Steed, Emory grab Cherry Blossom lead

The team of Travis Steed and Ryan Emory shot a first-round 64 to take the lead after the first round of the Cherry Blossom golf tournament, but three teams are within three shots of the lead heading into Sunday’s final 18 holes at Bowden Golf Course.

Taylor Floyd, who is playing in his first amateur tournament after regaining amateur status, teamed with Payne Clubb to shoot a 65, while Drew Hickman and PJ Shippey carded a 66. Sitting in fourth place is the team of Bubba Blalock and Bobby Huff, who shot a first -round of 67.

Steed and Emory have both won the Cherry Blossom, but not when they have played together.

“We have played this tournament three times together, but our best finish was third,” said Emory, who birdied the 18th to give his team the lead heading into Sunday’s round. “We are excited about playing in the final group and hopefully, we can play a bogey-free round and be in contention to win.”

Steed raved about the condition of the course.

“This Bowden Golf Course is in awesome condition, and the greens are in the best condition they have been in a long time,” said Steed, who won the tournament with Mark Sweeney in 2012. “We know it will take another good round to win, as good or better as our score (Saturday), but we just want to play another solid round on Sunday.

The team of Floyd and Clubb were sitting at 3 under after a bogey on the par-3 12th, but they made four birdies in the final six holes to get within one shot of the lead.

“Taylor and I have been friends since middle school, we have been planning on playing this tournament as soon as he regained his amateur status, and I was thrilled to be out there with him,” Clubb said. “We played decent (Saturday) but we left a lot out there, which is a good feeling heading into Sunday. “Our goal coming in was to be somewhere near the front and that’s where we are, and I think both of us know we can go lower on Sunday.”

For Floyd, simply playing tournament golf as an amateur was enjoyable.

“It was great to be out here in Macon and enjoying golf again, and playing with a good friend like Payne was pretty cool,” said Floyd, who admitted that he played very little golf for more than a year after he left professional golf. “I definitely have the bug again and I have been hitting a lot of balls lately, and really it’s just a great feeling to enjoy playing golf again. I am sure the competitive juices will be flowing on Sunday.”

The team of Wade Turner and Jim Singletary lead the seniors’ tournament, shooting a first-round of 65 in separate morning competition.

This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 7:17 PM with the headline "Steed, Emory grab Cherry Blossom lead."