Story by Elizabeth Kricfalusi, for amateurgolf.com

Birdies were flying everywhere at the Alameda Commuters golf tournament today as first-round leader Michael Mulhearn remained at the top of the leaderboard, tied with Carlos Corona at 9-under (133).

The opening rounds were played on the Earl Fry and Jack Clark courses at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex in Alameda, with the field of 224 alternating courses and starting tees from Saturday to Sunday. Fifty-seven players made the cut at 145.

The 18-year-old Mulhearn, who sank a 35-footer on the final hole to hold onto the lead, said his putting was the key to his success all weekend, as well as his play on the par-5s. “I think I played the par-5s at 8-under for 6 par-5s,” said Mulhearn, a freshman at Chabot Junior College in Hayward. His shot of the day came on the par-5 2nd on the Earl Fry course when he hit a 3-iron within 8 feet of the pin and made his putt to eagle the hole. “That’s probably what got me going on the back nine.”

Corona, who tied with Chris Ancheta for the low round of the day at 64, also credited his putting for his low score. “Overall it was just good ball striking, just smart play. I didn’t do anything stupid, just put myself on the green…I was just making a bunch of putts. Nothing too spectacular, but it was just solid. You can really light it up out here if you get your putter going.” The 28-year-old business management student at Holy Names University hopes to turn pro in early 2006.

Ancheta, a senior at UC Berkeley who won a national championship ring in 2004, took 7 strokes off his Saturday score to finish with a weekend total of 135. “All the putts I missed yesterday, I made them all today,” he laughed.

Two-time consecutive defending champion Rick Reinsberg also improved his play over the weekend, going from a 2-over 73 on Saturday to a 5-under 66 on Sunday. “I think it was my lack of sleep last night, because I was up with my 8-month-old kid all night, from 1:30 on,” joked the 33-year-old who plays out of Moraga and Orinda Country Clubs. He added, “I always play better on the Earl Fry course. I’ve never had much success on the Jack Clark.”

The players were unanimous in praising the quality of the greens on both courses. “For a muni and as much play as these two courses get, (Superintendent) Doug Poole does a wonderful job,” said 49-year-old Ken Webb, who won the Commuters in 1987 and 1991 and who currently stands alone in second place with a weekend total of 134.

Tournament Director Al Wagner agreed. “The greens were in great shape. Actually for the amount of rain we had this winter, the fairways were in good shape. There’s a lot of bare spots out there and stuff like that, but really overall, the greenskeepers and all the people here that worked did a really good job of getting the greens and the fairways in shape.”

Other Sunday highlights:

- Ron Williams, who hit 17 greens in regulation on Saturday to tie for third place going into today’s round, was nursing a broken rib so didn’t sleep well and ended up posting a 76 on Sunday. “I’m old and I’m tired,” exclaimed the 55-year-old Commuters veteran with a laugh.

- One of the runners-up in last year’s tournament, Scott Hardy was again tied for second place after Saturday’s round of 66, but he wasn’t happy with his play today, posting a 70. “I hit 9 greens and shot 1-under,” said the 29-year-old. “I chipped and putted really well, but it was a struggle.”

- Ryan Thomas, a junior at De La Salle High School in Concord, is tied for third place with Ancheta and Michael McRae at 7-under. Thomas played in the tournament two years ago but missed the cut. “I grew 8 inches over 2 years. That kind of helped.”

- 32-year-old tournament newcomer Da Chuang, who recently completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford, is currently in a 3-way tie for fifth place with Jamie Looper and Garett Wagner at 5-under. He described his shot of the day. “I hit a lob wedge in on 16 and stuck it in close and made my birdie. I went wayward on my drive but was able to recover and make my birdie.”

- Wagner, who played professionally for three years but regained his amateur status last November, is amateur.com’s current points leader, after winning the tour’s inaugural Silicon Valley tournament and coming in second at Diablo Valley. He was also the qualifying medalist last week at Turlock for the CGA State Amateur championship, which will be held June 20-25 at Pebble Beach and Poppy Hills.

