Stewart, Lee lead at Dogwood

BY Anthony Powter | US Mens Amateur Tour | 2008 Dogwood Invitational | Round One | 26 Jun 2008

Australia’s Tim Stewart and New Zealand’s Danny Lee have fired superb 9-under-par opening rounds of 63 to lead the Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

The pair hold a stroke advantage from Jon Curran, with the American opening with a 64.

Tim Stewart Audio Interview

The opening day at the Dogwood was very favourable for the Australians. Matt Jager is well placed after his 4-under-par, 68, followed by Josh Younger with a 2-under-par, 70. Jason Scrivener, in only his second major American tournament, is settling in well and has started with a 1-under-par, 71, to join Ray Beaufils.

“This is the turnaround that I was looking for after my UK trip,” remarked Stewart, the 2006 Australian Amateur and 2007 Singapore Open Amateur champion.

Arriving in America after a month long campaign in the UK, the world number eleven felt different about his game. By Stewart’s own standards, the UK had not been very successful.

He had made the British Amateur match-play qualification, only to be knocked out in the first round by England’s Chris Wood, 3&2. He was despondent with himself, after finishing runner-up at the British Amateur the year earlier, but felt his game was there.

“I was a little disappointed with my results. I played really well during the British Amateur, yet wasn’t able to get the results that I wanted. It was good to move on to another place, and today’s round is a great bounce back,” said Stewart this evening.

Stewart’s 9-under-par, 63 is a career low, and it provides the desired momentum for his opening tournament in the US for the season.

“I’ve not played that low for a while.”

“Never before have I gone more than eight-under, so it’s great to go one lower and that sets you up well for the tournament.”

“I only hit one bad shot all day,” remarked Stewart. “Inside ten feet, I did not miss anything really. If you get the line on these greens right, you’ll score low.”

It was a flawless display of golf from Stewart, matched equally by New Zealand’s wonder-kid, Danny Lee.

With the cut determined after 54 holes for the low 36 and ties, Michael Foster, Mitch Krywulycz, Matthew Giles and Matthew Griffin all will need to make a move during the next two rounds to ensure they are around for the final day.

“It’s all about your putting here,” remarked Griffin, who’s currently T72 and in need to make a move.

“It’s a course you can certainly go low on, and I feel like I can go low tomorrow to pick up some shots.”

Tim Stewart and Danny Lee certainly have thrown down the challenge to the rest of the field. They have proved low scoring is possible on the Druid Hills layout and for Stewart, a career low round was the perfect kick start he needed to open his US campaign and put aside the disappointments of the UK.