May maintains Northeast Am lead on gloomy Rhode Island day

Garrett May held on to his first-round lead in the Northeast Amateur on Thursday and nearly remained bogey free. May, who finished his senior season at Baylor this spring, went 34 holes without a bogey before making a 6 on the par-5 17th at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R.I.

May was steady to start the final round, making 11 consecutive pars at the beginning of his day. He rolled off his only three birdies from Nos. 12-14. His 2-under 67 follows an opening 6-under 63 from Wednesday. He has needed every bit of that scoring to stay ahead of a deep field of amateur talent.

Conditions got tough on a windy, wet and gloomy day, but the top players like May handled them.

“The front nine was kind of difficult this morning, especially playing in the rain,” May told Northeast Amateur officials after his round. “Shots were doing different stuff than what you thought they were going to do, stuff like that, and it was definitely a scrambling day.”

Behind May, incoming Texas freshman Travis Vick of Houston had his second consecutive round of 66 and at 6 under, trails May by two shots. The highlight of Vick’s day was an eagle on the par-4 fourth. He holed out from 164 yards.

“I got off to a really fast and interesting start."

Trey Winstead, who plays for LSU, lost ground but only slightly. After opening with 64, he dropped to 69 on Thursday and is 5 under.

A handful of competitive mid-amateurs are in the field, including three men who played last week’s U.S. Open. Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif., so far is leading that contingent. Rounds of 68-66 have him in a three-way tie for fourth at 4 under with John Pak, the Florida State player who finished in the top 5 at last week’s Sunnehanna, and Scott Stevens, who recently completed his senior season at South Carolina.

Another mid-amateur, Englishman Bobby Leopold, is 2 under and part of a tie for 10th.

Tony Romo, who is technically a mid-amateur but probably much better known as the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, kept pace beautifully on Wednesday with an opening 71. He had too many big numbers on Thursday – and just one birdie to offset them – and fell to 10-over 79. He is tied for 88th in the 94-man field.

Romo said after the round that he felt like he had hit the ball better on Thursday than he did Wednesday, but failed to score.

“It played tough in the later part of the day but it was good,” he told Northeast Amateur officials. “I had four double bogeys today and each swing I made, it kind of put me in a bad position with each one. That’s what happens out here. Heavy rough, wind, rain, all that stuff. Greens are great.”

Quotes in this article courtesy of Dalton Balthaser and NortheastAmateur.com.