Sports

Sylvester's Skinner has rough Day 3, but happy to be back

• After a drought of missing the cut in 21 Nationwide Tour events in a row, Sylvester native Sonny Skinner - who had a tough third round at 3-over Saturday - is glad to just be back playing pro golf.

Danny Aller

ATHENS - During the past three days of the Nationwide Tour's Athens Regional, there was little that could take the smile off Sonny Skinner's face.

And Saturday's 3-over third round for the Sylvester native - who had missed 21 Nationwide cuts in a row before snapping that funk Friday - was a testament to that.

"I'm just happy to be here," Skinner told The Herald late Saturday after finishing a dismal third round that saw him drop from seven strokes off the leader after Day 2, to 12 strokes back Saturday of leader Greg Owen, who was on top with a three-day total of 205. "I've had some struggles making cuts out here these past few years, so I was just stoked to be competing again.

But my putter just let me down (Saturday). I was trying to be too aggressive."

Skinner, who works as a teaching pro at Albany's River Pointe Golf Club, qualified for the event under a Nationwide Tour rule that opens up three spots for each Tour tournament for golf pros in the state where the event is being held.

Not only did Skinner finish in the Top 3 for the Athens qualifier, he also finished high enough to warrant a spot to play the Nationwide Tour event in Valdosta in two weeks.

"I've made more than 150 career cuts on the Nationwide Tour," said Skinner. "So I'm a veteran, at least in that sense, at making them. I just haven't played as well as I would've liked these past couple of years when I've been out there."

But Skinner wasn't alone in Athens on Saturday in that he not only had longtime River Pointe member Bill Clark serving as his caddie - Clark and Skinner have worked together for 10 years now - but Skinner got a chance to meet up with an old friend before teeing off Saturday morning.

Josh Broadaway, the Albany native who has been a mainstay on the Nationwide Tour these last few years, also made the cut Friday and sat seven shots off leader Owen on Saturday after firing a third-round 70.

And after two days of just missing each other, the duo finally got a chance to say hello on Day 3.

"When I saw Josh (Saturday) morning, it was great. We gave each other a big high-five right away," Skinner said. "He was trying to give me words of encouragement for an old man like myself out here trying to make the cut."

Skinner said he entered the third round looking to make a splash, but instead bottomed out with several bogeys on the front nine. He shot par on the back nine, but by then, the damage had already been done.

"There were a lot of three putts from 25 feet (Saturday) and that's just a tough thing to recover from," Skinner said. "But with me and Bill here - we call ourselves 'The Dynamic Duo' - (today) should still be fun ... even if we weren't very dynamic on Saturday."

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