Maui’s Sam Cyr shot a bogey-free 6-under-par 65 Wednesday to seize the lead after one round of the $100,000 Gateway Tour Championship. The King Kekaulike graduate got all his birdies in a 10-hole span. He has a one-shot lead at The Rim Club in Payson, Ariz.
Cyr already won $21,000 on the Gateway Pro Tour this year, putting him 20th on the money list and qualifying him for the Tour Championship, which only has 35 players. He was the 2008 and 2009 NAIA national champion when he played for Point Loma Nazarene. The four-time NAIA All-American also won last year’s Mid-Pacific Open and this year’s Maui Open.
The Gateway Tour’s Arizona series ended in May and Cyr, planning to take it easy this summer so he would be fresh for the PGA Q-School later this month, came home to Makawao for nearly six weeks. He went back to the mainland, moved his belongings from San Diego to Dallas, and suffered a back injury.
Two weeks ago he played his first round since the injury and shot a bogey-free 69. Cyr figures he is at about 85 percent now and should be 100 percent when he heads to Oak Valley Golf Club, in Beaumont, Calif., for the First Qualifying Stage Oct. 26-29.
“I’m happy with my progress after getting hurt, the way I’m hitting it and all the stuff I’m working on,” Cyr said by phone. “I was playing really good when I blew out my back. I thought what a bummer, I was out one or two weeks, then when I came back I picked up where I left off.”
Cyr had six Top-20 finishes in 12 Gateway starts this year.
Gray wins BMW Cup
Hawaii’s Jaye Gray won the women’s flight at the BMW National Cup last weekend in Pinehurst, N.C. Six amateurs and two pros represented Hawaii at nationals, competing against players from 39 other states.
The tournament was held on Pinehurst’s Nos. 8 and 2 courses in a two-day Modified Stableford format. Pros played Pinehurst Nos. 2 and 4 in stroke play.
Gray’s point total of 30-36—66 was 10 better than runner-up Elizabeth Rhodes of Massachusetts. Honolulu’s Akane Mizutani took third at 32-18—50. Gray now plays as the U.S. representative in the BMW International Cup in Singapore in March.
Among the men, Mel Komatsu (67) took third in B flight, with Lahaina’s Chuck Bergson (55) 12th. Mark Sperling (61) and Reed Kishinami (49) placed 30th and 71st in A flight. Pros Abe Mariano (84-82—166) and Ed Kageyama (83-88—171) finished 20th and 22nd.
Hawaii team now seventh
Hawaii dropped two spots, to seventh, in Wednesday’s second round of the ninth USGA Women’s State Team Championship. The 51-team tournament ends today in Savannah, Ga.
Maryland held on to its lead, shooting a second-round 153 (best two scores of three-person team) for a total of 296. Hawaii is 10 back, after getting a 76 from Waiakea junior Ciera Min and a 77 from ‘Iolani freshman Hana Furuichi. Punahou eighth-grader Allisen Corpuz shot 78.
Isagawa takes second
Oregon freshman Cassy Isagawa, a Baldwin graduate and former state high school champion, finished second Wednesday in the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, at Sammamish, Wash. Isagawa, who held the second-round lead, closed with an even-par 72 to finish at 215 — one shot behind medalist Madeleine Sheils of Nebraska, who shot 67.
The Ducks also took second with a team total of 898, two behind Colorado. Washington freshman Cyd Okino (Punahou 2011) tied for 12th at 77—228. Gonzaga freshman Alice Kim (Mid-Pacific 2011) was 43rd, at 81—239.
