Brampton’s Bowie has lead at half

At the seventh hole of the Toronto Star Amateur Tuesday, RattleSnake Point’s Garrett Atkinson and his caddy Austin Jones went back on forth between a full eight iron or a hold-up seven.

Atkinson wanted the former; Jones was in favour of the latter.

The 21-year-old Oakville product conceded. The hold up-seven on the seventh hole proved lucky: Atkinson hit the second hole-in-one of his career, his first at a tournament.

“I bought (Jones) a beer and a lunch after the round. He definitely earned it with that one shot right there,” he said.

Atkinson shared the lead after the first day of the tournament, opening with a 69 at the Toronto Golf Club. He fell into a seven-way tie for second Wednesday after shooting 76 in the second round.

“If I can post something in the 60s tomorrow, which I think is very doable if I play my game, I’ll hopefully get back into the lead,” Atkinson said.

“And then I kind of get control my own fate in the last round (on Friday).”

He will have to get past Russell Bowie, 24, who was alone at the top of the leaderboard at the end of Day 2.

Bowie followed up an opening 72 with a 71 yesterday, and led by two strokes.

Bowie, who plays out of Brampton Golf Club, plans to continue playing a conservative game to maintain his lead. The top 22 players are within four shots of each other.

“I’m probably just going to look at staying around even par,” Bowie said. “I know I wouldn’t get too far off (the lead) with that.”

For complete results of the Toronto Star Amateur, go to www.gtaga.com.