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Champ, Munoz Tied For Lead After Opening With 64s

Cameron Champ fired an 8-under 64 Thursday and is tied with Sebastian Munoz after the first round of the LECOM Health Challenge at Peek’n Peak Resort. P-J photo by Mark L. Anderson

FINDLEY LAKE — Some wet weather leading up to this year’s LECOM Health Challenge at the Upper Course at Peek’n Peak Resort granted the Web.com Tour field excellent scoring conditions on Thursday’s opening round.

Players were forced to deal with a short weather delay as play was called due to an encroaching thunderstorm around noon, but considering the projected forecast the short break was a welcome surprise.

A small number of players were forced to end their opening rounds early due to darkness following the delay, but co-leaders Cameron Champ and Sebastian Munoz were both able to card their 8-under-par 64s earlier in the day.

The 23-year-old Champ pocketed four birdies on his opening nine, including a pair at the par 5 fourth and eighth holes before adding an eagle at the par-4 12th.

“I got some putts going on the front side, and then coming to the back there are some scoreable holes, 10 through 12,” Champ said as he took to the clubhouse with the outright lead. “For me it is just getting the ball in the fairway on the par 5s. It’s kind of a narrow chute where I land it so, 11 I was able to do that, hit a good iron shot in there, easy two putt. Then on 12 just hit a quality 3-wood. Luckily hit it on the green and made a 15-footer.”

Cameron Champ looks over a putt during the first round of the LECOM Health Challenge on Thursday at Peek’n Peak Resort. P-J photo by Mark L. Anderson

The former Texas A&M Aggie is coming off three consecutive top-10 finishes, and will look to continue playing his style of game though the weekend.

“I think just sticking to my game plan and my own game,” Champ said. “Just not veering from it, even if I’m not playing good, just always sticking to my game plan. Fairways here, obviously, you have a lot of mid-iron shots to wedges into greens. If I can find fairways on the par 5s, I’ll take advantage of those.”

Finding fairways is one thing that Champ was able to do on Thursday, hitting 10 out of 14 with a 323-yard average.

Shortly after Champ ended his round, Munoz hit a well-placed approach shot on the par-5 18th that set up an eagle opportunity to take the outright lead on the final hole.

That putt would just narrowly miss, and the University of North Texas product settled for a birdie that finished off his day at 8-under par as well.

“I hit the ball really good. I got started pretty good — three birdies in a row — and that kind of got me going, and a lot of confidence from that,” said Munoz. “I think you have to pick your spots right. It’s really easy to be like shortsighted a lot, and if you just keep the ball in front of you and keep it simple I think you can do pretty good.”

When asked if the light rain the greens received during the day’s weather delay caused any issues, Munoz noted that there was not a big change in putting speed.

“They were fine. I didn’t think we got that much rain. It was more lightning activity, but the ball rolled good and I got three birdies,” said Munoz.

The Bogota native would make one bogey on the pack nine, at the par-3 15th, before rebounding with two birdies in his last three holes.

Trailing the leaders by a single stroke after 18 holes is Oscar Fraustro at 7-under par, while Bhavik Patel, Conner Godsey, Kramer Hickok and Mark Blakefield all sit tied for fourth place at 6-under.

While the opening day of play was hampered by a short delay, the rest of the weekend offers players a more optimistic weather report.

“It’s something that we’re at all times prepared for, it is what it is. It’s not like we can control the weather and there’s no reason for us to get upset about it,” said Hank Lebioda after his round of 68. “It was shorter than I was expecting, and going into today I was looking at the radar and it looked pretty bad. It looked liked it was going to be pretty thick thunderstorms running from noon to 8 or so in the afternoon. When they pulled us off right at noon, I was like, “This is going to be the day, and if we’re lucky we might get back out at 3 or 4 o’clock,” and then we got the word that we’re going back out in an hour, and it’s like alright, sweet.”

Action will resume today at 6:50 a.m. with Champ scheduled to tee off at 1:04 p.m., along with Dan McCarthy and Carlos Ortiz, while Munoz will return to the course at 1:37 p.m. along with Joey Garber and Julian Etulain.

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