LOUISVILLE, KY (June 15, 2021) – One round of the 107^th Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur is in the books and 66 (-6) was the standard set today, courtesy of Cooper Collins. The Morehead State Eagle and native of Lexington is in the lead tonight after a round at Audubon Country Club which featured seven birdies against one bogey. Collins began the round with five consecutive pars but seemed to find something when he reached the 6^th hole. The under-par scores came flying in at that point, as he played the next eleven holes in -7.

“I didn’t hit many fairways or greens those first few holes and relied on my scrambling to start,” Collins exclaimed after the round. “If you hit the driver well, this course is definitely gettable, and once I got that club going everything else just followed suit. How everyone plays off the tee this week is definitely going to be the key; this rough is so thick and the amount of trees here means the best you can do is make par when you miss the fairway. But my game-plan is to hit driver on every hole and keep my head down the rest of the way because I know there’s still a long way to go.”

Trailing Collins by a stroke is the Auburn Tigers’ J.M. Butler. The Louisville resident shot 67 (-5) in a round where he opened the day by making four consecutive birdies. A pair of players follow him in a tie for third place, as Zach Norris and Trey Bowling each recorded rounds of 69 (-3). Audubon seems to bring out the best in Bowling, as he won the 2008 Kentucky Open at this same venue.

Fifteen other players are in red numbers at day’s end. Another thirteen are at even par, meaning thirty-two players are within six strokes of the lead going into the second round.

NOTES & STATS

• Based off today’s scores, one could expect the cutline to fall around +6 tomorrow. The top seventy players and ties following the conclusion of Wednesday’s round will make the cut and advance to the final round.
• Nine eagles were made today and Jensen Klondike provided the only one to be made on a par-four, that being the 10th. All others were made on a par-five.
• Two-thirds of those eagles came on the 12^th hole. That was the easiest hole of the day by a significant margin, as its stroke-to-par average was -0.26.
• The hardest hole came two holes later as the par-four 14^th provided the most difficulty today. Six players made birdie here, but more than half the field made bogey or worse. Its average came out to +0.74.
• The front nine played more than a stroke harder than the back, with holes 1-9 logging an average score of 38.82. Holes 10-18 averaged 37.45 strokes, making the total average 76.27.

Tomorrow, play will begin off split tees once again. Those who started on the 1^st hole today will begin on the 10^th tomorrow and vice-versa. Similarly, players who played in the morning wave in the first round will be in the afternoon wave tomorrow, also vice-versa.

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Golf House Kentucky will continue to have full coverage of the championship on its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. When the final group reaches the 18th hole of Thursday's final round, a live-stream will be shown on Facebook. Should a playoff be necessary, that will also be live-streamed.