James “Mac” Webster, a Gilman School senior, made an unimpressive start, but by the time he finished, he had assembled eight birdies among other things on his way to the day’s low score, a 5-under-par 32-35–67. This was good for a one-stroke edge on his closest challenger, professional Junhak Lee, 33-35–68. The one-round event, second of four scheduled Maryland State Golf Association Amateur/Open qualifiers, was held at Cattail Creek Country Club in the Glenwood section of Howard County.
With 23 places (and ties) available for the Amateur and 20 for the Open, 24 amateurs and 26 Open players advanced. In each case, the cutoff score was 75.
Webster, who plays out of Baltimore CC, showed dramatic scoring improvement, from hitting 16 greens and shooting 79 in a qualifier at Mountain Branch GC last year to hitting 15 greens en route to his 67 at Cattail. His tour of the 6,644-yard course included a double-bogey start at No. 10, but he came back with four birdies for his 1-under 35, then turned and posted four more birdies (no bogeys).
This marked a second impressive performance over the last couple of weeks, as the 18 year old, headed tor Boston College in the fall, recently won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) individual championship.
Lee, 31, and seeing the course for the first time, also started on the back and opened with two straight birdies on putts in the 15-20-foot range. He would go on to produce six birdies, two bogeys.
Three others followed at 69: Preston Ball, a rising junior at Loyola University Maryland and pros Eli Mireles II and Jimmy Grem. Ball had six birdies; Mireles, a former Cattail assistant pro now at the Burning Tree Club in the same capacity, included two up-and-downs, one for birdie and one for par to keep the round going. He finished with a 10-foot birdie putt at the 18th, his last hole, while the effort by Grem, an Eagle’s Nest CC assistant pro, featured two eagles, as he hit a 3-wood shot to six feet at the 514-yard seventh and a 6-iron to seven feet at the 500-yard 12th.
The next qualifier will be May 17, at Sparrows Point CC.
