Kelley medalist at Cotton States
MONROE, La. (Jul 24, 2013) -- Oklahoma State's Ian Davis may have grabbed headlines in Round 1 thanks to his Bayou DeSiard Country Club-record 63 but it was Blake Kelley of the University of South Alabama that was sitting atop the field at the completion of stroke-play qualifying.
Kelley followed his first-round 66 with a 68 on Wednesday and cleared the field by two shots at the 2013 Cotton States.
Kelley will be the top seed when match play begins Thursday.
Mitchell McLeroy was second after a pair of 68s while Preston Stanley shot 70-71 to tie for third alongside Will Griffin, Grady Brame, Jr., and Davis, who shot a second-round 77.
The Rounds of 64 and 32 will be played Thursday with the advancees moving on to the Round of 16 and quarterfinals on Friday.
ABOUT THE Cotton States Amateur
Originally played in 1949 as the Bayou
DeSiard Labor Day Golf Tournament, the
tournament's
name was changed to the Cotton States
Invitational in 1951 by the club's young head
professional, W. E. "Winnie" Cole. He felt that
the
name better reflected the main states that the
tournament's players originated from (and a
move
to
mid-summer made the name a necessity later
anyway). Little did Cole know that 27 years
later, in
1978, the event would be renamed again,
forever to
be known as the W. E. Cole Cotton States
Invitational Golf Tournament.
Past champions of this highly competitive, yet
festive
tournament include Don January and Hal
Sutton. Gil
Morgan, David
Toms and many other PGA Tour players have
also
competed. The tournament field field is limited
to 96
amateur
participants
having a verified USGA Handicap Index not
exceeding 0.0. Long a match play event, the
format was changed in 2021 to 72 holes of
stroke play.
View Complete Tournament Information