Riley Davis has one last shot at winning his hometown tournament on his hometown course.
After 18 holes he’s in a good spot.
Davis, a Kinston native who graduated from Parrott Academy last month, fired a 3-under 68 to hold the clubhouse lead after the first day of the 28th annual Roy Jones/BB&T Junior Golf Classic at the Kinston Country Club on Tuesday.
Davis, who has never won the event, holds a two-stroke lead over former Parrott teammate Jack Sides for the 16-18 age group title and the overall tournament championship.
“I’ve never won this tournament before. It means a lot to me to win it because I’ve played it forever and it’s my home course,” Davis said. “This is my last chance to win it.
“I’m expecting myself to win this tournament. There’s no reason I shouldn’t.”
Even with that kind of confidence, the future UNC-Pembroke golfer was actually quite displeased with his round, feeling he left a few strokes out on the course.
He missed two putts within 3 feet — one for a birdie at the par-4 first — and didn’t play the par-5s particularly well, to Davis’s standards anyways.
But even with a few missed opportunities comes his first opportunity to win the title Davis has long coveted.
“That’s golf,” he said. “I really wish I could have tore it up today; I could have gone low, low low. I really putted fine. I just had two mental mess-ups on 1 and 6. And not birdying 7 and 18 (the par 5s) is just pathetic to me. I should have never not birdied those two holes.
“I grinded on a lot of holes.”
Lurking behind is Sides, a New Bern native who led Parrott Academy in scoring average this season at 72, has signed to play golf at High Point University, was named the Eastern Plains Independent Conference player of the year and won the N.C. High School Invitational in April.
Like Davis, Sides left some shots out on the course. But overall he considered his opening 18 holes to be “consistent.”
“I hit it really well besides two drives. I just didn’t get the putts to fall. Lots of letdowns but it was a pretty solid round,” Sides said. “I just need to keep doing the same thing and hope the putts fall. That’s about it.”
Sides had a three birdie, two bogey round, and now sits looking up at Davis.
While Davis is gunning for the title, Sides has a more relaxed approach.
“I’m just trying to have fun,” Sides said. “It’d be cool if I did (win), though.”
Although he classified his day as a grind, Davis’s birdie at the long par-3 13th helped make up for the two short misses on the green.
Davis stuck his tee shot to about 12 feet, then holed the long putt to steal a stroke he felt he left out there earlier.
At the 12th Davis’s approach landed just short of the green, but he was able to get up and down for birdie and keep his round afloat.
“Those were good birdies,” he said.
The short, par-71 course played tricky on Tuesday due to the rain that fell overnight.
It is known for its firm greens, but the rain softened them out, which was something Davis, who plays here nearly every day, had to work out.
“It’s wet out there,” he said. “The greens are really soft right now.”
If Davis is to achieve his goal of winning the Tarheel Youth Golf Association’s five-multiplier tournament, he feels he needs to have a better mindset.
“Not making mental mistakes like I did today — you know, just playing solid golf,” he said. “I’d love to shoot around 68 tomorrow, I think that’ll do it. I think 68 will hold the lead.”
Ultimately, Davis just wants to hold the trophy.
“I’m going to go all out and try as hard as I possibly can. I’m playing pretty decent golf right now. Just try and keep it up,” he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on me tomorrow, I’m sure, because I want to win it so bad.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.
Leaderboard
Boys
16-18
Riley Davis 35-33—68
Jack Sides 35-35—70
Ryan Barrett 37-35—72
P.J. Kester* 36-36—72
Nick Adams 33-40—73
Bryce Hendrix 38-35—73
Alex Paoloni 37-36—73
Local notables: David White 40-37—77, Matt Simmons 41-37—78, Ben Potter 42-39—81
*—defending champion
14-15
Reid Darden 37-34—71
Patrick Stephenson 37-35—72
Kevin Sowinski 38-35—73
Local notable: Cameron Minyard 51-49—100
12-13
Matthew Chandler 30-39—69
Kenan Poole II 37-36—73
Britt Stroud 40-34—74
Chriseagle Kim 38-36—74
10-11
Connor Dunn 41
James Carlon 45
Local notable: Jackson Crocker 55