Gusty winds made scoring low difficult all day at Hillcrest Golf Club, but one golfer surprised everybody.
Klinton Kreiger of Cheyenne, Wyoming, tallied a 7-under-par 64 on Friday in the opening round of the 53rd Navajo Trail Open. The 64 gives Kreiger a two-shot lead ahead of Zahkai Brown of Arvada going into the second day of the three-round tournament.
Brown and Kreiger are two of only seven golfers in the 40-player professional field to break par on the opening day.
“I haven’t been playing my best this year, but I finally started hitting it good a few days ago,” Kreiger said. “I got lucky enough, all of my 15- and 20-foot birdie putts went in.”
Players salivated at the condition of the greens at Hillcrest all day Friday. Fast but pristine, Kreiger had no problem rolling putts into the hole.
“With these greens the way they are, you hit a putt where you want and they’re gonna go in,” Kreiger said. “You don’t have to worry about the speed quite getting there; if you hit it on line, they go in.”
With winds making it difficult for players to fire at the flagsticks, Kreiger had no problem aiming for the center of greens and letting his putter go to work.
Other players found it difficult when they would fire at tough pin locations, only to see their ball fly off path and find thick rough surrounding the putting surfaces.
“It was tough to get up and down around this place. I was only 1-for-6 getting up and down, including one par-5,” said Ryan Hogue, who sits in a five-way tie for third after shooting a 2-under 69. “I just didn’t chip as good as I probably should have. The thickness of the rough combined with the speed of the greens, it was all guessing how the ball would react.”
Brown had a rough start to his day before finishing with a 5-under 66. He four-putted the first hole before rallying with five birdies on the back nine.
“I played well (Thursday) in the pro-am with a 64, and I knew if I did the same thing I would play well,” said Brown, a former Colorado State University golfer who won Thursday’s NTO pro-am. “It was weird that I four-putted thee first hole, but I stayed patient and thought if I could get back to even par on the front nine, I could do something on the back.”
Brown was pleased with his ability to recover, beginning with a birdie on hole No. 2, and he hopes to put a few more rounds of under-par golf together to stay in contention.
“You can’t win it on the first day, but you sure can lose it on the first day,” Brown said. “Conditions were hard, so to get a good number in the first round was great.”
Jim Knous of Basalt is tied with Hogue, Bobby Kalinowski, Don Littrell and Steve Schneiter at 2 under. Knous hit only six fairways all day, but a chip in for eagle from the front fringe of No. 17 was all Knous needed to break par.
“I had one shining moment with the chip in eagle that really helped me out,” said Knous, the 2012 Navajo Trail Open champion. “I wasn’t hitting my driver all that well, but I piped one down the middle of the fairway and hit a hybrid over the trees into a good position just short of the green. I hit a nice chip into the hill, hit the flagstick, and it rolled right on in there. It was cooking a little bit, and I was very fortunate it hit the flag and dropped.”
The professionals didn’t begin teeing off until 1 p.m. Friday, but across the board most rounds were averaging 5½ to 6 hours. With an 8 a.m. start scheduled for Saturday morning, Hogue and the rest of the pros are hoping they avoid any wind in the morning.
“Wind is always the toughest when it comes to scoring low. Even when it is raining, golfers don’t mind that as much as wind,” Hogue said. “The course is soft enough right now; I just would like to see a round without a lot of wind just so we all can have a little more fun for a change.”
The tournament record score for three rounds is 11-under, set by amateur Luke Tanner in 2009. If Kreiger or any of the other players under par can have another day like they did Friday, that record could be in danger.
Gavin Lyons, who played his college golf at Hillcrest while at Fort Lewis, was the low amateur with a 70.
“Everyone out here can shoot a 64 at any time. There is not letting up out here, and I gotta keep it going,” Kreiger said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
