After career low, Erik Barnes in hunt but he trails Rick Lamb at KFT’s Memorial Health Championship
Rick Lamb ended his opening round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS at Panther Creek Country Club a day late but it didn’t prevent him from taking the first-round lead.
Lamb, of Nashville, Tennessee, finished with a 9-under-par 62 on Friday in his two-day round — suspended Thursday due to rain and lightning at 3:29 p.m. Golfers were subjected to rain showers on Friday as well, but play began with the remaining first-round golfers at 8 a.m. Second-round tee times were moved to begin at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, with the last group out at 5:15 p.m.
Lamb had birdies on Nos. 11, 12, 14, 16 and 18 on his first nine holes then finished his 18-hole round with a barrage of birdies on the final four holes to finish with a career-low 62.
“I’ll take four birdies in a row anytime, it’s nice to finish the round that way,” Lamb said Friday morning. “But there’s a lot of golf left and it’s going to be a long weekend with all of this rain, a lot of stopping and starting.”
Last week in Colorado, Lamb missed the cut with a two-day score of 153.
“The game feels good,” said Lamb, a 30-year-old graduate of the University of Tennessee. “Pretty good bounce-back after last week. Last week was weird for me. I thought my game was in a pretty good place and then I went out and played terribly. It’s good to come back strong after that.”
Lamb led Erik Barnes, of Marion, Indiana, and Chad Ramey by a stroke. Barnes’ 63 tied his career low on the Korn Ferry Tour. Barnes is looking for his first win on the circuit.
Ramey, of Fulton, Mississippi, won the Live and Work in Maine Open last year for his only Korn Ferry win.
Charlie Wi, of South Korea, T.J. Vogel, of Hollywood, Florida, John VanDerLaan, of Southbury, Connecticut and Charlie Saxon, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, all finished with 7-under 64s. Wi, Vogel and VanDerLaan were able to finish their rounds on Thursday.
Last year’s champion at Panther Creek, Brett Drewitt, finished his first round 6-under and tied for eighth. No player in the 32-year history of the Korn Ferry Tour has won the same tournament in consecutive seasons.
University of Illinois graduate Nick Hardy shot a 5-under 66 in the first round.
In Friday’s second round, Jared Wolfe, of Ponte Vedra, Florida, tied the Panther Creek course record with a 10-under 61. Chase Wright set the record-low mark in 2018, also in Round 2.
