Cannon Heats Up At Just The Right Time

Jonathan Fricke

Indian Trail, NC. – In every sport, there is a time of the year in which to peak. In college basketball, you want your team firing on all cylinders come March. In the NFL, the colder it gets outside, the better you want to play and the more vital each Sunday seems to feel. In developmental tour golf, the entire year means nothing if you don’t play well in the fall. Given that theory, Matt Cannon might be hitting his stride at just the right time. The Tarheel Tour’s all-time and current leading money winner is usually the favorite at Charlotte National each year, but two wins and two runner-up finishes this summer adds credence to the idea that he might be the man to beat every week. Through two rounds of the MonaVie Open at Charlotte National Golf Club, Cannon finds himself at 11-under 133 and in control yet again.

Cannon began his second round on the back nine at Charlotte National and didn’t take long to heat up. A birdie at the short par-4 10th and later a birdie at the par-5 13th brought the Huntersville, NC native to eight-under par for the tournament. A string of six straight pars brought Cannon to the reachable par-5 second, where he began another stretch of solid golf. Birdies at holes No. 2, 4, 7, and 8, coupled with a bogey at the seventh, left Cannon with a round of 67 and a one-shot lead over Brian Quackenbush heading into Friday’s final round.

Quackenbush got off to a slightly rougher start on Thursday with a double-bogey at the par-4 11th which was later compounded by a bogey at the short par-4 14th. Three-over through five holes is hardly a solid start, but six birdies on the final 13 holes is the finish you would expect from the 2006 Southern Open champion, and that’s what Quackenbush delivered in a recovery effort that left him with a round of 69 and a 36-hole total of 134.

Ben McClung and Rich Hanna each sit two shots behind Cannon heading into the final round. McClung, a resident of Jacksonville, FL, carded a second-round 69 and will find himself in Friday’s final pairing with Cannon and Quackenbush. Hanna will be looking to capture his second career Tarheel Tour title and at worst record his third top-10 finish of the 2007 season and first since the Spring Creek Classic in June. The 2005 Treyburn Open winner fired a bogey-free round of 68 on Thursday.

The low round of the day was shared by Derek Brown and Steve Gilley, who each used seven birdies and 11 pars en route to rounds of 65. Brown sits alone in fifth place at eight-under-par 136, while Gilley is one shot back in a two-way tie for sixth with Rohan Allwood.

The shot of the day came at the par-3 12th when Matthew Cram-Smith recorded a hole-in-one on his way to a round of 68, which tied his low 18-hole score of the year. Cram-Smith’s round was likely an emotional roller coaster as the Australian carded a hole-in-one, seven birdies, six pars, three bogeys, and a double-bogey at the par-4 17th.

The 36-hole cut fell at 2-under-par 142, with 45 players making it to Friday’s final round. MonaVie representative, and former Daytona 500 champion, Geoff Bodine will present the $15,000 winners check to the champion immediately following the final round.