John Newcomer sure was glad Gary Woodland was on his side Wednesday during the second day of the Kansas Golf Assn. Fourball Championship.

Woodland was about the hottest golfer at Alvamar as the two combined to lead following two qualifying rounds of the five-day tournament by shooting a 130.

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“He definitely carried me out there today,” said Newcomer, who’ll be a senior at Topeka Hayden in the fall. “He did most of the workload.”

Woodland, a recent graduate of Shawnee Heights who will play next season at Washburn, admitted he had a good day. He stressed, however, that his partner wasn’t as shabby as he made himself sound.

Whatever the duo’s strategy, the golfers seem to be in good shape as their 10-under-par score will make them the top-seeded team when the 32-team match play begins at 9 this morning.

Their opponent is yet to be determined, though, because 14 teams still were playing when the second round was suspended because of darkness. The setbacks occurred because Tuesday’s first round was delayed by lightening three times, and 52 teams had to complete the opening round Wednesday morning.

Dan Cooper watches his shot on the 18th hole. Cooper was completing Tuesday's rain-shortened first round on Wednesday at Alvamar during the KGA Fourball Championship.

None of the weather woes bothered the Topeka tandem, which finished its first round Tuesday with a 3-under 67 and avoided having to wake up early Wednesday.

“The weather was great,” said Woodland. “We got rained on there for just a bit, but it was almost perfect.”

Same could be said about their second round.

The two started on the back nine and shot 2-under through the stretch with Woodland highlighting hole No. 11 with a 35-yard chip for birdie.

He got even closer on No. 7 when his tee shot tapped off the pin.

“Yeah, I played pretty well,” Woodland said with a smile. “We kept the ball in play and gave ourselves a chance to make birdies.”

The tandem finished the front nine five shots under par and now hope to keep that momentum rolling today.

“I don’t think our goal has really changed,” Newcomer said. “We thought that we’d have a shot to win this tournament coming in, but now we’re backed up with even more confidence.”

The two have been this far in the fourball tourney before. They entered the second stage as the No. 16 seed last season, but say it feels a lot better being the top team.

“It wasn’t our goal coming in here to win this part, but we’ll take it,” said Woodland, who shot a 67 at Alvamar during a high school tournament earlier this spring. “We feel pretty good about our chances to continue. It’s a great field with a lot of Kansas (University) and Wichita State golfers, but if we can continue this momentum we could get going.”