News Staff Report
Buffalo native James Blackwell works full time for Erie County but bested most of the collegiate golfers in the field and put himself atop the leaderboard after the first round of the 63rd Porter Cup Invitational Wednesday.
Blackwell, director of the Erie County office of Equal Employment Opportunity, shot 2-under 68 at Niagara Falls Country Club and stood in a five-way tie for first place after 18 holes.
Blackwell starred at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and played golf at Ball State University, from which he graduated in 2016.
Also at 2-under 68 were Canadian Jacob Presutti, Singapore’s Ryan Ang, Tennessee’s Cade Russell and Southern California’s Jack Boulger.
Presutti, sixth at the Ontario men’s amateur last summer, just finished his sophomore season for the University of Texas El Paso. Ang, 22, is a college student in Singapore and won the Singapore Amateur championship last year. Russell just finished his red-shirt freshman season at the University of Tennessee. Boulger spent three years at the University of Connecticut, transferred and was a starter this spring for USC.
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Twenty-four golfers were within two shots of the lead.
Buffalo District champion Anthony Delisanti, the sophomore-to-be at Valparaiso, shot even-par 70 and stood tied for 11th. Also at even par was NHL referee Garrett Rank, the top-ranked player in the field.
Orchard Park’s Jamie Miller, former Buffalo District champ and the 2018 New York State Mid-Amateur champion, shot 2-over 72.
The 72-hole tournament is free and open to the public. The final round is Saturday.
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