Rivertowne Open

Round 1 Recap

TARHEEL TOUR – 1^ST ROUND RESULTS

RiverTowne Open

RiverTowne Country Club

Mount Pleasant, SC

“TWO GLOVES AMONG THREESOME TIED FOR THE LEAD”

Mount Pleasant, SC – Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey of Bishopville, SC was among three players who managed to card opening rounds of 69 in the Tarheel Tour’s RiverTowne Open on Tuesday. Gainey, Andrew Pratt, and Craig Farrelly all shot three under in the morning wave and were able to sit out the afternoon while the scores ballooned.

            Gainey began his round with bogies on holes one and two before righting the ship with five birdies against zero bogies the rest of the day. The long hitting Gainey, best known for his stint on the Golf Channel’s “Big Break V”, will be looking to claim his second lowcountry title in a year after he won the Tarheel Tour’s Patriots Point Classic in 2006.

            RiverTowne Country Club is an arduous track on the calmest of days, but when you throw in fierce winds and a chill in the air, even the best players tend to crumble. By the end of round one, a mere ten players in the 134 player field managed to better par. For the afternoon wave, only Daniel Sloan of Greenville, SC shot a round under par when he carded an impressive 70 in difficult conditions. Only a handful of afternoon players were able to break 74 as the Arnold Palmer designed course claimed victim after victim on a day most would just as soon forget.

            “Are we using gross scores or can we post net scores on the board?” joked former PGA Tour star Tommy Tolles as he left the scoring tent with the taste of a forgetful 76 in his mouth.

            The threesome atop the leaderboard has some company on their heels as Sloan and four other players fired rounds of 70 on Tuesday. Dane Burkhart, David Sanchez, Jody Bellflower, and Jonathan Dudley all joined Sloan on the leaderboard with impressive opening rounds of their own.

            The story of the day was first round co-leader Michael Clark of Atlanta, GA. Clark, who won the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic in 2001, carded a 69 before receiving a phone call from PGA Tour headquarters informing him he had made it into the field for this week’s event. Clark was forced to withdrawal from the RiverTowne Open and catch a flight to Mexico in hopes of reclaiming the glory he once felt on golf’s grandest stage.

            The second round will begin at 7:30 am on Wednesday morning. The field will be cut to the low 44 and ties after that and the final round will begin on Thursday at 8 am. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge.