The first round of the Dogwood Invitational on Wednesday concluded with Ohio State graduate Daniel Wetterich atop the leaderboard, shooting an 8-under-par 64.
Wetterich, who teed off at 12:05 p.m., was able to initially take the top spot from UNC-Wilmington rising sophomore Agustin Segundo Oliva Pinto and Georgia Tech graduate Luke Schniederjans, who each finished with a 5-under-par 67 and finished tied for third with rising UGA sophomore Nicholas Cassidy.
Michael Sanders, a rising sophomore at LSU, teed off in the afternoon at 1:45 p.m. and made a late surge toward the top of the leaderboard, finishing the day in second place. He shot consecutive birdies on his last five holes to finish with a 7-under 65.
Veteran Garrett Rank, 31, a full-time NHL referee who plays amateur golf in the offseason, finished with a 4-under 68, tied for fifth place and within striking distance of his much younger opponents.
Both Wetterich and Oliva Pento made their way to the top with strong performances on the back nine holes. Wetterich birdied on holes 12, 13, 15 and 16, respectively. Oliva Pento eagled on 16 and got aggressive on 17, a hole that requires a sharp left off the tee and is riddled with various hills. He bogeyed there, but finished with a birdie on 18.
“(It) was kind of a bummer,” Oliva Pento said of his second-to-last hole. “I got greedy, I tried to save par with my second shot (and) I got greedy and pulled it.”
Dogwood Invitational staff indicated to each pairing after the players’ rounds were over that because of weather conditions, they will play 36 holes Thursday.
When Oliva Pento heard that, he was satisfied, because he plays 36 quite often in college.
He doesn’t plan to deviate much from his approach to the first day, however.
“Being patient, having a good attitude, and just trying to play as a simple as I can,” Oliva Pento said.
While Wetterich and Oliva Pento each enjoyed a successful back nine, some golfers did not. One is Wesley Heston, who raced to the lead playing on his home course at Druid Hills Golf Club. He finished with a 4-under-par 32 on the front nine, but a few tough bogeys on holes 12 and 17 resulted in a 3-under-par finish, good enough to tie for 12th place on the leaderboard.
“The back nine, was, I don’t know, I had a couple weird putts and it got away from me,” Heston said.
Heston, a rising sophomore golfer at Berry College and an Atlanta native, acknowledged that despite his familiarity with the course, there were still challenges. He said some of the pins were a little different than what he’s used to.
But otherwise, he was used to some of the putts and comfortable with the tee shots.
After a year at Berry, Heston takes some of his experiences there to his play this week at the Dogwood. The most important of which is the idea of choosing or not choosing to be aggressive towards the pins, something he learned through team play.
“The middle of the green is not a bad shot, give yourself enough birdie looks and a couple of them will go in here and there,” Heston said.
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