LEWISTON — Chase Nevins knew the course at Niagara Falls Country Club played fast, but he couldn’t have predicted his start.
A native of Great Falls, Virginia, Nevins opened the 65th Porter Cup Wednesday by registering birdies on each of his first six holes and seven of the first eight. At 9-under-par through 15 holes, Nevins flirted with the tournament’s single-round record, but a bogey on the seventh hole put him at 8-under-par 62 to take a two-stroke lead.
Bill Haas holds the tournament record with a low round of 60 in 2003 and the last man or woman to shoot 8 under since Brooke Henderson in 2014. He now holds a lead on Charlie Bundy and a three-shot lead on 2022 runner-up Garrett Engle.
“I’m just keeping the pressure on,” Nevins said. “I mean, we still have so much golf. It doesn’t doesn’t change anything yet.”
Nevins, who completed his first season at Vanderbilt, finished tied for 18th last season after shooting 3 over. He birdied 13 holes total last year and is on pace to shatter that after posting nine birdies Wednesday.
Shooting a 28 through the front nine, coming up with a big putt to save par on the 18th hole after an errant tee shot, Nevins then shot par on the first two holes of the back nine, before adding two more birdies. Midway through the round, Nevins started adding up his score in his mind and came up with a lofty goal.
“I knew I could score with this weather because there’s pretty scorable conditions,” Nevins said. “So it wasn’t too hard out there, but I didn’t really have a number in my mind. When I shot 28 on the front, I was thinking if all goes just kind of as planned, I could probably shoot 59.”
Nevins finally got into trouble on the seventh hole — he started on the 10th hole instead of the first with staggered starts — when he missed a putt for birdie. He shot a 34 on the back nine, but was pleased with his putts overall.
“I have so much momentum,” Nevins said. “It didn’t really bother me too much, it’s more just like, if you’re trying to really take it deep, you can’t really make those mistakes coming down the stretch. But that’s about it.”
Bundy, a junior-to-be at William & Mary and a native of Frederick, Maryland, is still in a good spot after being the only player in the field to hit par or better on all 18 holes. He had one birdie in his first seven holes, but caught fire on the 17th hole, starting a run of three consecutive birdies and four out of five to finish with a 6-under-par 64.
Rain Tuesday and early Wednesday made the course soft, but Bundy thought it was good, particularly the greens.
“Sometimes you just get on a little streak and I was able to ride that and get some birdies in a row and that’s kind of, I guess, the turning point of the round,” Bundy said.
Bundy has a one shot lead on Engle, who bogeyed his second hole but got it back with an eagle on the 13th hole. He knocked in four birdies on the back nine to finish with a 65. Noah Kumar (Florida), Tommy Dallahan (Connecticut), Ben Carpenter (Connecticut) and Rocco Salvitti (Pennsylvania) are tied for fourth at 4 under.
Last year’s champion Juan Martin Loureiro is tied for eighth at 3 under, one shot better than he was after the first round a year ago. Runner-up from 2023, Charlie Berridge, is 2 under, one stroke ahead of Shubham Jaglan, who finished fourth last year.
Tonawanda’s Ryan Edholm is tied for 23rd at 1 under, while Elma’s Billy Hanes is 1 over. North Tonawanda’s Matthew Pawlak is 2 over and Youngstown’s Rocco Randazzo is 5 over.
Phung sisters start hot
After finishing two shots off the lead a year ago, 16-year-old Amelie Phung shot a scoring 5 under par to open the women’s tournament.
Phung shot 10 over last year after shooting seven birdies the entire tournament. On Wednesday, Phung birdied seven holes, shooting par or better on her first seven holes of the round.
Heading into the second round, Phung has a three-shot lead on Canadian Ella Weber, whom she tied as the runners-up last year. Phung’s younger sister by two years, Alexandra, is tied with Rhode Island native Kylie Eaton for third place at 1 under.
Last year only five rounds under par were recorded the entire tournament and two of them came from champion Sarah Gallagher. The Ontario native was 2 under through the first round a year ago, but is tied for 27th with a 7-over-par first round.
East Aurora’s Gwendolyn Yarnall and Clarence’s Victoria Leach are tied for 19th at 5 over.
The Porter Cup resumes Thursday with the first tee time at 8:40 a.m.