The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Golfer Ryan Zebeau In First At Georgia Amateur
7/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
July 14, 2006
ROME, Ga. ----- UAB golfer Ryan Zebeau of Cedartown, Ga. fired a nine-under 61 and holds a four-stroke lead over 2003 Georgia Amateur champion David Noll Jr. of Dalton after the opening round of the 85th annual Georgia Amateur Championship, taking place at Coosa Country Club, July 13-16.
Bill Brown of Dublin, Ga., is knotted in third place with Jay Moseley of Bainbridge, who finished third last year at The Savannah Golf Club.
Zebeau's bogey-free round was paced by nine birdies. He began the round with a birdie on No. 1 and never looked back, shaving strokes on holes 3, 4, 7 and 9 to turn at five-under. His four birdies on the back came on No. 11 (15-foot putt), 12 (14 feet), 15 and 18. On his last hole, he found some trees left of the fairway, but stuck his 4-iron approach to four feet for the final birdie putt and a new course record.
The previous record of 62 was held by two people. Six-time Georgia Amateur champion and the current U.S. Senior Open champion Allen Doyle of LaGrange shot 62 in the 1987 Coosa Invitational and Stewart Whitt of Alabama matched that at the 2002 AJGA Henry-Griffitts Rome Junior Classic. Both shot 62 when the course played as a par 72.
Zebeau credited his success to putting. "I made everything I looked at today," he said. He had four putts of 14 feet or better, including 20-footers at both the third and 15th holes. He also had another four putts inside seven feet.
Zebeau, 18, won the Georgia Junior Championship in 2005 at Green Island Country Club in Columbus. He recently wrapped up his freshman year as a member of the golf team at UAB. He underwent rotator cuff surgery in November of 2005 and was unable to swing a club until February of this year. He qualified for the Georgia Amateur at Coosa Country Club, shooting 75.
Played was suspended for 38 minutes - from 5:46 to 6:24 p.m. - due to lightning and a brief thunderstorm in the area.
Zebeau had just yanked his tee shot left into some trees on 16 when play was suspended. The break in action didn't affect him, however, as he saved par on 16 with a 4-iron approach from 210 yards to 30 feet.
"I didn't like it (weather delay) at the time," he said, "but it turned out to be a good break; it gave me a chance to regroup. I was able to talk with my dad and some friends and come back and work it out."
The Georgia Amateur Championship is conducted by the Georgia State Golf Association and brings together 156 of the state's best male amateur golfers for the prestigious state title first won by Bobby Jones in 1916.
The Championship format is 72 holes of stroke play over four days. After 36 holes of play, the field will be cut to the low 70 players and ties and anyone within 10 strokes of the leader.
The second round gets underway Friday at 8:00 a.m. Zebeau tees off from No. 10 at 9:30 a.m.
Score updates -- including a full leaderboard and individual player scorecards -- are available on the Georgia State Golf Association web site, www.gsga.org. Scores will be updated on the web site after nine and 18 holes on Friday, then hole-by-hole scoring will be available on the weekend.
