Utah Open: Clay Ogden 1-shot back after 2 rounds

FARMINGTON — For the second straight day, the morning was the time to play at the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open, as the scores were considerably lower than in the hot afternoon.

Colorado golfer Zen Brown took advantage by firing a 7-under-par 65 in the morning wave Saturday to take a one-stroke lead into today's final round of the annual $120,000 tournament.

First-day co-leader Clay Ogden of Farmington is one stroke behind at 133 along with another Colorado golfer, Derek Tolan, while Park City's Adrian Wadey, South Jordan's Ryan Ellis and James Drew of Las Vegas are another stroke back at 134.

"I made a lot of putts out there and that was the key to my score," said Brown, a 24-year-old Colorado State graduate from Arvada, Colo.

He had the best score of the afternoon wave in Friday's first round with a 67 and then picked right up where he left off in Saturday's round, making eight birdies and a single bogey.

"It's a different golf course in the afternoon," said Brown. "The greens get firmer and it's hard to hold your shots."

Even though Brown posted his 12-under score before some afternoon players had even teed off, none of the players with low first-day scores could catch him.

Ogden, the 2007 champion, said the difference between Friday's 64 and Saturday's 69 "was like night and day. I don't think I hit three good shots today."

He said he had no explanation for the difference in his two rounds and said he was "more shocked than anything" at how he played Saturday.

Still, he is only one shot behind heading into today's final round and will play in the leaders' group with Brown and Tolan at 12:12 p.m.

Brown has played on the Dakotas Tour this year, with a tie for second and a tie for fourth as his best finishes. He wouldn't even be in Utah this week, except that a tournament got cancelled and he came to Utah and made it through the Monday qualifying at Glen Eagle wih a 66.

Even though he's never seen Oakridge before this week, he said he has adapted well because he grew up playing similar courses at altitude in Denver.

He was even-par on the day after making his only bogey at No. 4, but ran off three straight birdies to make the turn at 33, then added four more on the back, including three straight at Nos. 15, 16 and 17.