Former Saline High School teammates Slade, Paterini and Geiseker reach Michigan Amateur match play

Slade, who trailed leader Brian Hayward by one stroke after Monday’s first round, struggled on his final three holes on Tuesday. He finished with a 72, good for a third-place tie with a two-day score of 139, two strokes behind medalist Hayward.

In second place was 60-year-old Bill Zylstra of Dearborn Heights (68-70—138).

“It was a struggle,” said Slade. “The wind made it challenging, but I was able to grind it out. A couple of errant shots on the last three holes and I paid dearly for it.”

Slade said working two jobs and going to school at Eastern Michigan University does not give him much time to practice.

“I think what is working well is the simplicity of my game,” said Slade. “I don’t have a lot of shots in my arsenal because I don’t have a lot of time to practice. I just try to hit it down the middle.”

Paterini shot a second-round low score of 68 on Tuesday to climb into a fifth-place tie (72-68—140). Ann Arbor’s Casey Baker (71-70—141) was one shot back.

Saline resident Mike Ignasiak (73-72—145), Gieseker (73-73—146) and Ypsilanti’s Steve Fedewa (74-75—149) also advanced to the match play portion of the tournament.

Eastern Michigan golfers Alex Jones of DeWitt (70-71—141), Brian Burt of Lansing (72-74—146), Tommy Conway of Brighton (73-74—147) and Casey Olsen of Okemos (77-73—150) also made the cut.

There will be two rounds of match play on Wednesday to reduce the field to 16.