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What an opening day out at Pine Lake Country Club! It’s fair to say that the newly renovated course more than held its own, with the Round 1 cutline falling at 77 (+6) and only 5 players shooting under par. It’s anyone’s ballgame as we enter the final 36 holes of this year’s City Am - read our full recap of the opening round below and get ready for another fantastic day of golf out at Cedarwood Country Club!

CHARLOTTE CITY AM

Full Leaderboard (GGID TBYGGM) | Round 2 Tee Times

David Yowell jumped out to an early lead at the Charlotte City Amateur on Friday, only making a single bogey in route to a 4-under 67. His lone blemish of the day came at the 6th hole, a par 3 playing around 215 yards on the day.

After shooting a smooth 35 (-1) on the front 9, Yowell stepped on the gas as he rounded the turn, with birdies on 11, 13, and 14 lifting him to the top of the leaderboard. He closed the round out with authority, making 4 consecutive pars on holes 15-18, a tricky stretch at Pine Lake that derailed many competitors on the day. Yowell and the other leaders will tee off tomorrow morning at 11:10 AM for the second round at Cedarwood Country Club.

Just behind Yowell we have Luke Thalman of Myers Park Country Club, who also managed a 1-bogey round and leaned on his driving iron to dissect the tricky PLCC layout. According to his playing partners, Thalman didn’t miss a shot until a minor slip-up on hole 15, which came immediately after an hour-long lightning delay.

Rounding out the final threesome for Round 2 will be Pine Lake’s Charlie May. May, who was out in the first group and hit the opening tee shot of the tournament, got off to a blistering start at his home course, making 5 birdies on the front 9 to go out in 31 (-5). Despite giving a few back on the way home, he sits in a strong position as we enter the weekend.

Rounding out the top 5 after Day 1 are Brinson Paolini and Rhodes Karriker. Paolini is an absolute contender and a name to watch this weekend - the former Duke golfer is a 4-time Virginia State Amateur champion and previously competed at the U.S. Amateur. Karriker is another interesting story to track - per a note I received today from a reader, he decided to forego college golf despite having some scholarship offers. After putting the clubs away for 4+ years after college, he started to get back into competitive golf, only to have his pursuits derailed by a horrible car accident that nearly took his life. He’s back on the course now and fired a strong round of 70 (-1) on his childhood course.

OK - there were some great player storylines on Friday, the true star of the show was the golf course at Pine Lake Country Club. The course, which reopened last fall after a significant renovation by Jeff Lawrence, received overwhelmingly positive reviews from contestants despite playing extremely difficult. Friday’s cutline, which saw the top 50 scores and ties advance to Saturday’s second round, fell at 77 (+6), which is the highest opening round cut in terms of score to par in recent City Am history.

The main factor driving higher scoring on Friday was the club’s new bermuda greens. The surfaces were extremely firm, rejecting approach shots from the rough that lacked the spin needed to stop balls close to the pin. This challenge was exacerbated by the fact that many of the hole locations were cut on the front portion of the greens, creating a set of conditions that truly rewarded accuracy off the tee. If you weren’t in the fairway, you weren’t making birdies.

Overall, the setup was extremely thought-provoking and challenging without crossing the line into anything “crazy” or “unfair.” Congratulations to Superintendent Will Laine, hist team, and the entire Pine Lake membership on an incredibly successful project - you have a completely new golf course on your hands!

PRESENTED BY THE CHARLOTTE CITY AMATEUR

The Charlotte City Amateur is one of the most competitive city tournaments in the country and is contested annually at the best courses in town. This year, 90+ of Charlotte’s top players will compete in the unique 54-hole format, with a daily cut and only the top 24 players advancing to Sunday’s round at Carmel County Club.

Qualifiers are held annually in June/July for players looking to earn a spot in the field. Registration is open to any resident of Mecklenburg County with a handicap index of 6.4 or below. Visit the tournament website to learn more.

COURSE PREVIEW

The Charlotte City Amateur field heads to Cedarwood Country Club for Round 2 on Saturday - a course that just hosted its own big event last weekend, when Jake McGlone claimed the club championship.

McGlone reports the course is in excellent shape heading into tournament week despite some rain in the lead-up. "The greens are great, which is obviously the most important," he said. Cedarwood aerified their greens, also bermuda, in late June, setting them up to peak right around this point in August.

After a firm-and-fast test at Pine Lake, players should expect a bit more muted condition at Cedarwood. McGlone said that for the club championship, recent rain and humidity had the fairways playing a touch softer than usual, which had him urging the superintendent to turn the water off ahead of the City Am.

The rough will also be shorter than contestants might remember. It’s currently sitting at 1.5 inches, down from the notoriously penal 2.5-inch rough the club grew out for a City Am a few years back. "The rough's not crazy," McGlone said, describing it as mostly flier lies. "2 times out of 10 it might sit down, but otherwise it's a decent lie.”

Cedarwood was designed by Ellis Maples, a disciple of Donald Ross, and carries the Golden Age hallmarks of that lineage - wide, generous corridors off the tee paired with green complexes that demand precision. It can be a deceiving combination - the fairways feel roomy enough to spray it, but from the back tees, driving accuracy clearly still matters for those looking to play aggressively and post a score. Players will have opportunities to recover from wide misses, but they need to use those opportunities prudently - get your ball back in play or errors will compound.

McGlone describes Cedarwood as "a tale of 3 stretches." The first 5 holes are more gettable, headlined by a reachable par 4 and a typically-downwind par 5, but things change at the 6th. "6 through 11 are all really tough," he said. Holes 12 and 13 offer a breather before a brutal finish, with 4 of the last 5 holes being long par 4s. "This past weekend I hit 7, 6, 5, and 4 irons into all of those," McGlone said of the closing stretch. "If you're going to shoot under 70, you really need to be multiple shots under par through 13, because you're probably making a bogey coming in somewhere."

In terms of standout holes, McGlone highlighted the 16th, a stout par 14 flowing over some of the best land on the property right near the clubhouse. From the back tee, the hole plays around 440 yards into a green guarded by a front bunker. Beyond the playing characteristics, the setting makes it one of the most memorable holes at Cedarwood. "It's just a good view - you can see downtown, you can see the clubhouse right there, and it's a great par 4," said McGlone.

In terms of the tournament, another hole to keep an eye on is the drivable 5th, which McGlone called one of the hardest short par 4s he’s played. From the back tees at 335 yards, it's not really reachable, but from the members' tees around 300, the hole gets interesting. Players must decide which of the hole’s hazards they are going to take on, with bunkers both left (240) and right (265) creating a staggered set of obstacles. Bailing way out to the right is a tempting option, but if the pin is set on the right side of the green, players will be left with a tricky short-sided pitch. "Assuming you don’t hit the green, you really have to hit it on the proper side," McGlone said of the strategy at the 5th.

Altogether, Cedarwood will be a significantly different test than Pine Lake, and we’ll certainly see players open up and hit a few more drivers. Members and long-time visitors will tell you, however, that the course rewards precision as much as power. As McGlone put it: play well and there's a mid-to-high-60s round out there, but when you start missing, "75 is pretty easy to shoot."

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