A better day for scoring produced more rounds in red numbers on Saturday at the Jones Cup Invitational. 

But still, only one player in the 84-man field is under par through 36 holes at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga. 

That player is Luke Clanton, a sophomore at Florida State who is 1-under-par for the championship after two days of play. Clanton carded an even-par 72 in Saturday’s second round after shooting 1-under 71 in the opening round on Friday.  

“I came here expecting to knock off the rust,” Clanton said after signing his scorecard on Saturday. “I know the game is there. It’s been there for a while, and it’s nice to see everything come together here this weekend.”

Clanton, the No. 19-ranked player in the most recent world rankings for amateurs, will take a one-shot cushion into the third and final round on Sunday along the Georgia coast over two players who are even-par after two days of play. 

One of those two players is Alabama golfer Thomas Ponder, who shot 71 on Saturday after starting out the 54-hole tournament with a 1-over 73 score in the first round. He played in the same pairing with Clanton in the first two rounds. 

Also at level-par for the tournament is high-school standout Blades Brown from Nashville, Tenn. Brown posted a second-straight even-par 72 score on the demanding Ocean Forest course, which closed for a major renovation following last year’s Jones Cup in early January and opened again for play in October. 

The lead trio will make up the final pairing for Sunday’s closing round, but by no means has the chase for this year’s Jones Cup crown been narrowed to a three-man race. 

Five players will begin the final round within two shots of the lead, while another nine are within five shots of the lead with 18 holes to play. 

Among those in contention is one of Clanton’s teammates at Florida State. Jack Bigham, who also plays for the Seminoles, is currently at 2-over through two rounds and is just three strokes out of the lead going into Sunday. 

Two former Jones Cup winners also remain in the championship hunt. Last year’s champion, David Ford, a Georgia native and standout at North Carolina, is also at 2-over for the tournament after rounds of 72 and 74 the first two days. Also, 2022 winner Jackson Palmer is still in contention at 3-over through two rounds. Palmer plays at Notre Dame and was in a pairing with Ford for the first two rounds here this weekend. 

First-round leader Nick Gabrelcik is also still in the championship battle. The University of North Florida standout and No. 8-ranked player followed up his 2-under 70 score in the opening round with a 75 on Saturday and is among a group of five players who are 1-over for the tournament through two rounds. 

Gabrelcik was one of three players - Clanton and Texas golfer Tommy Morrison were the others - who were able to best par in Friday’s opening round which was greeted by temperatures in the low-40s at the start which climbed to the upper-50s by early afternoon. Strong winds, though, blew throughout the morning and into the afternoon with gusts reaching more than 30 mph at times on parts of the course which borders the Atlantic seashore. 

Combine the weather conditions with firm greens that are still settling in following the renovation which included rebuilding the green complexes and Friday’s opening round wasn’t a day for a bunch of sub-par scores. 

Saturday was different, though. Rain that fell overnight and into the early morning led to a delayed start to the second round, but the weather cleared and temperatures climbed into the 70s on a sunny day as the wind subsided as well. 

The course yielded more red figures, though not many more.

Nine players managed to break par on Saturday compared to three on Friday with Herman Sekne from Purdue University shooting the low round of the tourney thus far with his 3-under 69. Sekne reached 5-under late for the day in the second round and held the lead coming to the 18th hole where he was forced to settle for a double-bogey as he lost his tee shot in the marshland off the right side of the fairway. 

“It was still tough, no matter what,” said tournament leader Clanton about the playing conditions. “It’s not like you were gonna come out here and shoot a 65, but you could definitely maybe shoot something a little under par. It was a pretty good test. 

“The greens were still pretty firm. It’s crazy. It’s hard to stop it even with a wedge in your hand.”

Clanton spent his closing nine trying to work his way back toward par after making two bogeys and nine pars in his first 11 holes on Saturday. He finished as strong as anyone in the field, though, with three birdies in his last four holes including his three on the demanding 18th hole where he made a 10-foot putt after hitting his approach from 204 yards with a 6-iron. 

He started his late surge with a birdie at the par-3 15th which played 165 yards from the championship tees. Clanton hit what he called a “perfect 9-iron” to eight feet and made the putt for his first birdie of the day. 

