THUNDER BAY – Through his opening nine holes, David Bradshaw’s round wasn’t looking like anything all that special.
His second nine, however, was nothing more than spectacular.
Bradshaw, a native of Harpers Ferry, W.V., tied a course record on Thursday at Whitewater Golf Club, vaulting to the top of the Staal Foundation Open leaderboard thanks to a blistering 8-under 28 on his final nine holes to take a two-shot lead after the opening day of the fifth-annual Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada event.
Bradshaw, who opened on the back nine, began his climb after making the turn, recording four straight birdies to jump into contention. After birdying the sixth, he took sole possession of the lead on the par 5 seventh, dropping his third shot into the hole. For good measure he added another birdie on the ninth, the toughest hole on the course.
“I was kind of cruising along and then made the turn and then things started firing on one. I made four birdies in a row and a pretty ridiculous eagle on seven and just finished it off with a birdie on nine,” said the 35-year-old who turned pro in 2006 and sits 96th on the Order of Merit.
“I don’t know. It just happens.”
Bradshaw said he can’t recall ever shooting 28 before, though he thinks he may have managed a 29 somewhere along the way.
“Maybe as a kid,” he said, adding he had no idea he had a 62 in his bag when he arrived at the course on Thursday morning, heading out in the third-to-last group of the morning draw.
“Golf’s weird,” he said. “I played good today. Tomorrow is a new day, so I’ll just go play again.”
Bradshaw holds a two-shot lead over Alama, Calif.’s Cody Blick, who rolled in a 30-foot putt on the ninth, his final hole of the day, to finish with an 8-under 64, good for solo second.
Blick shot identical 4-under 32s on the front and back and while tournament’s aren’t won on Thursday, it’s easy to work your way out of contention in a hurry.
He had a little added incentive to make the final putt.
His brother, also a golfer was travelling with Blick this week and bet him lunch on the putt.
“When that thing was five feet out it was looking pretty good and I just started laughing and looked back at him and he threw his hands in the air. It was pretty good.”
At the time the made putt pushed Blick into top spot in the tournament, one shot over then clubhouse leader Zach Foushee, who scored four birdies on his final nine to shoot a 7-under 65.
He said the key to his round was keeping it in the fairway.
“I had a couple of bad drives that I got lucky on. I got good breaks all day. But you kind of need those when you go low,” the Oregon native said.
The run of the day belonged to American Tyler Collier, who started on 10 and made the turn at 1-under, only to go birdie-eagle-ace on holes six to eight to finish at 6-under 66 and a four-way tie for fifth.
“I was hitting my wedges pretty good all day. So I hit a pretty close one in on hole six to about two feet. Then on seven I had 276 and hit a three-wood just perfect right at it. It was an inch from the hole. On eight I was 185 and I hit it just a little left of the pin and it took a pretty big bounce right,” Collier said of his first tournament hole-in-one.
“We just heard everybody screaming, so we knew it was in. So it was pretty cool.”
Aaron Cockerill, Riley Wheeldon and Jake Duvall were the top Canadians, each checking in at 4-under 68.
