Knoxville’s Davis Bunn feels as though he has arrived at the right place playing golf collegiately at UTC.
The Southern Conference school has been as competitive as many Southeastern Conference teams recently and even reached the NCAA national tournament this year.
“It’s a good place to be,” the 2010 Farragut High graduate said. “They have great golf courses down there. And everybody on the team, we’re like one big family. Everybody looks out for each other.”
During the third round of the Tennessee State Amateur Thursday at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville, his ball was arriving at all the right places as well – except for No. 3, where he landed in two different bunkers and suffered a double bogey.
Despite that misfortune, he was at 2-under par for the day after 13 and was likely ready to move up the leader board after starting his round tied for 13th.
But a torrential downpour that would have caused visibility problems on even 10-foot putts postponed the remainder of the third round until today for approximately half the golfers.
Tournament officials decided at 4 p.m. to suspend Thursday’s uncompleted rounds, with play scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. today. The fourth round will also be completed today for the all the golfers, barring more rain delays.
Of the golfers who had completed their third round, Matt Emery of Franklin was the leader at 1-over-par 211 following a 67. Tim Jackson of Germantown was the leader after two rounds at 10 under.
Bunn reacted to the rain delay with as much disappointment as if he had made a bogey.
“I wish the rain had held off for awhile because I was in a groove,” he said.
Despite his good play this week, his chances of being a major contributor to the UTC program this year are as uncertain as the weather this time of year. Even if he continues to play well, he said the team returns all but one starter and has three solid freshmen enrolling this fall.
Bunn was in and out of the competitive lineup last year, but did get to travel with the team to play in the NCAAs at historic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, which has hosted a U.S. Open and two PGA Championships.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I hit it really well, but didn’t make a lot of putts. But being out there was awesome.”
jcshearer2@comcast.net
To view the State Amateur leader board:
http://www.ghintpp.com/tga/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=93