The first round of the 2024 IOA Golf Classic presented by LPT Realty was suspended due to darkness; however, the starting times of the second round will not be affected. Before play was suspended, the field signed for some interesting scorecards, which is not unusual when playing Alaqua Country Club. The tight, tree-lined course offers plenty of risk-reward shots, resulting in plenty of eagles and birdies but also just as many bogeys and double bogeys.
Cydney Clanton navigated Alaqua Country Club the best in round one, rolling in five birdies and an eagle on her way to a 6-under 66. The round was nearly bogey-free, with her only hiccup of the day coming on her last hole. A missed green resulted in a testy par putt to save the round, but the ball just slid by the hole, resulting in a bogey.
The 32-year-old is a three-time Epson Tour champion, with her most recent win coming at the 2023 Guardian Championship, where she went wire-to-wire. Clanton feels her game is in a good spot coming into this season and hopes she can continue to play the way she did to close out her 2023 campaign.
"This course is very intimidating to the eye," said Clanton. "I just kept the ball in front of me all day and hit my irons really well, giving myself a lot of really good looks. I think I hit 17 out of 18 greens. It's funny; in 2023, I had a solid finish to my year, and it was the first time I dreaded that my season was ending. So, during the offseason I was just trying to maintain where I was at with my game."
Lindsey McCurdy and Dewi Weber will be the two players starting their second rounds, the closest to Clanton, sitting one shot back of the leader. The pair had very similar first rounds, both bogey-free in their opening nine holes and both recording four birdies in the same span.
The second nine holes looked different, but only by a little. McCurdy birdied twice but also sprinkled in a bogey, while Weber continued her consistent play, going bogey-free for the round and adding one more birdie before her round ended.
"I wouldn't say everything was clicking today, but I hit a lot of really good balls into the green," said Weber. "I was just very close and like very, very close on a few occasions. So that made it easier; I think if the putter was better, it would have been a lot lower, like coming in on the front nine. I don't think I had a putt outside of 12ft until number seven, which coincidentally is the only birdie I made was hole number seven. So yeah, I don't know. I just had a lot of really good ball striking and that's kind of why I scored. Well. And I'm pretty happy with that."
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