The Senior Division will be held next weekend as well.

For more tournament information, including next Saturday’s pairings, visit the Alameda Commuters Web site.

* * * *

Round 2 results, April 30, from the Alameda Commuters, played at the Jack Clark South and Earl Fry North Golf Courses:

Player	Rd1	Rd2	Tot
Carlos Corona	69	64	133
Michael Mulhearn	65	68	133
Ken Webb	66	68	134
Christoper Ancheta	71	64	135
Ryan Thomas	68	67	135
Michael McRae	67	68	135
Scott Hardy	66	70	136
Jamie Looper	70	67	137
Da Chuang	68	69	137
Garett Wagner	68	69	137
Justin Long	68	70	138
Kyle Prolo	69	69	138
Will Johnson	68	70	138
Daniel Cone	72	67	139
Dayne Hale	69	70	139
Jake Yount	70	69	139
Jeff Murphy	70	69	139
Rick Reinsberg	73	66	139
Brett Borchers	68	71	139
Michael Donnelly	67	72	139
Timothy Nelson	69	71	140
Trent Tessler	68	72	140
Chadd Cocco	72	68	140
Ray Suhandynata	74	66	140
Joseph Bramlett	73	68	141
Mark Miller	71	70	141
Danny Buell	71	70	141
Jason Stone	70	71	141
Robert Mangan, Jr.	71	70	141
Rob Frye	69	72	141
Gary Brown	71	71	142
Jon Burkard	71	71	142
Siegfred Wroebel	73	69	142
Domingo Jojola	71	71	142
Kent Yamane	72	70	142
Steve Hoyt	69	74	143
Terry Foreman	74	69	143
Derek Dobashi	71	72	143
Ron Williams	67	76	143
Anthony Vaccaro	68	75	143
Patrick Pernice	75	68	143
Bob Blomberg	72	72	144
Victor Simionas	75	69	144
Jeff Rangel	70	74	144
John Bain	74	70	144
David Rebman	71	73	144
Dean Prince	74	70	144
Adam Deadrich	73	71	144
Craig King	72	73	145
Mark Hill	71	74	145
Tim Breland	76	69	145
John Enright	72	73	145
Ryan Collins	74	71	145
Sean Demeter	71	74	145
Roland Maples, Jr	74	71	145
Jeff Nelson	76	69	145
Gordon Kashiwagi	73	72	145
failed to survive 36-hole cut
Mike Maurice	74	72	146
James Hay	72	74	146
Gary Vanier	75	71	146
T.K Miyazono	70	76	146
Anthony Souza	75	71	146
Orion Galioni	71	75	146
Mark Garcia	74	73	147
Jason McHargue	74	73	147
Michael Vera	74	73	147
Craig Wolfman	75	72	147
Iose Iulio	73	74	147
Adam Barkow	75	72	147
David Capel	74	73	147
Roger Demonte	73	74	147
Richard Schacht	74	73	147
Brian Razzari	72	75	147
Mike Powers	73	74	147
Joe Zanassi	71	76	147
Ernesto Marcelo	75	72	147
Josh Bleyle	76	71	147
Brett Mormann	73	74	147
Norman Hamill	76	72	148
Shawn Shelby	76	72	148
Bob Fulton	71	77	148
Chip Doyle	73	75	148
Andrew Wood	73	75	148
Blake Yu	73	75	148
Jay Guittard	76	72	148
Scott Terry	73	75	148
Gregory Isom	71	77	148
Nate Weidner	72	76	148
Sean Healy	77	71	148
David Sager	78	70	148
Dave Stone	71	77	148
Michael MacDonald	73	75	148
John Diego	74	74	148
Mike Murphy	78	71	149
Trent Isgrig	74	75	149
Jay Scheller	75	74	149
Taylor Hobin	74	75	149
Victor Chew	74	75	149
Rod Souza, Jr	76	73	149
Stephen Kilman	75	74	149
