With an opening round of 1-under par 70, Andrew Gregory put himself in the mix for The Blade championship.

His second round 2-under par 69 built on his opening round results and now the rising senior at Boiling Springs has a 4-shot lead going into the final round.

Gregory didn’t get off to a great start on day two. He bogeyed his opening hole, added another bogey on his fifth hole and a double bogey on number 8.

Fortunately for Gregory, he also put some red numbers on his scorecard before the turn. His three birdies sent him to the back nine at 1-over par for the day.

While first round leader Greg Gaskins from Leesville was struggling with some big numbers to finish well back in a tie for 10th, Gregory turned in a smooth 3-under par card for the back nine to take over the lead.

“I hit the ball pretty good today,” said Gregory. “I kept it in play, and I was making a lot of putts today so that’s kind of what got it going,” he said.

Campbell Skelley had the best round of the day. The Charleston golfer shot a 3-under par 68 to move up to second place while Greenville’s Tip Price shot even par and is in third place.

Last May, Gregory was the anchor on the Boiling Springs High School AAAAA championship team. Some clutch play at the end of the round helped the Bulldogs to win the title by a shot.

Now in the final round, instead of taking one for the team, Gregory is in position to win one for himself.

“I’m planning for no 80’s tomorrow and going to try and keep the ball in play on every hole,” he offered as his game plan for the final round.

Belton’s Jackson Scaletta improved by 9-shots in his second round to move into a fourth place tie with Greg Paolucci from Blythewood.

21 golfers made the cut at 9-over par and will play the third round with the leaders starting on the first tee at 8:51 am.

Anna Fernandez from Hilton Head lost 6-shots of her lead, but still is 2-strokes in front of the girls field going into the final round.

Fernandez shot a 5-over par 76 for a two-day total of 147.

Abby Franks from Roebuck is at 149 after two rounds. Franks shot a second round 1-over par 72.

Ivy Schultz is in third place, but well off the pace of the two leaders.

Scores and final round tee times for The Blade https://scjga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/scjga22/event/scjga2213/contest/1/leaderboard.htm

Yesterday the 10-12 year old golfers played 18 holes for the age group championships. Will McCraw from Inman won the boys title while Kinley Brazell from Blythewood won the girls age group title.