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Greater Vancouver Charity Classic - Round One Summary
It’s crowded at the top in Vancouver. Joe Lanza, Brad Heaven, Mitch Tasker and Canadians Adam Speirs and James Lepp fired 5 under par 67s on Thursday to share the first round lead at the Greater Vancouver Charity Classic.
Ryan Yip, Josh Geary and Ryan Carter are two strokes back at 69.
Lepp, looking to defend his title, has his short game and putting to thank for his 67.
“I’m still having trouble finding the fairway and today I was hitting everything to the right off the tee,” said Lepp, echoing his thoughts of last week. “I am really struggling off the tee but I’m putting really, really well.
After a birdie at the second hole, Lepp made five consecutive pars before alternating between birdies and pars from the ninth to the 13th hole before breaking the pattern with birdies at 14 and 15.
“I made a nice chip-in for birdie at 14 from about 50 feet after putting my tee shot in the water,” continued Lepp.
“I just had a good feeling and told my caddy (his father) to tend the pin and it hit the pin and went in.
“The very next hole I had about a 40-footer for birdie and it went straight in. Other than that it was a pretty simple round.”
Despite his 67, Lepp admits something must be done about his wild driving. “I’ve got great distance control on my irons but I can’t keep it in the fairway,” he said.
“I seem to play well out of the rough and I’m getting a lot of practice from there lately. I don’t know what the problem is, I’m heading to the range to try and figure it out.”
Speirs, in a repeat of last week at Victoria, opened his week firing on all cylinders.
“It was a very solid round of golf,” said the Winnipeg native who had a three-birdie run of his own beginning at the 11th.
“I must have found something in my long game on the range because I was hitting it very well off the tee. This is a tight course and you have to keep it in the fairway because the rough is long and thick.
“I had several holes where I was off the green but then chipped up nicely to tap-in range,” he continued.
“It would have been lower if I sank a couple of those chips but I’m not going to complain whenever I have to tap in for par.”
His playing partner Brad Heaven joins him at the top of the leaderboard.
“Adam and I sort of fed off each other all day,” said the New Zealander. “I was driving the ball really well and made a great 35-footer at the fifth for birdie. I think I made three putts over 20 feet today.
“I made a couple of birdies early but then gave one back at the seventh when I went for the green in two but it didn’t come together.
“Then I made those three in a row starting at the ninth and then picked up another one at 15. I just played well all day,” he concluded.
Although he shares the first round lead, Joe Lanza felt he left a few shots out there.
“I didn’t get everything I could out of the round,” he said. “I made a few 10-footers but I also missed some makeable putts. If I had a hot putter I could have gone a few lower.
“This feels good though because I started the year well and then struggled in Mexico. I took some time off and my coach and I worked on a couple of things. I was having some backswing issues and getting under the ball too much.
“We worked things out and I feel like my game is coming around to top form again. This is a very tight golf course with long rough so it’s going to be a good test this week.”
He knows it’s early but Lanza will stick with his game plan. “I’ll play the usual fairways and greens. If I do that the rest of the way I should do fine.”
Also doing fine on Thursday was New Zealander Josh Geary who fired a 3 under par 69. Geary, fighting jetlag after arriving barely 36 hours before his round, started off with a bogey and struggled early before finding his way.
“I had a good run there for a while,” said Geary of his four consecutive birdies starting at the ninth. “I stuck it to three feet at the ninth and then got a nice 15-footer at the next hole.
“I was hitting it really well during that stretch and made one at 12 from about 20 feet. I snuck it in to about two feet at the 14th for another one but then bogeyed the last hole.
“Yeah, it was disappointing to end that way,” answered Geary. “I caught a flyer on my second shot and then hit a decent chip but missed the par putt. The round could have ended better.”
In the Clubhouse
Josh Geary, 23, dominated the amateur scene in New Zealand before turning professional in 2006. He joined the Canadian Tour at the 2007 California Q-School and earned both of his top tens in Alberta last year.
Geary finished T-3 at the ATB Financial Classic in Calgary last year and then headed up the road to the provincial capital and earned a T-7 in Edmonton.
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