One imagines the usual small talk in between golf shots would be a little different Thursday in the first-round group including Reed Lotter of Savannah.
One would be right.
His playing partners asked him about school — high school — and his future plans for adulthood. Lotter is 16 and a junior at Savannah Country Day. He also is an amateur playing against the professionals for the first time in a pro tournament, the Car Club Championship at The Landings Club.
“They were super cool,” Lotter said afterward of Sam Saunders and Trey Valentine. “They talked to me throughout the round, just small talk and asking me about how school is going, what I’m going to do later in life. It was cool talking to them. They’re both great guys, and their caddies were really cool to me. It was awesome.”
Lotter’s round did not start out awesome, but he recovered from a three-bogey stretch to card a 1-over-par 73 and tie for 108th in a field of 156 golfers including longtime pro golfer and fellow Savannah native Tim O’Neal (73), and fellow amateur and high school student Jonathan Griz (even-par 72) of Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Approach shot: How Reed Lotter will approach his tournament with the pros
Max McGreevy, a native of Edmond, Oklahoma, leads with a 7-under 65 shot in the morning.
A resident of The Landings Club, Lotter knows the Deer Creek Course so well he might be able to post a good score in the dark. That theory was tested Thursday as his group had the last tee time of the day, 2:30 p.m., and they played into the darkness five-plus hours later.
Not that it felt slow to Lotter. His first 18 holes in a Korn Ferry Tour event, which he has been anticipating since getting in on a sponsor’s exemption, went by pretty quickly.
“I think it was hard because everything felt fast,” he said. “My mind was kind of spinning. But then I slowed it down — this is just golf — and I started just taking it easy. That was the key.”
He took a simple first step, literally, in walking slower. That helped with some of the early nerves, as did talking with his caddie, Phil Haug, as well as with Saunders and Valentine, who also will be his playing partners Friday for Round 2 at 9:20 a.m. starting at the No. 1 tee.
“I think the thing that’s kind of interesting out here, it seems like everything’s fast, tee to green, and then once the guys get on the green or around the green, it really slows down,” Lotter said. “We played kind of slow, if you look at it like time, but it flew by, which was kind of cool.”
After a nice par save on his first hole, the par-4 No. 10, Lotter was missing long on approach shots and missing putts, resulting in short putts for bogey on the par-4 No. 11, the par-3 No. 12 and the par-4 No. 13. Those holes were ranked 10th, second and fifth for hardest in the first round.
“I definitely started on the toughest part of the course,” said Lotter, who had a gallery of close to 100 spectators following him on No. 10.
He knew he was hitting the ball well, and told his caddie so. His swing got better and so did his tempo, and some of the putts started falling.
He birdied three of the par-5s, at Nos. 18, 3 and 6, crediting caddie Haug for a great read on the last one.
His birdie on No. 18, which has a viewing area, drew cheers and applause.
“I’ve had it before, but not that big,” Lotter said of applause at a golf tournament. “It was pretty cool to have that. You’ve just got to cherish every bit of it.”
Special event: Exhibition match experience benefits teen Reed Lotter, Savannah State women’s golfers
Home game
O’Neal, as a Savannah native and resident, also appreciates playing in a home tournament. He’s played in this event twice before, when it was called the Savannah Golf Championship.
He’s also playing golf before with Lotter and knows the teenager will appreciate this opportunity.
“For him, he’s probably just having fun and getting tons of experience,” said O’Neal, 48. “Being able to shoot what he did into the wind is probably going to boost his confidence no matter what happens, no matter how good or bad he plays tomorrow – which I’m sure he’ll play good.
“But for a kid at that age to play out here and hold his own, that can’t do anything but boost his confidence for sure,” O’Neal continued. “I know that’s how I would feel. He’s a good player, so this is only going to be icing on the cake for him to move on from this and learn from it. It’s probably going to help when he plays in other tournaments, too.”
There’s still the matter of making the cut in this tournament. The golfers with afternoon tee times dealt with a swirling wind, O’Neal noted, that made it difficult to land the ball on target. Wind gusts of up to 25 mph were reported in the afternoon.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a break in the morning and be able to play with no wind. That would definitely be nice,” O’Neal said.
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The golfers know that the sessions are flipped between the morning and afternoon from Thursday to Friday, but they can’t dig a deep hole on Day 1.
“You just don’t want to hurt yourself too bad playing in the wind,” O’Neal said. “Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to play with no wind tomorrow and play a little catch-up.”
O’Neal hovered at or near even par all round, opening with seven straight pars, then making a birdie on the par-3 No. 8. A “loose swing” led him to a double bogey on the par-4 No. 9.
He birdied the par-4 No. 13, then a “mental mistake” putting the ball off the No. 17 green resulted in another double bogey. He got one stroke back with a birdie at the par-5 No. 18 as darkness fell.
“For the most part, played pretty steady,” O’Neal said. “Tomorrow, hopefully with little wind, I’ll be able to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully made some putts tomorrow.”
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz