Eagle Ridge Golf Club

Carter takes Mid-Am lead

The defending champ is off and running at the NSGA Mid-Amateur championship.

Leon Carter carded a 3-under 69 — the only player under 70 — during Friday’s opening round and owns a one-shot lead at Osprey Ridge Golf Club.

The Dundee lefty, who started on the back nine, started slow with a bogey on the par-4 11th. But he collected an eagle on the par-5 13th and added birdies on 16 and 18 to reach 3 under at the turn. Carter had pars over his final nine holes.

"I didn’t play particularly great but I didn’t do anything stupid. I got under par early and it went from there," said the 39-year-old Carter, who captured his first Mid-Amateur title last year at Greenwood Golf Club. He owns four Amateur crowns.

The River Bourgeois native said the 6,209-yard track was playing short but tight. He only hit his driver three times during Friday’s round. Overall, he was pleased with how the day went.

"I was playing a little tight for some reason but I was all right out there," Carter said. "At my age and at this time of the year, you don’t know what game is going to show up. I’ll take it as it comes."

Sitting one shot back are Ryan Dixon of River Hills and Ashburn’s Glenn Robinson, who each fired 2-under 70s.

Ed Reevey of Rothesay, N.B., Brightwood’s Sean Hurley, Greg Black of Granite Springs and Jeff Hovell of Ashburn are each three strokes behind at even-par 72.

Dixon, who was playing in the lead group on the back nine with Carter and Reevey, got off to an inauspicious start with a double-bogey 5 on the par-3 10th hole.

"It wasn’t a very good start," the 30-year-old Dixon said. "I plugged my tee shot in the front bunker, hacked it out to back fringe and three-putted.

"Right after that, I thought to myself, ‘boy, this is going to be a waste of three days.’ But I turned it around after that."

That’s an understatement. After pars on 12 and 13, Dixon went on a run of five birdies over a stretch of seven holes, including three straight on Nos. 17, 18 and 1.

But Dixon said it was his first birdie on the par-5 13th, a chip from the fringe that dropped for a 4, that buoyed his round.

"That kind of got my game going, I guess," said Dixon, whose best showing at a Mid-Am was at the 2008 event where he finished fifth, five strokes back of champion — and River Hills clubmate — Aaron Nickerson.

"If I hadn’t chipped in, the round could have went the other way. That gave me the confidence and seemed to be the turning point.

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