Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ben Finley leads by 1 at storm-delayed amateur tournament at Jacaranda
PLANTATION — It was a long, wet, steamy Saturday for the 65 men competing in the Broward County Amateur Golf Championship at Jacaranda Golf Club.
Lightning stopped play four times in an opening round that took nearly eight hours to complete.
Despite the delays, there was some good golf played on the West Course.
Ben Finley led the 25-player Championship Flight with a 2-under-par 70. Mattias Wettergren was second with a 71, followed at 72 by Douglas Schneider, Ben Adelberg and David Yarmitzky. Four players shot 73. Defending champion Tony Vento shot 76.
Don Staton shot a 70 for a net 66 in the 24-player Senior Flight. Mike Fuentes was second with a 71 for a net 68. Gene Weaver shot 92 for a net 69. Jay Krenick led the Super Senior Flight with an 80 for a net 68.
Mitch Perez led the 13-player Open Flight with a 72 for a net 65. Edwin Donahue shot 75 for a net 69. Robert Olinick was third with an 82 for a net 72.
Head golf professional Andrew Michael, who did a good job rearranging Saturday’s schedule to get in all 18 holes, changed Sunday’s final round on the East Course to a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start because of weather forecasts calling for more storms.
Saturday’s round began with a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start. At about 9:30 a.m., a heavy thunderstorm stopped play after most of the field had completed eight holes.
About 45 minutes later, the storm had moved on and players hit some balls on the driving range, then headed to where they’d stopped playing. Five minutes after that, the lightning warning signal sounded, and they returned to the starter’s area.
The all-clear signal soon sounded, but the lightning warning sounded 30 seconds after that. After a while, Michael announced that lunch would be served a little after noon in the hopes that play would be able to resume afterward.
The all-clear sounded during lunch, but was immediately followed by the lightning warning. Finally, at 1:15, the lightning was gone and play resumed.
Wettergren, who started the day on the first hole, said the delay took him a while to overcome. He’d had nine pars on the front and got up and down six times.
“I was hitting it really bad, but the putter was working,” said Wettergren, 19, of Miami Shores, who recently completed his redshirt freshman year on the golf team at Barry University.
“I made every single 5-footer I looked at, along with like a 10-footer and an 8-footer as well.”
After the long delay and a big lunch, Wettergren said his back was tight when he arrived at the 10th tee.
“On 10, 11 and 12 and 13, it took me a while to warm up again,” said Wettergren, who parred the 10th and bogeyed the par-3 11th after missing the green, then parred the next two holes.
“I actually started getting in a groove with my ball-striking, started hitting some good iron shots and giving myself some good looks for birdies.”
Those birdies came at the par-5 14th, where he hit his third shot to about four feet, and the par-4 18th, where his approach settled inches from the cup.
Wettergren, who is playing in the tournament for the first time, was in a threesome with Vento, who won by three shots last year in his first time playing in the event.
The coach of the St. Thomas Aquinas boys’ golf team, Vento, of Plantation, struggled early, shooting a 4-over 40 on the front nine before parring all nine holes on the back.
“I started off rough,” Vento said. “I went bogeybogey-bogey.”
After settling down, Vento was unable to convert any of his birdie opportunities. His best putt was on the par-4 16th after he missed the green, his pitch ran past the hole and he sank a 20-footer for par.
“That was nice,” Vento said. “The only putt I made.”