Buckway jumps out to State Am lead

Winds die down, scores drop and clocks create chaos

LEHI — Thanksgiving Point wasn't its turbulent self Wednesday afternoon.

When last year's medalist, Michael McRae, posted a 5-under par 67 in the morning round of the 109th Utah State Amateur Golf Championship, and when 16 other players posted par or better before the afternoon players had even approached the first tee, most figured those scores would hold up as the day's best.

Normally, a pretty stiff breeze greets golfers at Thanksgiving Point all afternoon, which usually makes the already difficult layout treacherous.

But Mother Nature took most of Wednesday off. It was another toasty afternoon, but the conditions were otherwise benign until a brief microburst hit with only a couple of groups still on the course. The scores reflect it with 31 players shooting par or better.

Greg Buckway's tournament-leading 6-under par 66 came in the afternoon, as did the 69s from Jeremy Richmond and John Linnett — which has them alone in third. Dustin Pimm shot his 70 in the afternoon, which was good enough to join Carl Jensen and Scott Clark in the fifth spot. Another 10 golfers shot 71, and 14 more posted a 72.

Following today's second qualifying round, the low 32 will advance to match play, which begins on Friday and ends on Sunday with a 36-hole final.

"In the end, a lot of people have shot low in these first two rounds, and it hasn't meant much ... so I'm just going to go out and try to play well so I can get my game grooved for match play," Buckway said.

Buckway, a former Utah Open champion and former Weber State player, came out of the starting gate on Wednesday blistering. He had tap-in birdies on his first four holes en route to a front-nine 32. On the back side, he added birdies on Nos. 10, 14 and 15, with his sole bogey coming on No. 13.

"Actually, it was the number I picked in my mind to shoot today, so I pulled it off," Buckway said.

McRae also wasted no time Wednesday in picking up where he left off last year at Soldier Hollow, where he set a tournament record in winning medalist honors by eight strokes. In what he called a "ho-hum" round, McRae rolled in a short birdie putt on the par-4 first hole, then did the same on holes No. 2, 4, 7 and 8 for a front-nine 5-under par 31. He added another birdie on the par-5 11th to reach 6-under, but sandwiched another birdie on 14 between three-putt bogeys on 13 and 15.

"I just kept hitting good iron shots and made my putts," McRae said.

Pimm, a tournament favorite, hit 16 greens but managed only three birdies. Still, he likes his position at only four shots behind.

"If I can get my putting going (today) and hit the ball the same, it should be good enough," Pimm said.

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