Scoring higher than expected as rain, wind plague Sunset meet

On a day when the winds howled and rain continuously threatened, Shadow Ridge's Ben Davis was just hoping to keep moving.

The Mustangs' top golfer did that -- and kept himself near the top of the leaderboard.

Davis carded a 7-over-par 79 to sit tied for second after the first day of the Sunset Region tournament at Siena. Pahrump Valley's Elliott Owens was in first after a 77.

Desert Oasis' Soungjae Baek and Jay Singharath also shot 79.

Errek McClellan, Dillon Dudley, Brandon Bauden and Cody Johnson each shot 84 to help Palo Verde lead the team scoring at 423, followed by Faith Lutheran (437) and Centennial (442).

Owens had three birdies to help offset four bogeys and a double bogey during a front-nine 39, then settled down on the back nine to finish atop the leaderboard at the midway point.

"I just kept looking forward to the next hole," Davis said. "If I got a bogey, I just blew it off and walked to the next hole."

An early thunderstorm slowed play to a crawl over three holes, while the wind sent scores higher than many expected.

But Davis said the conditions mostly affected him on the front nine, when he shot 41 before rebounding with a 38 on the back.

"It was only really bad at the beginning," he added. "After the rain, it was how I expected it to be."

Davis' only birdie of the day came on the par-4 second hole -- his first of the shotgun-start event.

His breakthrough came with a par at No. 9, which he called "the hardest hole of the course."

After a tee shot to the middle of the fairway, Davis hit a gap wedge within 10 feet of the hole and two-putted for par. On each of his practice rounds, he was forced to take double bogey or worse on the ninth.

Alec Sailer paced Centennial with an 85, and teammate Ben Neuman added an 86.

Braden Bennett and Sam Done each carded 83 for Faith Lutheran, which got an 87 from Chad Kaercher.

Two-time defending Sunset champion Zane Thomas of Arbor View shot 80. Thomas was 3 over with three holes to go, but misfired with a triple-bogey 7 on the 18th hole en route to fifth place.

Bonanza's Minsoo Kim (82) and Alex Jordan (85) also made the cut after the first day.

Pahrump Valley's Dorian Patel shot 84, and Ryan Hammar added an 85 for the Trojans, who sent all three region qualifiers to the second day of competition after missing out on qualifying as a team.

The top three teams and top 10 individuals not on a qualifying team advanced to the second round Wednesday at Mountain Falls in Pahrump.

Contact reporter Sean Walker at swalker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430.