Stadion Classic at UGA tournament organizers and most of the players in the field are praying for better weather heading into the weekend. But not Russell Knox.
Born and reared in Inverness, Scotland, Knox is quite satisfied with cold, windy and wet conditions that have besieged this Web.com Tour event. Not coincidentally, he shares the lead at 7 under par after two rounds. And it’s probably not a coincidence that Knox’s co-leader, Michael Putnam, hails from Tacoma, Wash.
“I hope it pours rain and is blowing 30 every round I ever play,” said Knox, who shot Friday’s low round of 66 on the 7,253-yard, par-71 course. “I’ve played in it a lot more than a lot of other people. … If you don’t play golf in the rain in Scotland you’ll never play. I hope it washes down all weekend.”
It appears Knox will get his wish. Saturday’s forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of rain with showers in the morning increasing to steady rain in the afternoon with rains gusting to as high as 25 mph.
To that end, tournament officials have decided to play in threesomes and send off groups on both the 1 and 10 tees in hopes of getting the round completed before expected thunderstorms roll in during the afternoon.
It will be wetter, but not much different than it has been the past two days. The temperature reached 68 degrees Thursday, but the wind-chill factor has been the 50s. The high Saturday is expected to be only 53. Last year’s average high temperature was 87 for the four days.
“You don’t want to deal with it, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Ryuji Imada, a UGA graduate and PGA veteran who shot 70 and is tied for ninth at 4 under. “We’re trying to get in as much play as possible, trying to go early. … Obviously we want sunny with no wind and 75-degree days. But it’s not going to happen, and we’ve just got to deal with it.”
Said first-round leader Brendon Todd, who shot 70 to slip back to a tie for third: “Yeah, it was tough because the wind was up, and it played long again. But the greens are still rolling well, and I was fortunate to make a bunch of putts and hit it pretty well today.”
Todd, an Atlanta resident and UGA graduate, likely would still hold the lead if not for a bad break on the par-3, 16th hole. His tee shot plugged in a greenside bunker, and it took him two shots to get out of the sand en route to a double bogey.
But Todd, like others on the leaderboard, professes to excel in difficult playing conditions.
“I like conditions like this,” said Todd, who is shooting to become the third Georgia consecutive graduate to win this tournament, following in the footsteps of Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford. “Usually the tougher the weather the better I score against other guys. I’ve just always been able to hang in there and use my short game to my advantage.”
Swafford, the defending champion, barely made the cut. The 2011 UGA graduate ran in a 32-foot putt for birdie on his 18th hole of the day, No. 9, to come in at par. At the time the cutline was uncertain. It ended up being 1 over.
Sixty-two of the 156 players in the field made the cut. Among those not to make it to the weekend were the three former major winners. Todd Hamilton (7 over) and Lee Janzen (6 over) fell short of the cutline, and John Daly withdrew after his ninth hole, citing a shoulder injury. He was 5 over at the time.
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