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| SportsTuesday, August 14, 2007 9:47 PM CDT |
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Miller, Mitchell in Illinois State Amateur hunt
TUSCOLA — Matt Miller and Todd Mitchell expect scores to be extremely low this week at the Illinois State Amateur Championship. The pair of Bloomington golfers was more than willing to do their part in Tuesday’s first round at Ironhorse Golf Club. Miller shot a 5-under-par 66 and is tied for second place with Mitchell Gregson of Waterloo, a stroke behind Ravi Patel of Naperville. Meanwhile, two-time State Am champion Mitchell is in a three-man group at 67. “This is not a course you want to play too far behind because everyone can shoot so low, then you would have to shoot crazy low,” said Miller. “If you keep up the pace and play solid, you’ll make some birdies.” Mitchell had a smile on his face walking off the 18th green after making birdies the last two holes. “It’s a big difference than finishing par-par and thinking I let some strokes get away,” said Mitchell, who played in the morning session along with Miller. In all, 20 golfers in the 131-man field broke par over the 6,922-yard Ironhorse layout. Illinois State golfer Joe Emerich of Palatine fired 68, while Matt Bova of Bloomington shot 69. Zach Jecklin of Bloomington came in with 71. After today’s second round, the field will be cut to the low 30 and ties for Thursday’s 36-hole finish. Miller chipped in for eagle on the first hole during his practice round Monday. After experiencing a 90-minute delay Tuesday because of a morning storm, Miller pulled his tee shot on No. 1 and ended up with bogey. “I really didn’t worry about it,” he said. Miller got it right back with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 second and added birdies at Nos. 5, 7 and 8 to make the turn at 3-under. After sinking a 12-foot par putt on the 14th, he made another 12-footer for birdie on No. 15 and added a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th. “I rolled it well all day. I made some putts,” said Miller. “I came out and tried to get myself off to good start. I played pretty solid.” Unless the wind kicks up the next two days, Miller wants to stay aggressive. The tournament record score of 13-under, set by Jerry Haas of Belleville in 1984 at Peoria’s Mount Hawley Country Club, appears in jeopardy. “I’ll try to give myself a lot of looks and try to make a few and go from there. You’ve got to be patient,” said Miller, who plans to turn professional next month. “You can’t go out and try to shoot 5-under. You just have to let it add up.” Mitchell was ripping his driver long and straight most of the day, driving the 370-yard ninth for a two-putt birdie. However, bogeys at the two par-3s on the back nine left him at 2-under. When he reached the narrow 374-yard 17th, Mitchell didn’t hold back. “At that point I figured there was no reason not to go for it,” he said. Mitchell’s drive was 10 yards short of the green. He reached the back upper tier with his pitch and sank a 6-foot birdie putt. On No. 18, a 3-wood off the tee set up for a 112-yard approach shot which Mitchell stuck 2½ feet away. “It was absolutely perfect yardage (for a sand wedge),” he said. “It was probably my most solid shot of the day.” Coming off back-to-back titles, Mitchell was looking for a three-peat in 2004 at Stone Creek Golf Club in Urbana. He led after the opening round with a 68 before slipping to 78 in the second round. After a final-day charge, Mitchell finished a stroke out of a playoff. “This is a similar style golf course. There I was more conservative thinking going into the second round. I don‘t think I’ll do that anymore,” said Mitchell. “I feel I know the golf course well enough and I’m hitting it good enough where I can be real aggressive.” Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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