-- USGA
Erin, Wis. (Aug. 22, 2011) -- Blake Biddle, 19,
of St.
Charles, Ill., John Hahn, 22, of Las Vegas,
Nev., and
Gregor Main, 22, of Danville, Calif., shot 5-
under-par
rounds Monday and shared the lead after the
first
round of stroke play at the 2011 U.S. Amateur
Championship.
In the morning’s relatively windless conditions,
Biddle, a sophomore at the University of
Nevada-Las
Vegas, fired a bogey-free 67 at the par-72,
7,760-
yard Erin Hills course while Main, a three-time
All-
American while at UCLA, shot a 5-under-par 65
at
the par-70, 6,622-yard Blue Mound Golf and
Country
Club in Wauwatosa. Hahn, a two-time All-
American
while at Kent State, who won the 2009
Western
Amateur, shot a 65 in the afternoon at Blue
Mound.
Biddle, who traveled to the 2011 U.S. Open at
Congressional Country Club as an alternate but
did
not get called to the field, birdied four of his
first
nine holes. He was the Mountain West
Conference
Freshman of the Year in 2011.
“I’ll take it,” Biddle said, who is playing in his
first
U.S. Amateur. “It was a good day. The course
was
really long, although some guys might not think
so. I
hit a lot of 6-, 5- or 4-irons and a couple of
hybrids
into par 4s. If you hit it well, you can score.
“It was kind of an easy round, believe it or
not.
Today was one of those days to keep it under
my
belt and keep myself in it and shoot par or
better
and obviously I did that.”
Biddle was quick to mention his good fortune
when
playing at Erin Hills.“I was worried I wouldn’t
have
any idea about the wind because I played a
practice
round with no wind and this round with no
wind.
Lucky!” Biddle said. “I hit 16 greens and 13
fairways.
I tried to play pretty conservatively but there
are
some pins where you can get aggressive and
can
work it on. You can pick your times to be
aggressive
and you can make some birdies.”
Main, who was the runner-up at the 2010
Western
Amateur, won 2009 Pac-10 Conference
Freshman of
the Year honors at UCLA but left the program
after
2011, his junior season.
“It was fun,” Main said. “I hit it really well. It
was
probably the best round I’ve had all summer. I
started out one over through three holes and
after
that, made a bunch of birdies. I birdied four
and
then eagled five, so that was good, the eagle.
Then I
birdied nine, so I just got it going.
“I felt like the course was out there for the
taking
today, because the conditions were pretty
benign.
There was not too much wind. The greens
were
perfect, so you could get it going.”
Hahn advanced to the third round of the 2010
U.S.
Amateur at Chambers Bay and lost to eventual
champion Peter Uihlein.
“I saw Gregor (Main) shot 65 in the morning,
and I
knew it was out there when I saw him shoot
65,”
Hahn said. “I was thinking about it all day.
Putts
weren’t going in, so I was kind of getting
frustrated.
I luckily stayed in it and stayed calm and made
them
right at the end.”
Uihlein, meanwhile, who has played in the
Masters,
the U.S. Open, and the British Open in 2011
thanks
to his 2010 U.S. Amateur win, proved he was
up to
the task of defend his title. The 21-year-old
from
Orlando, Fla., posted a 4-under-par 68 at Erin
Hills
to lead a group of seven players one stroke
behind
the leaders.
“I felt free on the tee and I was relaxed out
there,”
said Uihlein, 21, of Orlando, Fla., who will
represent
the USA on his second Walker Cup Team in
two
weeks in Scotland. “I made a couple of really
greasy
pars, which I probably never should have but I
missed a couple of easy birdie putts too.”
The six other players who shot 4-under rounds
were:
USA Walker Cup teammates Russell Henley, 22,
of
Macon, Ga., and Patrick Rodgers, 19, of Avon,
Ind.;
Jonathan Garrick, 17, of Atherton, Calif., and
Anton
Arboleda, 18, of La Cañada, Calif., (all with a
66 at
Blue Mound) as well as Justin Thomas, 18, of
Goshen, Ky., the runner-up at the 2010 U.S.
Junior
Amateur, and Blayne Barber, 21, of Lake City,
Fla.
(68 at Erin Hills).
Ten players are two strokes behind the leaders
at
three under par.
The 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship will
continue
with the second round of stroke-play qualifying
on
Tuesday. Following stroke play, the 315-player
field
will be reduced to 64 for match play, with the
championship scheduled to conclude with a
36-hole
final on Sunday.
The U.S. Amateur is one of 13 national
championships conducted annually by the
United
States Golf Association, 10 of which are
strictly for
amateurs.