Walter Keating Jr. said he just couldn’t find his touch on the greens.
His putting troubles aside, the Thunder Bay golfer didn’t shoot himself out of contention on Thursday, firing a one-over 73 on Day 1 of the Staal Foundation Open, tied for 100th in the second edition of the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada event being contested this week at Whitewater Golf Club.
That was tops amongst the four local golfers taking part in the tournament, one better than the 74 posted in the morning draw by Thunder Bay’s Evan DeGrazia and four better than playing partner Robbie Untinen, who finished with a 77.
Jeff Hunter rallied back with a pair of birdies on 15 and 16 to shoot a six-over 78.
Keating, a former Canadian Tour pro, said he could easily have shot a much lower score.
“I just really didn’t get any putts to fall again today. I hit a lot of good putts, had a lot of good opportunities. So I just have to keep doing it, doing the same thing. They’ve got to go in.”
Still, he knows he’s in striking distance of surviving until the weekend.
One under made the cut last year and 78 golfers shot even par or better in the opening round. The top 60 and ties move on, currently at -2.
“Yeah, you can go out tomorrow and shoot 67, 68 and get yourself right back in it,” Keating Jr. said.
Does he have it in him?
You bet, he said.
“For sure – a few putts today it would have been 66 or 67.”
It was a slow start that plagued Untinen’s round.
The course record-holder (64), a mark twice tied on Thursday, Untinen double-bogeyed his first hole of the day, the 10th, a birdie on 13 helping him make the turn at one over.
But it just wasn’t his day.
He had a three-foot birdie chance on the 18th green that slid just right of the hole, the story of his round, he said.
“Yeah, you know what, if we could have made a couple, we actually could have been under par after hitting a sprinkler head on one. It was OK, there was nothing you can do about it. It was fine,” he said, adding it was exciting to have so many friends and family following him and Keating Jr. in the gallery, at least early in his round.
He still believes he has a chance.
“I have a good round in me, I’ve just got to go out and execute my shots. I’m going to be a little more aggressive tomorrow, so hopefully I can play the weekend.”
Hunter has the most work to do to live to see Saturday and Sunday.
Like Untinen, he was done in by a poor start; even more so, for that matter.
Hunter bogeyed his first hole, doubled the fifth and never recovered, tripling the 10th and bogeying the 11th to climb as high as eight over par.
A pair of back-nine birdies did take away some of the pain.
“It’s easy to kind of bounce back and let loose when you’re eight over par. You kind of throw all care out the window and just kind of fire away,” Hunter said.
“I just didn’t play well, just didn’t hit the shots when I needed to.”
Hunter’s playing partner, retired NHLer Marc Savard, posted a three-over 75.
