Air Capital Classic notebook: Ryan Spears starts strong

Ryan Spears, a Crestview Country Club member and Wichita State alum, is halfway to reaching the weekend for the first time at the Air Capital Classic.

He shot a 67, 3-under par, in his opening round, which put him four shots back and in a tie for 22nd. An improvement over his past appearances, by all measures.

“I’m telling you, it feels a lot better,” Spears said. “The last couple years haven’t been great to me, and like I said earlier this week I just kind of took it for what it is and played well. I hit some good putts. My putter saved me a lot.”

Spears would have had an even better day if not for a double bogey on No. 6, his 15th hole.

“I got a little over aggressive,” Spears said. “I told myself not to go past the hole. I took a club that could get there and I blistered it 20 yards over the green and made double. You just can’t do things like that out here. You have to avoid big numbers. But after it happens you have to let it go and that is what I did.”

Spears closed with a birdie on his 16th hole, followed by two pars.

He is looking forward to returning for his round Friday.

“I have never made the cut out here, which is, whatever. I don’t really think about it no more,” Spears said. “It’s not going to affect me. It feels really good (to break par), it is just more motivation to go out there and play well tomorrow.”

Going backward — D.H. Lee shot a 64 that featured five birdies and an eagle on Thursday at Crestview Country Club, but those were not the stats that best defined his round.

Instead, it was a recovery shot he decided to hit on his final hole.

After pulling his drive left next to a tree in the rough, he abandoned hope of reaching the par 4 in two and blooped a wedge back into the fairway, adding distance onto his third shot. Not the typical shot you see a pro golfer make when he beats par by six strokes, but it fit the Korean’s strategy. All day long, he valued the safe approach. His top priority was hitting fairways.

“There were a lot of trees up there, and I was trying to make it onto the fairway first, 100 percent,” Lee said. “My next shot had a little more distance on my third shot, but all I wanted was to make it on the fairway, hit it on the green and make a putt.”

The strategy paid off. Lee hit an iron on the back edge of the green and sank a 25-footer to end his round with a par.

“I was lucky,” Lee said.

And smart. If he faces the same situation again, he said he will maintain the safe strategy.

Easy to spot — Anyone hoping to watch Lee in his second round won’t have trouble finding him. He wore bright orange pants and a black shirt on Thursday. He said he brought four days of clothes that are equally noticeable.

Other golfers also sported unmistakable clothing, including bright green pants and plaid.

Welcome back — Ted Tryba set a tournament record for most years between appearances at 23. He shot a 74 Thursday after last playing here in 1992.

Disqualification — The worst scores of the day belonged to Bud Cauley and Curtis Thompson, who both shot 80. But there were worse results Thursday. Ryan Sullivan shot a 75 but was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Air Capital Classic notebook: Ryan Spears starts strong."