It was only a qualifying round for the Francis Hagan Match Play Championship, but Kyle Kovar and Nick Wilson treated it as a head-to-head competition.

Parker Eshelman photo

Kyle Kovar tees off at the 16th hole of the Francis Hagan Match Play tournament yesterday at Lake of the Woods Golf Course. Kovar is tied for the lead at 3-under-par.

The former Hickman teammates, playing one group apart, were keeping tabs on each other throughout the morning as they made their way around Lake of the Woods Golf Course.

Kovar teed off on No. 18 as Wilson was capping off his round of 3-under-par 68 on the green ahead. He had a pretty good idea he’d have to do something special to keep pace.

"I knew it was going to be close because I followed him all day, and we were talking back and forth the whole time," Kovar said. "I hit it down the middle, chunked a second shot from about 90 yards but made about a 35-foot putt to tie him at 68."

They shared the low score of the day, though because he finished first, Wilson grabbed the top seed in the match play portion of the tournament, which begins at 7 a.m. today.

Wilson, a Hickman senior-to-be, will tee off in the morning’s first pairing against No. 64 seed Rob Gaines, and he’ll hope to continue his hot putting when he does.

Wilson was rolling them in from all over yesterday. He sank a 12-footer for birdie on No. 8, a 12-footer for birdie on 14 and another 12-footer for birdie on No. 16. He two-putted for another birdie on the par-5 ninth, and his only blemish came with a bogey on No. 5 when he hung his tee shot out right.

"I didn’t have one three-putt, and I made a few putts from 4 or 5 feet for par," said Wilson, who finished third at last weekend’s Phil Cotton Invitational at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. "From that distance, 3 or 4 feet, I putted very well."

The secret to his success might have been a recently purchased Scotty Cameron putter and a lesson on the putting green Friday evening at The Club at Old Hawthorne.

He had just returned from an American Junior Golf Association tournament in Wichita, Kan. He finished the 54-hole event in a tie for 56th place, and he said his shaky putting cost him as many as seven strokes during a round of 83.

With help of instructor John Utley and his father, Mike Wilson Sr., who got him standing up taller and gripping the club lower, Wilson seemed to make a breakthrough, and it showed yesterday.

But in a match play tournament, the previous day’s success is virtually meaningless.

"You can’t win it in one day," said Kovar, last year’s Francis Hagan runner-up. "All you’re doing is putting yourself in position."

Kovar, a sophomore-to-be on the William Woods golf team, put himself in good position with six birdies and only three bogeys. He was 4-under after making his fifth birdie of the day on the par-5 11th, but back-to-back bogeys at 13 and 14 dropped him back behind Wilson. He caught up with that 35-footer on No. 18.

Tyler Cornell, a 15-year-old member of Rock Bridge’s junior varsity team this season, owned the clubhouse lead before Wilson and Kovar finished. Cornell carded a 70, the lowest round of his life.

With his mother caddying for him, Cornell, who started on the back nine, recovered from a poorly struck 7-iron that led to a bogey on the par-3 10th. He made birdies on 12, 14 and 17 to make the turn at 1-under par.

He played even on the front nine and lipped out a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 9.

Cornell earned the No. 3 seed and will play Leroy Kovar, Kyle’s father.

Lurking not far behind Cornell are several past Francis Hagan champions. Tim Rooney, the 1999 winner, matched Cornell’s 70 and claimed the fourth seed. Joe Bellmer, the 1996 champion, grabbed the sixth seed with a round of 71. Defending champion David McDonald, a four-time winner, is seeded 14th after a round of 72. Hickman graduate D.J. Chung, who won the event in 2003, fired a 73 and is seeded 20th.

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