BREMERTON, Wash. - A 45-minute delay due to heavy fog didn't seem to bother Gonzaga men's golfer, James Fahy, on the second day of the NCAA Bremerton Regional on the Olympic Course at the Gold Mountain Golf Club Friday.
Fahy carded a 73 (+1) in the second round, a four-stroke improvement from his first round total. He jumped from tied for 55th after the Round 1, to tied for 48th in the 75-golfer field following Friday's round. The senior is at six-over-par (150) through two rounds.
Fahy finished with 13 pars on Day 2. The Vancouver, B.C. native also had a pair birdies. He was one over through his first nine holes, which were holes 10 through 18, and even on holes one through nine.
"I played much better today," Fahy said. "It was an all-around improvement. However, my putting just wasn't what it needed to be. I hit a lot of quality putts, but some days they don't drop.
"The delay wasn't much of a big deal because I hadn't started my warmup. It's much more difficult if you're mid-warmup and have to stop, or if you're playing. Lucky for me I was still eating breakfast so I got to just relax a little bit longer."
Fahy birded the 18th hole for the second straight day, and then used a pair of strokes to birdie the par-3 eighth hole. Twenty-one golfers bogeyed No. 8 in the second round, compared to only 11 birdies. Fahy used that eighth-hole effort to par the 617-yard ninth hole.
"The birdie on eight was big," Fahy said. "I hadn't made much of anything all day, and number eight is one of the hardest holes on the course; so to birdie that was a boost in confidence."
After two rounds, Fahy has 23 pars on the 7,115-yard course. He is even on the par-five holes, and one-over on the par-three holes.
"While his score may not totally reflect it, James played really well today," GU Head Coach Robert Gray said. "He hit the ball much better, hitting 13 greens. Unfortunately, his five missed greens were short sided, making it very difficult to make par. He did have a lot of good looks at birdie, but the putts always seemed to run over the edge or stop just short when he had the line, other than the two birdies he made. Had he putted well, he could have easily been in the 60's, but that's the cruelty of the game. Just when you get one part of your game going, sometimes another area isn't clicking."
The low individual not on one of the low five teams from each of the six regionals will advance to the finals. The NCAA finals will be conducted May 29-June 3 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. South Florida is the host institution for the 2015 championships.
Washington's Cheng-Tsung Pan moved from second to first on the leaderboard. He was three-under (69) on Day 2, following a 67 (-5) in the opening round. Five golfers are close behind at two strokes back. Texas Christian slid to the top of the team leaderboard, one stroke ahead of Alabama-Birmingham's 565 (-12) total.
Fahy has played the course six times as a Zag. He entered the day with a 74 second round average. His third round average is 73.8, including a personal best on the course, a 68 in the final round of the 2013 West Coast Conference Championships. That performance propelled him to a second place finish at that event.
"Going into tomorrow, it's really a matter of pride," Gray said. "It would definitely be fantastic to finish a great college career with a great round."
Fahy will tee-off in the third and final round from Hole 10 Friday morning at 9:20. There will be live coverage on Day 3 of the Bremerton regional on GoZags.com, with links to Golfstat.com, which will have live scoring.
