ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- One of the biggest wild cards in golf is the effect of weather changes throughout the course of the round. Most times, those changes have subtle impacts on the way holes play, but after a five-hour rain delay, the effects were anything but subtle for day one of the Holiday Inn Express Classic. Brooks Baldwin was one of three players to post a 69 on the day after having the good fortune to start with a birdie on the notorious 13th hole. The Missouri Western freshman would birdie four of his first six holes on the day to finish two under and lead MWSU's second team to a fourth-place spot on the leaderboard with a 293 (+9) on the day. Tom Buffington, Matt Thoms and Aiman Akmal each carded two-over 73s to finish in a nine-man group in 18th. Missouri Western's first team finished the day just eight shots behind Washburn, with a four-man total of 299 (+15) good for a seventh-place tie with Southwestern Oklahoma State.
By way of comparison, Buffington shot a gritty par on the par-3 13th, as the greens had shifted from slick to sticky as the rain let up throughout the day. Thoms had a bit of an up-and-down round for the Griffons, shooting a birdie on the par-4 sixth before a bogey/double bogey combination on seven and eight. He managed to recover with birdies on the first and second holes to close out his round.
Akmal was steady throughout the day, with a birdie on 17 after starting on the 15th. He clawed back to even with birdies on eight and 10, but sandwiched bogeys around a par on the 13th to finish out the first 18.

4th - Missouri Western "B" 293 (+9)
T2 - Brooks Baldwin 69 (-2)
T18 - Aiman Akman 73 (+2)
T27 - Jake Mikesch 74 (+3)
T44 - Victor Yu Kai 77 (+6)
86 - Daniel Love 86 (+17)

T7th - Missouri Western 299 (+15)
T18 - Tom Buffington 73 (+2)
T18 - Matt Thoms 73 (+2)
T35 - Jett Simmons 76 (+5)
T44 - Cristoffer Rudosky 77 (+6)
T73 - Jeffery Johnston 81 (+10)