Dallas golfers lead Azalea

Published 11:23 pm Saturday, April 29, 2017

C.J. Brock and Jeff Wolff call themselves the “Odd Couple” because Brock is a left-hander and Wolff plays cross-handed.

A bit odd perhaps, but the two Dallas Athletic Club (DAC) golfers own a commanding five-shot lead in the overall competition of the 32nd Jimmy Wheeler Azalea Invitational at Hollytree Country Club.

Brock and Wolff followed up their red-hot opening-round 61 with a good-but-down-to-earth 68, still four under par, on Saturday at the South Tyler layout.

The other team shooting a 61 in Friday’s opening round, East Texans Reggie Howell and Eric Joseph, cooled considerably with a 73, one over par.

Since Howell and Joseph are in the Senior Divison for golfers 50 and older, they lead that division going into Sunday’s final round of play.

Trailing Brock and Wolff in the Mid-Amateur Division for golfers ages 25 to 50 are the teams of Adam McClain-Jacob Grubbs and Chase Chapman-Clint Frost.

The two teams in second place followed up their opening rounds of 65 with 71s and now find themselves needing to make up seven strokes on the leaders, who have a two-day total of 129, 15 under.

The day’s lowest round was a five-under 67 carded by Hollytree members Joe Smith and Bill Sharpe. They are tied for sixth place at 141, three under par, with defending champions Ryan Hill and Seane Richardson of Longview.

This is the second playing of the invitational tournament since being renamed in honor of Tyler golfer Jimmy Wheeler, who was injured in a car accident in March of 2014 and can no longer play. A former member of DAC and Hollytree, Wheeler has been on hand to watch and encourage the top amateurs during play.

Sunday’s final round gets underway at 8:30 a.m.