Ihm at home at Hunters Ridge

MARION — On the sunny afternoon, Steven Ihm was a popular man at Hunters Ridge Golf Course during the first round of the Greater Cedar Rapids Open.

Playing with first-round leader Mark Blakefield, who fashioned a 9-under-par 63, and Derek Baade, Ihm finished with a 68, tying him for seventh place.

Today things could get more interesting for the former University of Iowa golfer from Peosta. All afternoon, calls rang in to the Hunters Ridge clubhouse, asking when Ihm would be teeing off on today and where he was on the leaderboard.

'It's fun being from the area and having a lot of people rooting for you,' Ihm said. 'They came out to the (John Deere Classic) every day. I probably had one of the biggest crowds out there.'

Ihm hopes to build off the support in the final two rounds of the tournament.

Before teeing off, he looked toward his caddie and said 'Let's get some birdies.' Ihm sank an approximately 20-foot chip shot to go -1 on the first hole and through his first six holes jumped up to 3-under after and eagle on No. 6.

'There's a lot of birdie holes out there and you can either play this course conservatively or aggressively off the tee,' Ihm said. 'I just didn't want to make any mistakes that would cost me.'

For Blakefield, the hole on each green seemed to be the size of a basketball hoop. The Mayserville, Ky., native birdied eight holes, eagled one and bogeyed one during his first round of the open.

Blakefield said playing in only his second round ever at Hunters Ridge made reading some shots difficult. He said if he wasn't on, it could have been trouble.

'I made a lot of these where, where the pins were, if you didn't have it in the right spot, you didn't have a very makable putt anyway,' Blakefield said. 'I just hit a lot of balls in the right spot and capitalized on almost all of them.'

In the sunny and warm weather, fairways and greens were hard and fast, making the ball travel a little farther than expected at times. With rain in the forecast for today, Blakefield doesn't see too much changing as he tries to protect his lead.

'If the greens soften up, in theory, it should make it a little easier,' Blakefield said. 'But, some of the pins today, if they make them tougher as the week goes on, who knows.'

Andrew Winings, the 2010 champ, is tied for fifth at 5-under and Linn-Mar High School golf coach Bill Hoefle was even and tied for 33rd.

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