THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120628
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 74 lines
Nobody will be any happier than Jason Buha if the recent tradition of the Eastern Amateur holds up.
Buha, a rising senior and No. 1 player at Duke, grabbed the first-round lead in the 72-hole tournament at Elizabeth Manor Thursday, firing a 3-under par 67.
The first-round leader has gone to to win the four-day tourney the past two years. Steve Liebler led wire-to-wire in 1994 and Tom McKnight topped the leaderboard virtually all the way in winning last year.
``I don't want to jinx myself but I don't want to break tradition,'' said the 21-year-old Buha, a native of Farmington Hills, Mich. who wanted to come south to school to play golf year round.
One shot behind the leader at 68 are defending champion Tom McKnight of Galax and Brett Boner, from Birmingham, Ala.
Four others stand at 69 - Troy Ferris of Virginia Beach, Faber Jamerson of Appomattox, David Mandulak of Raleigh and Ernie Newton of High Point, N. C.
Four more are at par 70 - Miguel Rivera of Joppa, Md., Troy Thorne of Warsaw, Va., Albert Hromulak of Johnstown, Pa. and James Van deGriff of Knoxville, Tenn.
Buha, who shot 34-33, had four birdies. His lone bogey came at the par 5 third hole when he had a bad lie and caught a tree on his second shot.
``But I don't think I wasted a single shot,'' said Buha, who is playing in his first Eastern. ``I started on the back with birdie putts of 20 and 32 feet on the first two holes. And I finished up on the front birdie-birdie.
``I guess I had about 26 putts in the round. It was a real good start.''
McKnight zipped out like he was going to leapfrog the field right away. The two-time champion, who became the oldest winner ever last year at 40, birdied three of the first four holes.
After a bogey at No. 8, he added birdies at the 9th and 12th to move 4-under and grab the lead.
``Then I had bogeys at the 14th and 15th. On 14 I hit the side of the green and the ball trickled into the fringe. On 15 I just hit a bad shot and went over the green,'' McKnight said.
McKnight has won the tournament as a first-round leader and from two shots off the pace (1993). ``I'd rather be the leader,'' said McKnight.
The 22-year-old Boner, a member of the Auburn golf team, barely missed matching the tournament record on the back nine. He was a shot off the 30 registered by Morris Beecroft in the third round of the 1970 tourney.
After an up-and-down 37 on the front side with a lone birdie at No. 6, Boner chalked up four birdies on the tougher back nine, at the 10th, 12th, 13th and 15th.
Boner, a fourth-place Eastern finisher in 1994 but 19 shots back last year, missed a 7-foot birdie putt at the 17th and a 3-footer at the 18th that would have given him the record.
``I had no idea about that,'' he said. ``But the 3-footer just lipped out and, believe it or not, that would have been the 11th straight time I would have birdied that hole through the years I've played here. I love No. 18.''
Ferris, a Campbell College player and runner-up in the State Amateur, had 36-33, getting all four of his birdies on the back nine.
Jamerson, who plays for James Madison and was third in the NCAA District II Championship, posted 37-32.
A teammate of Jamerson, Mandulak carded 33-36.
The 48-year-old Newton, whose son Scott had a 72, racked up seven birdies but ran into bogeys at the par 3 holes.
Suffolk's J. P. Leigh, the only other former winner in the field, was bracketed with a dozen others at 72.
The field will be cut to the low 80 and ties after today's second round. ILLUSTRATION: Tom McKnight watches his iron shot on the par-3 ninth
hole at
Elzabeth Manor. He didn't match last year's opening 64.
L. TODD SPENCER
State Am finalist Troy Ferris, left, lines up a putt. Faber
Jamerson, right, strokes one. Both are at 1-under 69. by CNB