” Kuntz said. “I was happy to roll in a couple of long putts to start off the day. Kind of surprised me. I cooled off in the middle of the round but I was happy to start and finish strong.”

This year’s provincial match-play champ Marco Trstenjak double-bogeyed the easy par-5 18th but still carded a 1-over 72.

“Overall a lot of good things to take. I thought I hit the ball really well, kept it in play and gave myself the looks at birdies,” Trstenjak said. “Putted well too, just didn’t find anything really falling in there, a little ‘oopsie’ on 18 there but other than that I think I played really solid and if I can do that for three days I think I’m going to be in the running at the end of the week.”

The cut after 36 holes will let the top 60 and ties stick around for Saturday’s final round. It’s typically double the score the 60th-place player shoots on Day 1, so the number to reach the weekend should hover around 161.

— The Brandon Sun