WEST POINT — Monday was a day where par was a good get at Old Waverly Golf Club, and Garrett Johnson needed help stringing them together.
The low point came on the 11th hole of the first round, when Johnson found the water on the par 4. Mississippi State men’s golf coach Dusty Smith happened to be there with a reminder.
“I told him he needed to understand the day, that’s it’s tough out there and he needed to fight for the name on the back of the bag, and that’s what he did,” Smith said.
After that, Johnson played the next 26 holes bogey-free and carded a 2-under par.
Johnson’s steady second round is part of the reason MSU is in fourth at 10-over par after the first two rounds of the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship.
With the final round starting this morning, MSU trails Ole Miss (3-under), LSU (2-over), and South Florida (7-over), which are all ranked in the top 35 nationally. South Alabama (12-over) and Lipscomb (14-over) are in hot pursuit of MSU.
“It was a tough day, with the wind up and tough hole locations,” Smith said. “Par was a good score, so to play a round where you have no bogeys and make a birdie is a heck of a round.”
Johnson, a sophomore, righted the ship well for a 1-under-par 71 in the second round to move into a tie for 12th. He saw Smith’s words after his double bogey on 11 as the turning point.
“That just lit a fire in me,” Johnson said. “I really took that mentality the entire day, just taking my pars. I missed a lot of putts today I could’ve made. I hit today like I should’ve shot a 68 or 69 easy, but I just wasn’t making putts.”
Johnson birdied the par-5 15th to get to 3-over for the first round before parring every hole but No. 9 — which played as the second-easiest hole through two rounds — for his 1-under 71. Johnson said he had a few difficult chip shots to save pars, but he said most of his pars came after missed birdie putts.
MSU sophomore Peng Pichaikool followed a 1-over 73 with a 2-over 74 and is tied with Johnson. Pichaikool fought off bogeys on 7 and 12 with birdies on 9 and 15. He was poised to be in the top 10 late in his second round before bogeys on 16 and 18 pushed him to 12th. Pichaikool and Johnson are three strokes behind Ole Miss’s Beau Briggs, who is seventh.
“He plays solid for us all the time, but that’s the type of player he is,” Smith said. “He’s a very aggressive player, so he has birdie opportunities and he’s a great player for us.”
Ole Miss’ Braden Thornberry followed his first-round 71 with a 5-under 67 and leads the field at 6-under. He is three strokes ahead of LSU’s Luis Gagne, Lipscomb’s Dawson Armstrong, and South Florida’s Claudio Correa.
Taylor Grant’s 3-over day, which was highlighted by an even-par second round, Taylor Bibbs’ first-round 1-over 73, and Cameron Clarke’s second round of the same score rounded out MSU’s score.
If the expected warmer weather comes today and Smith’s hunch is correct, scores like that won’t keep MSU in the same spot on the leaderboard.
“There’s going to be wind from the south tomorrow, which is the wind you want for this golf course,” Smith said. “The pin positions are going to be tough, but the wind will pick up and it will be a completely different test.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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