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maintain his two-stroke lead over Luthie; however, Cliff Matthews and

Todd Barfield gained 3-strokes by starting day two with each scoring a
th
th
22. Amazingly, Matthews would follow up his 5 round 22 with a 6
round 22 and Luthie would shoot a 24 to now place him in a tie with

Reeves – who was shooting respectful scores of 25 and 26 - but gave up

five strokes to the many players shooting lower scores consistently. At
the end of round 6, Reeves and Luthie were tied, Toff Barfield and Billy

Caudle were two strokes back, Greg Newport trailed by 3 strokes and
Mathews, after trailing by 11 strokes at the beginning of the morning,

had now gained 6 strokes in two rounds. Round 7 found some

electrifying scores being shot and players now positioning themselves
for the race to the finish. Matthews followed his pair of 22s with a 23.

However, Luthie bettered Matthews by one and shot-a 22, but better

yet was a 21 by Robert Johnson who was steadily gaining on the leaders
after shooting scores of 25 and 23 in rounds 5 and 6. Reeves struggled

in round 7 and found himself deflated. He was now 7 strokes behind

the tournament leader Bo Luthie. Luthie was not unfamiliar with
winning. He had success on state tours for many years; however,

leading a major championship with 18 holes remaining was a new, and

maybe uncomfortable position. Luthie was leading by three over
Robert Johnson, by four over Caudle and Newport and five over the

determined Matthews. Interestingly, quietly trailing by 7 was Todd
Barfield – a player that was known for closing tournaments with low

scores. Unfortunately for Luthie, the pace of which he had set for the

tournament came to an abrupt halt as he could fare no better than a
closing score of 31. It could have been nerves, lack of concentration,

bad breaks – but probably a combination of all the factors. However,
Luthie played an excellent tournament against the best players and

held his own. Matthews cooled off a bit with an excellent 24 and

Johnson closed with a 26 - both at a tie for the low total of 201.