Dennis Miller of Mill Creek Park near Youngstown tops a leaderboard at Quail Hollow in Concord Township that is a mixture of 40-somethings, 20-somethings and even a few teenagers.
CONCORD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Golf is not age discriminatory, at least in prestigious tournaments played in Northeast Ohio in July.
The leaderboard after the first round of the 87th annual Minute Men Staffing Ohio Open at Quail Hollow Country Club was a mixture of 40-somethings, 20-somethings and even a few teenagers. Last week, 16-year-old Michael Bernard became the youngest player ever to win the Ohio Am, and they've played that 104 times.
The man leading at Quail Hollow is Dennis Miller, the 40-year-old head pro at Mill Creek Park Golf Course near Youngstown, who shot a bogey-free, 6-under 65 on the Weiskopf Course.
Miller, the 1996 champion, had a two-shot lead over seven players, including Pepper Pike pro and three-time champ Rob Moss, 41, and two-time winner and former PGA Tour player Bob Sowards, 42.
Also in the mix, however, are teenagers Matt Gerard, 16, and Andrew Bailey, 18, as well as Fairlawn's Ryan Gutowski, 24, Harpster's Trevor Bowman, 23, and Highland Heights' Zach Glassman, 21, who will be a senior at William & Mary.
Gerard, who will be a junior at St. Ignatius, was one of those in at 67, and Bailey, who just graduated from St. Ignatius and will be a freshman at Cleveland State, was one of five players in at 68. Both are from Rocky River.
Miller, who finished in a tie for sixth last year, missed just one green in regulation and could have gone lower had he not missed six putts within 12 feet. Still, the Canfield resident was satisfied.
"I'm not playing my best, so a 65 feels good," he said. "I'll take the same score for two more days. I hit the ball close all day."
Gutowski, a high school state champ for Copley in 2003 and now on the Hooters Tour, is aiming to make up for last year when he had a two-stroke lead heading into the final round but shot 74 to finish third.
"It feels good," said Gutowski, who had six birdies and two bogeys on the Devlin Course. "I really want to win. I choked in the final round last year."
Moss, who has qualified to play in the PGA Championship next month at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, birdied three holes in a row on the front nine of the Weiskopf course and added another on the back.
"I've had a solid year, but I've yet to win individually in the [Northern Ohio PGA] section," said Moss, who has recovered from a knee injury that required five surgeries in 2008. "My game's showing signs of life, and I feel that I'm close to shooting some low scores. I've worked at it."
Gerard, who figures to be one of the top players at St. Ignatius this year, made putts of 20, 25 and 30 feet en route to posting six birdies and two bogeys on the Weiskopf Course. One of his bogeys was a startling 6 on the 609-yard 13th hole. He took two penalty strokes for unplayable lies but knocked his sixth shot into the hole from 115 yards with a pitching wedge.
"It was the best bogey ever," he said.
Burton's David Ludlow, who played at Berkshire and Kent State, had the shot of the day when he made a hole-in-one on the 130-yard 11th hole on the Devlin Course.