Robert Evans, Kody King, Ryan Murphy, and Mark Shive all posted even par 72 at Forrest Creek Golf Club to share the first round lead in the 2012 Central Texas Amateur.
Ryan made three birdies and three bogies in route to his 72. Evans, who was two under after three holes, bogied #4, double bogied #6, then bogied #7 to get to two over par. He overcame his difficulties by playing bogey free, two under par golf from there to the clubhouse to post even for the round.
Mark Shive posted three under on the front nine but bogied 10, 11, and 13 before stringing together pars on the remaining holes to finish at even.King posted one over on the front and one under on the back nine for his even par round.
Neils John is one shot back at 73 with five players at 74 including Grady Bruce, Jeff Shell, Chad Gillespie, Vince Brunnsen and Walt Schroeder.
The golf course was in excellent shape with plenty of grass on the fairways and in the roughs. The greens were in great shape and provided plenty of putting challenges with green speeds at about 10 on the stimp meter. Players leaving approach putts above the hole had difficulty while those below the hole could putt more aggressively. The course was relatively benign with little wind and having a few of the tees up from the back tees. But, as the scores indicate, Forrest Creek is a difficult golf course to score on. The shot values are excellent and the green complexes are challenging.
Play concludes today with the final round. The leaders tee off at 1:10
See the full field scores and follow the final round scores as they are posted at the end of the round on Austin Amateur Golf's leaderboard, available at this link.
