Swanson Keeps It On Straight And Narrow And Grabs First-Round Lead At B.C. Mid-Amateur Championship
Recently Reinstated Amateur Dan Swanson Took The First Roud Lead In The Men's Division At The B.C. Mid-Amateur At Hyde Mountain GC In Sicamous - Image Courtesy VGT
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
SICAMOUS -- The views of Mara Lake from Hyde Mountain Golf Course are sublime, but the competitors at this week’s B.C. Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master Championships can’t really enjoy them during their rounds.
They’re too busy focusing on their next shot and avoiding the trouble that seems to be ever present. “It’s not easy,” said Abbotsford’s Dan Swanson, who grabbed the first-round lead with a two-under par 70.
“It is kind of claustrophobic on some holes. It kind of makes it easy. You can’t go left, you can’t go right, so there’s only one place to go -- right down the middle. Just pick your line and trust your swing because if you don’t that’s when it starts to go sideways on you.
“I did that a couple of times today and it was kind of good because it got me back to focusing on this is what I have to do. You can’t take a hole off, you can’t take a tee shot off. I think that is the biggest thing with this course. You just have to hit it straight.”
The 39-year-old Swanson has just returned to amateur golf. The former touring and club pro, who played his collegiate golf at the University of Texas-El Paso, was recently reinstated and said the move has reinvigorated his golf game.
“It gets you feeling that passion you had for the game when you were younger,” Swanson said. “It has revitalized my golf game. I am seeing a lot of familiar faces, like (rules official) Jack Croucher. I haven’t seen him for ages. It was just cool to see people I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Swanson leads the Mid-Amateur category -- for players 25 and older -- by one shot over James Ivers of Surrey, Norm Bradley of Kelowna, Bryan Toth of Victoria and Chris Moore of Vancouver. Ivers, Bradley and Toth share the lead in the Mid-Master category for players 40 and over.
Swanson was pleased with his round, apart from a four-hole stretch in the middle of it where he had three bogeys. “It was a solid round,” he said. “The back nine I kind of got it going a bit with my wedge game.”
Swanson liked the fact he was able to post a good round despite the fact he didn’t make many putts. “There were a lot of burned edges and for me that’s a good sign,” Swanson said. “I know I am putting well, they are just not going in right now. I’ll just keep on hitting good putts with good speed and eventually they are going to have to fall.”
Defending champion Craig Doell, who won both the Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master titles last summer at Kokanee Springs Golf Resort in Crawford Bay, opened with a one-over 73. Like Swanson, Doell couldn’t get the putts to fall.
“I actually played really well,” Doell said. “Tee to green I don’t think I missed too many greens and unfortunately on two of the par 5s I got it into the edge of the bushes and made a 6. Those were my only bogeys of the day. I think I just have to keep hitting the ball the way I did today and hopefully make a few more putts. I only one birdie today. I had lots of chances, but just didn’t convert many.”
The most eventful round of the day went to Connor O’Dell of Chilliwack. His roller-coaster back nine included a quadruple-bogey, a triple-bogey, a bogey, two pars, three birdies and a hole-in-one. The ace came on the 145-yard par 3 16th hole. “I hit a wedge,” O’Dell said. “It landed about 10 feet past the hole and spun back. It was fun.”
The fun didn’t last. O’Dell didn’t think to save the ball after what was his first hole-in-one and on the 17th tee sailed is next shot into trouble on the right and lost it. O’Dell was able to joke about it afterwards and said he didn’t immediately realize it was ‘that’ ball he had lost.
“We were up there looking for the golf ball and the guys (his playing partners) were like, ‘you switched golf balls, right?’ And I was like, ‘no, this is my hole-in-one ball’ and then the search became way more important. But we didn’t find it. So if you see a Callaway with a red dot to the right of 17, that’s my hole-in-one ball. Please return it.”
O’Dell ended up shooting a five-over 77.
Click HERE for complete scoring.
CHIP SHOTS: Due to some recent heavy rainfall, the competitors played lift, clean and place in Tuesday’s first round of the 54-hole event. Play resumes Wednesday with tee times between 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.