Around the Green

Two-Time Champions Shine in First Round of Texas Four-Ball Championship

BRYAN – Two-time Texas Four-Ball champions John Bearrie of Arlington and Aaron Hickman of Addison finished Saturday evening leading the Championship Division with an 8-under-par 64 in the first round of the 2015 Texas Four-Ball Championship. Sitting two shots behind the leaders is the team of Clint Frost and Riley Pumphrey at 6-under 66.
 
Bearrie and Hickman won the Texas-Four Ball back-to-back years in 2011 at Comanche Trace in Kerrville and in 2012 at Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin.
 
John Dowdall and Randy Lance are alone in third place at 5-under 67, with two teams right behind them tied for fourth with 68. The afternoon rounds held a lot of impressive play, with four of the top five teams combining for bogey-free rounds. 
 
Gary Durbin and Bob Kearney of Houston shot 5-under-par 67 Saturday in their first round of the Texas Four-Ball Championship and lead the Senior Division by one stroke at Traditions Club in Bryan. Right behind Durbin and Kearney, tied at 4-under 68, are two teams: Mike Booker and Mike Peck, and Henry Coffman and Jim Quinn.
 
Despite strong winds in the morning, Durbin and Kearney managed to go bogey-free in the first round. They combined for three birdies over their last seven holes. Although Booker and Peck had six birdies on the day, two costly bogeys on the front nine kept them one back. Meanwhile, Coffman and Quinn birdied three of their last five to also get within a shot of the leaders. 
 
Chuck Ellenwood and David Thornally stand alone in fourth place at 3-under-par 69, while four teams share fifth place at 2-under 70. 
 
Friday’s original first round was canceled after heavy rains and lightning. The Texas Four-Ball was shortened to 36 holes; the final round begins Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. 
 
The Texas Four-Ball is the second TGA statewide championship to be held this year, and the second event Traditions Club has hosted in as many years. The Nicklaus-designed course resides in Bryan, less than three miles from the Texas A&M University campus. Home to the Men’s and Women’s Texas A&M golf team’s, the course can play up to 7,146 yards and is a worthy challenge for the state’s best.