O’Rear surges up Leaderboard in Round 2 at 116th Texas Amateur presented by Hytera US
WACO – Ryan O’Rear of Leander stormed up the leaderboard in Round 2 of the 116th Texas Amateur. O’Rear carded an impressive 7-under 63 to take the lead heading into the weekend.
Ridgewood Country Club welcomed back the best amateur golfers in Texas for the second round of the 116th Texas Amateur presented by Hytera US. With a cut line lurking in players’ minds to start the day, several names charged up the leaderboard to secure their spot for the weekend at the major championship.
O’Rear, a two-time Texas Mid-Amateur champion, made his name known in the second round and grabbed the lead heading into the weekend. He carded a bogey-free round that included the lowest score of all players in the second round.
“Yeah, today was good,” O’Rear said. “I stayed patient, and there’s some tough bends so you gotta be careful with a few holes, but I hit some good shots and had the putter going, which was nice.”
With Ridgewood receiving 3.5 inches between Tuesday and Thursday, the second round brought sunny skies and drying conditions at Ridgewood. O’Rear took advantage, capitalizing on the small things he missed in the opening round.
“I was rolling the ball well, so when you see some putts go in early, it always boosts the confidence,” the Leander native said.
Chasing O’Rear are Price Hill of Boerne and Hudson Wilt of Fort Worth. Both players reached 8-under for the tournament heading into the weekend after carding 6-under 64s.
Hill, a golfer at Texas Tech, teed off in the morning and surged up the leaderboard early before the afternoon wave began.
“Yeah, today was nice,” Hill said. “I got off to a hot start that was a lot better than yesterday. I kind of just held on throughout the front nine and then got around on the back. Today I kind of came out of the gates firing, making birdie on one, and then didn’t have a lot of stress from there.”
Joining Hill was Wilt, a collegiate golfer at TCU who was part of the afternoon wave. Wilt’s 64 included an eagle.
Hudson leads his brother, Toby Wilt, by one stroke heading into the weekend in an incredible sibling rivalry that will draw plenty of attention.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Hudson said. “He finished before I even started today, so I knew what his total score was, and I just kept telling myself, ‘Make sure I tee off after him tomorrow.’ It’s a lot of fun, though. We really enjoy being out here together and traveling together.”
Rounding out the top five are Toby Wilt of Fort Worth and Lucas Latimer of Rockwall, who are tied for fourth. Both players sit at 7-under and remain well within striking distance of the lead.
A notable performance in Round 2 was Andrew Baucum of Heath, who carded a hole-in-one on No.3. Baucum hit a pitching wedge 140 yards, where the ball landed perfectly on the green and rolled straight into the hole.
After the completion of Round 2, a cut was made to 54 players to move on to the weekend in pursuit of the H.L. Edwards Trophy.
The total yardage for Round Two of the 116th Texas Amateur presented by Hytera US was 6, 681 yards.
To learn more about the 116th Texas Amateur presented by Hytera US, click here. To view results for Round 2, click here.