After a bogey at the par-4 16th, Clanton came back with a birdie at the par-3 17th which played 185 yards from an alternate tee box used for Saturday’s play. He landed his tee ball inside 20 feet of the front pin and holed his putt for another birdie. 

He closed with a birdie at the last for the second straight round. He also made birdie at the par-3 ninth yesterday which was his last hole since he began on the back nine in round one. 

“I didn’t know I was tied for the lead after 18,” Clanton said. “We haven’t been looking at the leaderboard. I thought 1-under might be tied for fifth or something like that.”

Brown, who attends Brentwood Academy outside of Nashville, was tied for the lead when he played the 18th on Saturday, but a bogey forced the 16-year old golfer to settle for a second consecutive round of 72 and a tie for second going into Sunday. 

Brown opened his second round with back-to-back birdies on the first two holes. He birdied the par-4 first which plays around a water hazard from 15 feet after a wedge shot for his approach from 90 yards. At the par-4 second hole, he made an uphill birdie putt from about eight feet after approaching the green with a 50-degree wedge which he called his favorite club. 

“I hit eight greens today which usually is gonna lead to a not-so good score, but we missed in the right places and that allowed me to get up and down,” Brown said. “And, we were kind of on cruise control after the bogey on 11. We were just center green, and if I make a putt, that’s great. If not, 10-under-par is not gonna win this golf tournament, so we were just focused on making pars.”

Tournament Notebook

* More on the Young Gun: Blades Brown is one of a handful of talented high school golfers playing in the Jones Cup who are most likely headed to the college ranks themselves soon. 

Brown, at age 16, became the youngest-ever co-medalist in stroke play at the U.S. Amateur last summer at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver. He broke a 103-year-old record previously held by Bobby Jones who was 18 when he accomplished the same feat at the U.S. Am.  

Brown, of course, is on the radar screen of a who’s-who list of college golf programs, many of which are represented this week in the Jones Cup. 

Brown’s first love was basketball, though, not golf. His mother, Rhonda Brown, played college basketball at Vanderbilt and made the first three-pointer in WNBA history during a brief pro career. His older sister Millie was a great high school player and is playing college hoops now at UNC Ashville. 

Brown played point guard as a freshman last year for his high school team, but decided not to play this year so he could concentrate on golf which he knows is his future. 

“I retired,” he said jokingly on Saturday while talking basketball. “Basketball is the family sport. My mom still plays. She’s 51 and plays against people in their 30s. I jump in every once in awhile just to stay in shape, but I do miss it.”

Brown is ranked 164th in the world while still a junior player and has five wins under his belt including the Elite Invitational back in November when he finished ahead of Tyler Watts who went on to win the Jones Cup Junior at Sea Island last month. Watts is also playing this week at Ocean Forest. 

Brown doesn’t appear to be intimidated by his surroundings this week as he plays against top collegians who are among the top 200 amateurs in amateur golf today.

“At the end of the day, it’s you against the golf course. And the golf ball doesn’t care how old I am,” he said. “So, I kinda have that mindset this week.”

*Haskins Award Here: Brian Stubbs with the Haskins Foundation has been on site this week for the opening tournament of the year in amateur golf. The Haskins Award goes to the top player in men’s college golf at the end of the season. 

With the Jones Cup attracting the big names in the current college game, there’s definitely a good chance that someone playing here this week will be chosen for this coveted honor after the season. 

The Jones Cup, now in its 20th year, has actually produced several champions who became eventual Haskins winners including Justin Thomas, Beu Hossler, Braden Thornberry and Ludvig Aberg who won the award this past season in his final season at Texas Tech. 

RSM Invite: Speaking of Aberg, he also won the RSM Classic at Sea Island back in November. The victory was the first in the professional ranks for the PGA Tour rookie who also played for the victorious European Ryder Cup team earlier in the fall. 

The winner here at Ocean Forest this weekend also will receive an invitation to play at the RSM Classic later this year at the Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside and Plantation courses. The Davis Love Foundation is the host for the tournament. Davis Love III is a longtime Sea Island touring professional who resides locally on St. Simons Island.  

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