When the Savannah Golf Championship gets underway at The Landings Club’s Deer Creek Course on Thursday, among the field will be eight players who got in through Monday qualifying.
Actually, in this case, it was Monday and Tuesday qualifying at the club’s Oakridge and Marshwood courses.
The event was forced to be played over two days due to the heavy rains that rolled through the area on Monday, which delayed the start of play three and a half hours. Play was eventually halted at 5:15 p.m. Monday when more rain came with only 72 golfers having finished their round.
The top four golfers at each course qualified out of the 272 total that signed up. Those qualifying at Oakridge were Leandro Marelli (pictured above) of Casida, Florida, who was the low man with a 64; along with Carter Jenkins and Zach Edmonton, both of Raleigh, North Carolina; and Colin Monaugle of Jacksonville, Florida, who survived a four-man playoff. Miguel Delgado of Rosa, California, was eliminated. All four had shot 65.
At Marshwood Chris Wiatri of Jupiter, Florida, had a 63; while Zach Caldwell of Alpharetta, Georgia; amateur Jaisuke Ono of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Andrew Zorn of West Chester, Ohio, beat out Ian Holt of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, after they shot 66.
Just missing the playoff at Oakridge was Savannah Country Day junior Reed Lotter, who shot a 66. Lotter had eight birdies on the day but saw his chances evaporate when he posted bogeys on Nos. 6 and 11.
One of those who reached the house Monday before play was suspended was former Georgia Southern standout Steven Fisk, who shot a 5-under par 67, which left him on the road to Kannapolis, North Carolina, on Tuesday morning for a mini-tour event.
When Fisk walked off the Oakridge course Monday, his score had him in fourth place and he knew it was time to hit the road.
“If I had shot 66 it might have given me a reason to hang around for a playoff,” Fisk said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think the course is playing that difficult as soft as it is, and 67, I figured, would not hold up.
“I had a guaranteed spot in the tournament in Kannapolis and I couldn’t risk missing it.”
Fisk made the right decision. As it turned out, a score of 65 or better was required to get in the field.
Fisk had an outstanding career at Georgia Southern, where he finished second in the 2019 NCAA tournament and set a school record with nine individual tournament wins, which broke Jodie Mudd’s mark of eight. As a junior, Fisk shot a 60 at a tournament in Hawaii, missing a 15-foot putt on the final hole which would have enabled him to be the first collegian to shoot a 59.
Fisk, who is from Stockbridge, turned pro a year ago, but when the COVID-19 crisis hit, qualifying school was canceled as were several mini-tour events.
“I played in one tournament between December and June,” Fisk said. “The last three weeks or so I’ve been playing more consistently and hitting the ball better (off the tee). Hopefully, I’ll play better this week.”
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