Lefty Loewen wraps up Day 1 right

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This article was published 21/07/2009 (6213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PINAWA — IT happens to the best players in the world, but the difference between them and most amateur golfers is that they know how to rein in the brain when it starts getting ahead of the swing.

Pine Ridge’s Scott Loewen is showing strong signs of starting to figure out that equation.

The 23-year-old left-hander played a determined round and two extra holes to qualify for the Canadian Tour’s Players Cup last week. He then fired one round under par and came within a shot of making the cut at one of Canada’s top professional events.

That kind of performance continued Monday at Pinawa Golf Club, where Loewen unleashed a five-under-par 67 to take the lead after one day of play at the Manitoba Amateur Championship.

That’s four better than Manitoba match play champ and clubmate Tyler Mancini and Selkirk’s Ben Bandura, the only other players to break par at 71. Niakwa’s Scott Markham and Selkirk’s Brian Buffie carded even-par 72s.

Loewen was 4-under after just five holes and five-under after 10 when the telltale part of his round began.

“Thinking about (being five-under)? A little bit,” Loewen said Monday. “But with the wind and being in Pinawa, hey, you’ve got to be thinking there are a lot more holes to play and be patient.”

Still, reality was just around the corner and a couple of stumbles put a dent in Loewen’s early momentum.

“It was a little bit of a humbling experience on 12 and 13,” he said of back-to-back bogeys, usually enough to light some kind of fuse under most amateurs. “I was in the middle of the fairway on 12 (the par-4) and licking my chops, but I hooked it a little into the bush right of the green and I hack it out and make a six-footer for bogey. Just controlling the damage.

“And 13, a tough par-3, I hit a weak tee shot short and just didn’t get up and down.”

Loewen, however, put a stop to the mess. He made birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 while ignoring the snail’s pace of play — his own round took five hours 42 minutes — and put his 5-under number on the board.

“I was relaxed all day, felt comfortable and just didn’t get ahead of myself,” he said. “Sixty-seven’s a good round, but there’s three more rounds of golf to play.”

The battle will include today’s second round at Pinawa — where trouble is lurking just about everywhere — and Wednesday and Thursday at Elmhurst, as well as the pace of play.

“I can’t say (slow play) doesn’t bother me, because there’s no way I enjoy being on the golf course for six hours,” Loewen said, noting a four-group, half-hour wait on the tee at the par-5 17th. “But it’s something we can’t control and I’ve been dealing with it for who knows how long.

“You’re from Winnipeg and it’s windy out here and courses can be tough. You have to expect that.”

Mancini was clipping along nicely when he, too, ran into the roadblock at the 17th. He eventually drove into the hazard and wound up three-putting for a bogey, then added another bogey at the last to finish one-under.

“I said to Brad (Kirton, his caddy and the 2008 champ, who has turned pro) early that under par would be good today and I did that, but bogeying 17 and 18 kind of left a bad taste,” Mancini said. “The pace didn’t really bother me because I was in good company in my group and I’ve got Brad on the bag.

“At least it didn’t bug me until 17. That was a long wait and I think that took some wind out of my sails.”

Last year’s provincial team members entered this year have some catching up to do. Breezy Bend’s Garth Collings, who lost in 2008 in a playoff to Kirton, was 75 and Elmhurst’s Peter More was 74.

NOTES: With Jamie Wilkie’s withdrawal due to injury, Collings remains the only former champ in the field…The cut falls today to the low 60 players and ties for Round 3 Wednesday at Elmhurst.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Manitoba Amateur leaderboard

at Pinawa Golf Club, Par 36-36 — 72

Scott Loewen, Pine Ridge 32-35 — 67

Tyler Mancini, Pine Ridge 33-38 — 71

Ben Bandura, Selkirk 35-36 — 71

Scott Markham, Niakwa 36-36 — 72

Brian Buffie, Selkirk 36-36 — 72

Mike Tibbs, Pine Ridge 38-35 — 73

Matthew Loewen, Winkler 38-35 — 73

Lyle MacKenzie, Southwood 34-39 — 73

Scott Mazur, Transcona 36-37 — 73

Peter More, Elmhurst 38-36 — 74

Jesse Skelton, Breezy Bend 37-37 — 74