Andy Nevin	74	75	149
Akihiro Okada	78	71	149
Michael Palomino	71	78	149
Mark Scofield	73	76	149
Gary Tewell	76	73	149
Cary Chiappone	74	76	150
Greg Hutton	76	74	150
Ryan Wilson	72	78	150
Daniel O'Connor	78	72	150
Charlie Todaro	73	77	150
Anthony Yean	79	71	150
Guillermo Barton	71	79	150
Erik Kastmiler	74	76	150
Will Haydon	75	75	150
Michael Tobin	76	74	150
Josh Twist	76	74	150
George Kong	74	76	150
Scott Morris	76	74	150
William T Farynaz	76	75	151
Jeffrey Wong	78	73	151
Ki-Shui Liao	75	76	151
Dan Whitehurst	76	75	151
Todd Gormand	79	72	151
Chris Scott	73	78	151
Russell Yu	75	76	151
Phillip Gill	77	74	151
Rick Shumate	77	74	151
Aris Pope	76	75	151
Sean House	77	74	151
Bruce MacLean	80	72	152
Jim Dwulet	76	76	152
Richard Castanon	74	78	152
Tommy Bergeron	76	76	152
Steve Pence	77	75	152
Luke Allard	74	78	152
Bret Becker	74	78	152
Marco Dusi	76	76	152
Dan Hansen	76	76	152
Richard Sepp	75	77	152
Mark Loomis	72	80	152
Ryan Cullimore	74	78	152
Chris Manfrin	77	75	152
Grahame Skytte	77	75	152
Dana Wade	78	74	152
Yosuke Ariga	77	75	152
Jeff Wilson	78	75	153
Tim Caesare	75	78	153
Dino Muzio	78	75	153
Martin Renaud	77	76	153
Brien Donaldson	76	77	153
Anthony DiLaura	74	79	153
Thomas Uniacke	76	77	153
Stefan Von Seeger	79	74	153
Mick Baker	77	76	153
Dominic DeBellis	77	76	153
Steve Schoenfeld	79	75	154
Gary Conklin	79	75	154
Erik Hallgrimson	77	77	154
Robert Gundermann	77	77	154
Robert Goodwin	73	81	154
Michael Leong	77	77	154
Nick Kaufman	77	78	155
Jake Saito	77	78	155
Daniel Nelson	75	80	155
Michael Johnson	74	81	155
Peter Boese	78	77	155
Tsering Dorjee	78	78	156
Jeff Cheng	80	76	156
David Deem	79	77	156
Mark Merrigan	77	79	156
Brian Brake	78	78	156
Mike Granelli	81	76	157
Dae Jin	84	73	157
Derek Miller	78	79	157
Ralph Costanzo	76	81	157
Brendan Noonan	78	79	157
Taylor Neal	81	76	157
John Blankfort	83	74	157
Steve Bong	80	77	157
Nick Webb	77	81	158
David Fein	84	74	158
George Serra	79	79	158
Jeff Dwyer	79	80	159
Aaron Woolway	83	76	159
Shane Kim	80	80	160
Kimberly Conocono	82	78	160
Richard Hunz	81	79	160
Eoghan Canniffe	81	80	161
Patrick McKern	76	85	161
Carl Boxill	83	78	161
Michael Burch	83	78	161
Paul Ashbrook	83	79	162
Chris Goin	87	76	163
Mathew Park	84	79	163
Diane Kwon	87	76	163
Scott Stevens	83	81	164
Brian McShane	86	78	164
Craig Cole	79	85	164
Jonathan Suk	85	80	165
Daniel Greenhalgh	80	87	167
Amante Bartolome	88	79	167
Rick Kehr	84	85	169
Juan Salcido	86	83	169
Nick Hatzopoulos	86	83	169
Kenji Ohkawa	89	81	170
Jeff Myers	85	85	170
Cary Tokunaga	91	81	172
Richard Heaps	90	84	174
Geoffrey Johnson	92	83	175
Michael McCall	89	86	175
Jim Coyne	94	90	184

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