PLYMOUTH – A total of 19 teams shot even par or better in the first round of the Canasawacta Country Club Men’s Member-Guest Tournament, and it was a pair of familiar faces who emerged with the low round of the day.
The father-son team of Bob and Mike Branham shot a 6-under-par 65 Thursday morning, and enjoy a two-shot lead over a quartet of duos including defending champions Bryan Smith and Todd Seiler.
The Branhams, two-time champions, played nearly error-free golf, that despite playing their opening six holes in drizzly, wet conditions. Bob had the hot hand early birdieing the par-five fifth and seventh holes – the team’s first and third holes of the day – then the elder Branham turned the red numbers over to his son. Mike carved up the back nine with birdies on the 10th, 11th, 13th, and 18th holes.
On 10 and 13, the two par-fives, Mike Branham was close to the green in two shots, and had easy up-and-ins. On the par-four 11th, Mike stuck his wedge approach to within two feet for the tap-in, and on 18, the driveable par-four, Mike was pin high to the flag, and got up-and-down for his team’s sixth birdie.
“I told my son that he has to be the ‘A’ player sooner or later,” Bob Branham said. “He stepped it up and was the A player today.”
Mike Branham attributed his sharper play to just playing more golf. “I joined at Sidney this year, so my short game is better and I’m better from 100 yards in,” Mike Branham said. “I hit a lot of greens today, and I was lucky enough to make some of those putts.”
This year marks the eighth in which the Branhams have played together, and rarely have they been out of the title mix. Although sitting on the lead is nice, they know six-under-par will not hold up for long. “We have a target number we are shooting for,” Bob Branham said. “We have to keep going until we get that number, that’s our driving force.
“The hard part in this game is that there is no defense, and we can only control what we do. We hope to continue to play well and shoot decent numbers. If we meet our target goal and someone beats us, we’ll know that we played some good golf.”
Tied for second place at 67 along with Smith-Seiler are Tim Carson-Scott Seiler; Al McClymonds-Damien Rhodes; and Tom Porack-Brian Harmon.
Tournament play continues today with shotgun starts at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The complete wrapup will appear in Monday’s Evening Sun.
First-round scoring
(Top 25 teams)
B. Branham-M. Branham 65
T. Carson-S. Seiler 67
A. McClymonds-D. Rhodes 67
T. Porack-B. Harmon 67
B. Smith-T. Seiler 67
J. Bennett-B. Loomis 68
