Maine amateur among leaders halfway through pro golf tourney in Falmouth

FALMOUTH — Cole Anderson walked after his putt, noticed it begin to flip and raised his putter because the ball fell into the cup.

Knowledgeable-caliber second from a professional-caliber participant.

Anderson, a 21-year-old novice from Camden, made the reduce Friday and positioned himself close to the highest of the sphere on the Korn Ferry Tour’s Reside and Work in Maine Open, taking pictures a second straight 4-under 67 at Falmouth Nation Membership to enter the weekend in a five-way tie for third, solely three photographs off the lead.

“You simply stick to at least one shot at a time,” Anderson stated. “I’m having fun with the heck out of this.”

There have been loads of storylines across the event, akin to chief Pierceson Coody’s event-record 9-under 62 from earlier within the day, however it’s laborious to beat the narrative surrounding Anderson, who turned the primary novice to make the reduce in a Korn Ferry Tour occasion since Khavish Varadan in July 2021, and who’s all of a sudden within the dialogue to turn out to be the primary novice to really win one since Harris English in 2011.

All whereas taking part in in his first skilled event, no much less.

“I feel I’ve wrapped my head round it,” he stated. “It nonetheless doesn’t change something. The sport plan from right here on is that I’m going to attempt to hit a well-struck 4-iron off the primary tee tomorrow, and go from there. I’m not going to mission any additional out than that.”

Anderson was one in all two Maine amateurs within the area. Topsham’s Caleb Manuel put himself in place to make the reduce with a 1-under 70 Thursday, however he struggled to a 3-over 74 within the second spherical and missed the reduce by three strokes.

“To overlook it by just a few, it stings,” stated Manuel, 20. “My sport’s there to compete out right here. I stated originally of the week, that’s my objective.”

Whereas Anderson used precision to go low Thursday, hitting 17 greens, his weapon Friday was the brief sport. He saved par on the eighth gap with a comfortable chip to a decent pin. He hit his tee shot on the par-3 eleventh right into a bunker however splashed out to six toes and made the par putt. On the thirteenth, he hit his method by way of the inexperienced and onto the again fringe, however chipped in for his third birdie of the day.

Such photographs didn’t was once in his repertoire.

“I’ve at all times type of been capable of hit it,” Anderson stated. “After I received to school, I spotted actually rapidly I had nothing across the greens in comparison with a whole lot of the youngsters on my workforce. When you referred to as the coaches at Florida State and requested what’s the one factor they’d inform you to do, it’s go to the short-game space and simply keep there.”

His finest shot, although, got here on the tenth, after he hit his second shot right into a hill simply behind the inexperienced.

“It felt like jail,” he stated.

Anderson’s chip from the downhill slope dropped completely on the perimeter, hopped as soon as and rolled slowly to roughly 2 toes away, inflicting Anderson to lift his fist in triumph.

“I used to be taking a look at a spot on the perimeter, and I feel I landed it possibly 2 inches off of the place I used to be trying,” he stated. “That was undoubtedly the shot of right this moment.”

Till, maybe, the 18th, when Anderson, just below 25 toes from a fifth birdie of the spherical, hit a winding putt that discovered the opening, to the delight of the gallery within the viewing space.

“It went 90 levels proper on the finish, and I began strolling to see if it had an opportunity,” he stated. “I noticed it on the left lip, and I used to be like ‘Oh, it’s about to interrupt half a ball extra and go in useless middle.’ And it did. Nice feeling.”

For Manuel, there was a sense of being caught in impartial after a day through which he ceaselessly dazzled on his method to seven birdies. He birdied just one gap Friday, the par-4 twelfth, making his 4 bogeys much more damaging.

“I simply received nothing going all day,” Manuel stated. “That was fairly irritating, to not see a whole lot of birdies go in and simply hold making type of sloppy bogeys.”

The par-5 seventeenth summed up these frustrations. Manuel, who began on the tenth, was searching for birdie after 4 straight pars, however had his chip run by way of the inexperienced and ended up with a bogey.

“I feel that’s type of the place it began to go a bit bit downhill,” he stated.

A 3-putt on the third gap – Manuel’s twelfth – and a wayward drive on the fourth put him outdoors the reduce. He wanted a birdie-birdie end to offer himself an opportunity, however missed a 9-foot putt on the eighth to sprint these hopes.

Upset as he was, Manuel noticed the positives within the end result – a 13-shot enchancment from 2021 – and for having an opportunity to make the reduce.

“It’s a course of,” stated Manuel, who performed within the U.S. Open final week after successful a qualifying occasion. “Now, I’m a bit bit annoyed. However you look again, I received the qualifier, I performed within the U.S. Open, and I performed in one other professional occasion; not a whole lot of amateurs are doing that within the nation.”

The event area started to decide on its second day. Coody’s 62 tied the event report set by Joshua Creel final season, and he completed the day at 11-under general, one shot forward of John VanDerLaan. The group at 8 underneath included Anderson, Kyle Westmoreland, Fabian Gomez, Nelson Ledesma and Brandon Harkins, who shot a 63.

“I stored having good 10-, 20-foot seems and made a bunch of them,” stated Coody, who birdied seven holes and eagled one other. “A variety of issues went my means, clearly.”

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