Aug. 9—For Wyatt Provence, it was simply a way to kill some time.
“My coach was like, ‘if you wanna play it, you can,'” he said. “So I was like, alright, it’ll give me something to do. Little boring — there’s only two of us here right now, so we don’t have much to do.”
If Provence approached Friday’s round with a casual air, his scorecard indicated anything but. The Division II individual champion at West Texas A&M and incoming sophomore at New Mexico fired a blistering 7-under 65 to take a four-stroke lead in the opening round of the Albuquerque City Championship on Friday at Ladera Golf Course.
Provence, the author of the lowest three-round championship score in NCAA Division II history, made birdies on six of his first nine holes with only one bogey through 18.
“I just hit the ball, really good off the tee,” the Amarillo, Texas native casually told the Journal. “Pretty much hit most of the fairways, and left myself some good spots to make some putts … It’s (a) very gettable golf course, so you can take it really low.
“But yeah, I think if you just hit driver good, there’s no problems out there.”
Michael Alesio and Belen High School graduate Grady Cox tied for second at 4-under while Aiden Krafft and incoming UNM freshman Clark Sonnenberg each carded a 3-under 69 to round out the top five in the tournament’s championship flight. Krafft, an incoming junior at Oregon, said he’s spent much of the summer away from competitive golf but was a late entry to the City Championship after a friend mentioned it earlier this week.
“He was like, ‘we’re playing in the city tournament — you wanna caddie for me?'” the Cibola High School graduate said. “And I’m like, the city tournament? I didn’t know it was going on and I was like, ‘I should try to play in it.'”
Like Provence, Krafft found much of his success off the tee, but had to settle for a few more pars than he would’ve preferred.
“Wedges, putting and chipping were not up to what I wanted,” he admitted.
And yet, 18 holes at Ladera was just as fun as he remembered.
“I haven’t played these courses since high school, so it’s pretty cool to be back,” he said. “They were my favorite courses in high school and it was just fun to be out here with all your high school teammates. Like to see some of them out here now, it’s pretty cool.”
Keith Sena led the way in the president’s flight, carding an even-par 72, while Brian Chavez’s 2-over 74 was good for second through the opening round. Gregory Larson carded a 3-over 75 for third; Brian Battaglia and Dennis Kroening each fired a 5-over 77 to tie for fourth place.
In the senior championship flight, Scott Blank’s 1-under 71 set up a tight opening round lead over Marc Daniels’ even-par 72. Derek Markers carded a 3-over 75 while Ken Ronzone and Scott Belonge tied for fourth with a pair of 4-over 76s.
The second round of the City Championship is scheduled for Saturday at Arroyo Del Oso before the tournament shifts to Los Altos Golf Course for Sunday’s final round.
