Cotton States: Blake Traweek medals by two
MONROE, La. — Match play qualifiers are set at Bayou DeSiard Country Club for the 2015 W.E. Cole Cotton States Invitational.
Cory Churchman led after day one with a 67, but struggled during Thursday's second round, making five bogeys in his first eight holes en route to a five-over par 77.
This opened the door for University of Louisiana-Monroe junior Blake Traweek to post his second-round 66 and medal by two shots to grab the No. 1 seed headed to match play.
Traweek, a native of Monroe, had a wild round that included two eagles and a double bogey — all on the front nine. His back nine was much more tame, concluding in a birdie at 18 to post a 36-hole total of 137. The number bested Andreas Gjesteby of Norway by two strokes.
With the top 32 players advancing past stroke play qualifying into the match play portion of the, six players tied for 30th place at five-over, leaving only three spots available. William Meyers, Tucker Wadkins, and Matthew Dunn survived the playoff to secure the final three spots in the bracket.
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