Kraft Leads After Opening Round of State Open
SPRINGFIELD, Pa. - Kevin Kraft, a professional from Newport, Pa., dropped seven birdies en route to a first round score of 66 (-5) for the lead in the Allegheny Health Network 99th Pennsylvania Open at Rolling Green Golf Club. Kraft leads by one shot over a pair of professionals from the eastern side of the commonwealth, Billy Stewart and Stuart Ingraham.
Kraft, a former All-American at Kent State who played on the Web.com tour and works at Bumble Bee Hollow Golf Center in Harrisburg, entered the event for the first time and immediately made his presence felt on the leaderboard. Starting on the back nine of the historic William Flynn and Howard Toomey design, he birdied the par-4 11th hole. After giving that shot back with a bogey at No. 14, he made another birdie on the par-5 17th hole. Then, on the front nine of the golf course, he sandwiched a bogey at No. 4 around birdies at holes 3, 5, 6 and 7. For good measure, he dropped in a birdie on the ninth hole to get to 5-under for the round.
Ingraham, the 1998 champion of the event who was also the runner-up in 2009, set the early pace by shooting a 32 on the back nine (his first nine of the day) en route to a 4-under par 67. That nine saw Ingraham make four birdies against a single bogey. He followed that up with three more birdies on the front nine, including on two of his last three holes (No. 7 and No. 9) to complete the round.
For Stewart, other than the first hole on each side of the golf course, his day was bogey-free. He countered the bogey on No. 1 with a birdie at the par-4 second hole and added birdies on No. 7 and No. 9 to make the turn in 34. On the back nine, he birdied No. 13, No. 16 and No. 17 before making par on the 18th hole to shoot 67.
In fourth place is a group of nine players at two-under. One of those is amateur Michael Brown, Jr., who is set to play in next week's U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields just outside of Chicago. Brown showed resolve in the face of adversity when he bounced back from a double-bogey on the par-3 third hole (his 12th hole of the day) that put him over par for the first time on the day. Two holes later, he got back to even par and then birdied two of his final three holes to card a 69.
Also in that group is the event's 2013 champion, Andrew Mason, who made six birdies against four bogeys in his round. Joining Brown and Mason at -2 are professionals Kevin Shields, Brendon Post and Daniel Obremski, along with amateurs J.D. Dornes, Benjamin Cooley, David Kimbley and Arnie Cutrell.
Defending champion John Pillar, Sr. is five strokes off the pace after shooting an even par 71 in his opening round. In all, 32 players were at even par or better after the opening round.