Sam Gorall of Greenwood fired a 76 in his opening round of the IGA Mid-Am Thursday at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club. (Photos by Mike Deak)

LEESBURG – Defending Champion Brett Widner leads the field after firing a 4-under-par, 66 at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club during the opening round of the IGA Mid-Amateur Championship. A one shot lead over Fort Wayne’s Joe Hayden and Pendleton’s Ricky Jones separates Widner from a Mid-Am repeat heading to the final round tomorrow.

“I bogeyed my first hole of the day (10), but bounced back with birdies on holes 16 and 17,” said Widner of Avon, Ind. “Driving the ball well is the key to my game and I was able to hit the ball really straight today putting myself in good positions.”

Widner carded six birdies today on holes 4, 6, 7, 9, 16, and 18, all par-4s, to give himself a second look at victory.

“I try not to set goals about winning events,” Widner said. “If I continue to drive the ball well I should be able to keep myself in it. I worked on my game a lot last year and have had a lot of success recently. It would be great to keep the momentum going and go out and win tomorrow.”

Greg Werner of McCordsville shot a round of 77 at the IGA Mid-Am at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club Thursday morning.

Hayden, a three-time winner of the Tournament of Champions, also finds himself in contention after carding an impressive nine birdies during today’s round.

“I had one terrible hole where I made a nine (18), but I bounced back making six birdies on the front side,” Hayden said. “I kept the ball in play and I hit a lot of great second shots. I like the position I’m in and I feel comfortable being in contention. With the strong field at this event, it will definitely take two great rounds to win.”

Jones, also just one shot back, played consistently on the front nine carding nine pars in a row.

“After nine holes, I got tired of making pars,” Jones said. “I decided to be aggressive on the par-5, 14th because I knew I could carry the water. I hit a good tee shot and hit my 9-iron to three feet and sunk the putt for eagle. I didn’t get as many putts to fall as I would have liked and felt like I was just inches away from today being an outstanding round. I hope I’m able to make more putts tomorrow and give myself a chance.”

Mike Bell of Indianapolis, Mike Cline of Carmel, and Curt Puckett of Farmland fired 2-under-par, 68s and head to the final round two shots back.

Only four area players are in the field, led by Wabash’s Wayne Denger tied for 10th at an even 70. Denger was three under on the front side with a 32, but a three-over 38 on the back side evened his round.

Tracy Miller of Bremen sits at plus-two and tied for 22nd, Stanley Gebo of South Bend sits at four-over and Tim Cmar of South Whitley is one back of Gebo at five-over. Miller birdied 16 as his only blue box of the day while Gebo birdied nine only to have a double bogey on 16 set him back. Cmar recovered from a plus-five after four holes to remain even the final 14 holes.

Full results from round one can be found on the IGA leaderboard.