The third time wasn’t really the charm for Ken Bradley and Daryl Herchuk as they battled the course at the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club.
Bradley finished the opening round at the 2010 Canadian Men’s Senior Championship with an eight-over par 80. That leaves the Hillcrest golfer tied for 76th.
Herchuk shot a 13-over 85 and is tied for 131st.
After their two practice rounds, their opening round scores weren’t a shock.
“The practice rounds let us know that the course was quite difficult,” said Bradley. “And it didn’t let us down today.”
Paul Simson of Raleigh, N.C. shot a three-under par 69 to take the opening-round lead in St. Thomas, Ont. Only 10 golfers in the field were even or below par.
“There’s a lot of elevation change on the golf course, so you’re up and down,” said Bradley. “You’re not hitting off of a flat lie very often. You really just have to concentrate on hitting every shot and if you don’t hit them correctly then you’re in trouble and you’re trying to chip and one-putt these greens that are difficult to putt.”
It was the greens that really caused the problems for the two local golfers. The placement of the approach shot was crucial and Bradley felt he just put himself in a tough spot far too often.
“All I heard over the weekend was ‘if you’re going to play this course, hit the ball below the hole on the greens.’ I spent most of the day today above the hole,” said Bradley.
“It’s just not pretty. You can’t hit the putt very hard. If you do it rolls 5-10 feet past the hole. Then you have to try to make it coming back and obviously I wasn’t doing that very well today.”
Bradley was on the wrong side of the hole again on 16, but ended up producing his best moment of the round.
“It was about a 40 footer side hill, downhill. You don’t expect to make those,” said Bradley of the last of his three birdies.
In the inter-provincial team tournament, Saskatchewan, Alberta and P.E.I. are all tied for fifth place at 20-over. That is 10 shots behind B.C. who leads the competition which features four-member teams competing in conjunction with the first two rounds of stroke play. Each day, the best three of four scores will count towards the two day team total.
For more please see Wednesday's Times-Herald.
