Hunters Ridge Golf Course head professional Nate Severin made a comment about Paul Apyan and Mark Blakefield this week that was quoted in the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

“They have the potential to go extremely low, and they can basically outplay the entire field by a round or two,” Severin said. “Not saying it’s going to happen, but they have the potential.”

Not only is Severin a quote-machine, maybe he should go into prognosticating as well.

The two past champions of the TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open, presented by Granite City Food & Brewery, put on quite a show Friday during the second round of the 54-hole tournament.

Trailing first-round leader Jared Howard (Dublin, Ohio) by five and six strokes respectively, Apyan and Blakefield disintegrated the deficit and now sit tied for the lead heading into Saturday’s final round with $25,000 going to the winner.

“We’re friends,” said Apyan of Blakefield. “We’ve gotten to know each other over the years … we’re friends, not best friends, but we’re friends.”

They’ll get to know each other a little more Saturday when they go off at 11:20 at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion along with Jon Jozefowski (Indianapolis, Indiana) in the final group.

First, Apyan posted a 10-under-par 62 to move to 13-under for the tournament. His start wasn’t anything headlines are made of, shooting a 3-under 33 on Hunter’s Ridge back nine, his first of the day.

The headlines came on his second nine, Hunter’s front nine. He strung together five birdies in a row starting with the 18th hole and then added three more on his last four holes to jump into the lead.

“I got off to a slow start, I was burning a lot of cups, then they started going in,” said Apyan. “And we had another player in our group playing well so we sort of fed off each other.”

The other player was Jordan Elsen (West Palm Beach, Florida), who shot a nothing-to-shrug about 8-under 64 in pristine scoring conditions. Elsen is tied with two others at 9-under par.

Blakefield, carrying his own golf bag in the sweltering heat with little breeze, did Apyan one better, literally.

He tied the competitive course record with an 11-under 61 and moved into a tie with Apyan for the lead. Blakefield, who looks more like like a lineman than a golfer, had 11 birdies and no bogeys in his round. He tied 2011 champion Brock Mulder’s mark, which was shot in the first round of that tournament. And by my research, Apyan’s 62 is the fourth time that has been shot in the tournament.

Blakefield will be in the final pairing of the tournament for the third straight year, blowing away the field in ‘14 and never getting it going last year when Apyan went on to the title.

Jozefowski also had an 8-under-64 and is tied with Blake Sattler (New Philadelphia, Ohio) and Seth Fair (Brownsburg, Indiana) at 10 under, three strokes off the pace.

Jozefowski is a University of Indianapolis grad who has won the Indianapolis Open. Sattler, an Akron grad, fired a 9-under-par 63 Friday.

Fair, coming off a tie for second in the Waterloo Open, has a runner-up finish here as well. He shot a 66 Friday.

Elsen, Juan Diego Fernandez (Scottsdale, Arizona) and Armando Villarreal (Dallas, Texas) are another stroke back.

First-round leader Howard had a 1-under 71 and is tied with four others at 8-under.

In the Senior division, Chuck Moran(Grinnell, Iowa) has a six-shot lead over Marshall Gavre (Fairfield, Iowa) heading into the final round.

In the Amatuer divisvion, Eddie Doyle is 2-under and has a four-shot lead over both Matt Junge and high school qualifier Frank Lindwall (Cedar Rapids Washington).

Tee times begin at 7 a.m. today with the leading groups going off around 11. The awards ceremony should happen at about 4 p.m. or a little after. Admission is free.

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Don Wojciechowski resides in the Hunters Ridge Golf Course community and plays the course on a regular basis. He’s a former sports editor for a suburban Chicago daily newspaper and an avid golf fan.