DiMarco excels at Reno with son by his side
For the first time since 2008, Chris DiMarco finds himself in the top 10 in the Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf and Country Club in Sierra Nevada. DiMarco shot a five-under par 67 to land himself the second place seating behind first round leader Matt Bettencourt.
With 14-year-old son Christian DiMarco on his bag, DiMarco has been making strong strides towards winning the three day tournament and its $3.5 million purse. His son has been giving him good advice, calling him off of using a driver and suggesting a 2-iron would make a better shot on the tricky mountain greens. His call proved to be perfect as DiMarco shot the ball 138 feet from the elevated green on the eighth hole.
"It's about the coolest thing I've ever done on a golf course, having my son there sitting right next to me making birdies and playing well," said DiMarco "He's a 3 or 4 handicap himself, so he can read greens."
DiMarco's career is older than his caddie
DiMarco, 41, birdied the last three holes on Thursday and has earned more than $20 million in his 16 year career. He has made 10 of 15 cuts this year and his best finish has been a top 25 spot. DiMarco’s all-time best finish was in 2005 when he came in seventh on the PGA Tour money list and lost the Masters by two strokes to come in runner up to Tiger Woods.
DiMarco was also a runner up to Woods at the 2006 British Open. He ended that season early to fly home to undergo shoulder surgery and has since been steadily working towards a comeback.
“Obviously, I think I can still win out here," DiMarco said. "My confidence is slowly but surely coming back. I'm starting to get comfortable on the golf course again." DiMarco hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since the 2002 Phoenix Open.
Having his son alongside for the competition is having a positive effect on DiMarco after deciding to give his regular caddie a break. In 2006 DiMarco won an event on the European Tour in Abu Dhabi when wife Amy was on the bag, and won the 2001 Buick Challenge with brother Mitch as his caddie. It has paid off to keep things in the family and DiMarco is hoping for the same kind of luck to carry over to the final rounds this weekend.
The 2006 Reno champion Will McKenzie and Craig Bowden were both two shots off the pace. Their final score after the second day was 68 and earned them a tie for T-3 at four-under. McKenzie lost a ball in the sagebrush and hit a tree on the 518-yard par five fourth hole to walk away with a double bogey.
Bettencourt the man to beat
Bettencourt sits in first place with six-under. The Northern California native hit a 355-yard drive on the par five 17th hole to knock a 4-iron 260 yards and only three feet away from the hole. He had a disappointing 18th hole where he picked up a bogey.
Bettencourt, 35, won the 2008 Nationwide Tour Championship but has no PGA wins. He claimed to have played about 100 rounds of golf growing up around the neighboring Reno area, and has made a dozen trips to Montreux in the last decade.
When asked about how he thinks he has been playing, Bettencourt is happy and considers his confidence steadily improving,
"I feel really acclimated to the elevation...The whole game is about confidence. I think that's what Tiger [Woods] has bred so well over his career. I mean, he's so much more confident than everybody else. We all believe in ourselves. You know, it's just the matter of getting on a hot streak."
Defending Reno-Tahoe Champion John Rollins matched the course record with a 62 last year but shot a 71 on Thursday though he insists he “played a lot better than he scored.”
Tags: