Former Hawkeye golfer Brian Bullington back in contention at Greater Cedar Rapids Open

MARION — In spite of his early score, Brian Bullington knew he was playing well.

In Thursday’s opening round of the Greater Cedar Rapids Open, the former University of Iowa golfer bogeyed four of the first five holes. Since those early struggles, Bullington has been terrific.

“Sometimes with golf, things don't work out as planned,” Bullington said after shooting a 7-under par score of 65 in the second round of the GCRO Friday at Hunters Ridge Golf Course. “So I knew if I just kind of kept doing what I was doing, eventually things would turn around. I would have liked to have had a few less bogeys yesterday, but luckily I had all the birdies to offset it. So really just doing a lot of the same stuff. Funny enough, it has just worked out.”

Bullington, 30, began the climb up the leaderboard Thursday with seven birdies over the final 13 holes to propel him to 1-under par. During Friday’s second round, he continued the surge with six more birdies, plus an eagle on the par-five No. 12.

“That was a little unexpected,” Bullington said of his eagle. “I felt like I stole one there.”

One hole after the eagle, aggressive play resulted in Bullington’s lone bogey of the second round, but he deftly shook off the brief setback with three birdies over the final five holes to finish 8-under par through two rounds of the tournament.

“I did a very good job of just staying shot to shot,” Bullington said. “I kind of figured it happens to everyone. … Overall, yes I was a little bit frustrated (about the bogey) at the time, but I let it pass pretty quickly, made a nice par on the next (hole) and got me back on track.”

Bullington golfed for the Hawkeyes from 2011-15 and currently resides outside of Chicago. This year, he competed in five events on the Latin America portion of the first-year PGA Tour Americas, which replaced PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica. Going forward, he will focus on preparation for the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School this October.

Bullington has competed in the GCRO several times over the last decade. His best finish was fourth in 2018.

“I love coming back here and obviously it is close to Iowa City,” Bullington said. “I get to eat at Short’s Burgers, which is great. … It kind of feels like coming back to my college days a little bit.”

After holding the tournament lead for the majority of Friday, back-to-back strong rounds from former University of Michigan golfer Nick Carlson (11-under par though two rounds) and another Iowa alumnus, Alex Schaake (9-under), dropped Bullington to third place at press time.

The final round is Saturday.

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“The hardest thing to do when you get closer to the end of an event is to not try or not change what you're doing,” Bullington said. “I don't need to do anything different than what I've been doing the past few days. It gets redundant and a lot of golfers say it, but it's truly one shot at a time and the good news is, I know that even if I make a bogey or whatever happens, I know everything is going to be OK. I'm just excited for the opportunity, obviously, to go play, to compete for the title and then just see how it unfolds.”