Ihm struggles in rain delay at GCRO

MARION — Mother Nature did her best to spoil the second round of the Greater Cedar Rapids Open on Friday, but after an hour and a half delay, golfers countered in the provided conditions.

After going up and down all afternoon, Peosta native Steven Ihm struggled. He finished with a second-round 76, 4-over for the day, putting him even in the tournament.

Ihm said he battled with windy and rainy conditions in his first nine holes. After triple-bogeying Hole 11, Ihm was still calm, cool and collected after turning in his score card.

'You can't let your golf scores decide your attitude,' Ihm said. 'You're going to have rough days like today, poor ball striking days but you have to take the good with the bad and keep going.'

Day 1 leader Mark Blakefield may have felt frustrated like Ihm, but still finished under par for his second round. He was 3-under, adding to his lead and closing the day at 12-under overall. Blakefield said conditions were not favorable to the early group of golfers.

'The way we played for our first 13 or 14 holes, (the wind) was really humming,' Blakefield said. 'It was hard to get a shot really close to the hole. I just played a lot of pars; it was hard to get aggressive.'Blakefield, who hails from Mayserville, Ky., said his friends convinced him to get into the Great Cedar Rapids Open. So far, it's proved to be a good decision on his part.

'I've played (the) Waterloo (Open) the last couple years and had some friends come down here afterwards and say how good of a tournament it was,' Blakefield said. 'So, I decided to come try it out.'

Scott Benson, a volunteer committee member of the Great Cedar Rapids Open, said the committee formulated their plan to accommodate the golfers and their play after the rain delay early in the morning.

'They'll try to get everyone in,' Benson said. 'Most likely, they want to get all of the professionals through 18 holes. The final tee times are amateurs. If they don't finish … they'll start early tomorrow morning wherever they left off.' Benson said the second round would be played as long as the sun allowed. Around 1:30 p.m., clear skies began to break through for the tournament

Linn-Mar golf coach Bill Hoefle as 1-over par. Amateur leader Ryan Schrimper, of Marion, didn't get to complete his round due to the delay earlier in the day. He will complete his round on Saturday.

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