Blackard, a Fort Branch, Ind. native, carded six birdies and one bogey in his opening round, including birdies on holes No. 2, 3, and 5, to get off to a hot start. He finished in solo third place at the 2024 Azalea Invitational. 

Blackard won the 2024 Evansville City Championships at Evansville Country Club and won the 2023 Donald Ross Junior Championship at Pinehurst in North Carolina.

Preston Hage is in solo second place at 4-under, and Chandler Mulkey is in solo third place at 3-under. 23 golfers are even par or better heading into the second round and are within five shots of the lead. 

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Five facts about the Azalea Invitational

The Azalea attracts the very best Mid-Ams and Juniors from across the country and internationally each year, along with a unique blend of college players, depending on the college schedules that year.

As one player stated, “Because of the time of year the Azalea is played, The Azalea brings together a rare combination of accomplished golfers along with golfers who are beginning their careers.”

Established in 1786, the Country Club of Charleston was the first golf club in the United States. The current course was designed by Seth Raynor in 1925, with revisions by John LaFoy in 1990 after Hurricane Hugo leveled hundreds of trees there.

The course is vintage Raynor, with sectioned tabletop greens, flat linear bunkers with steep grass slopes, and some bold and unusual holes. Without question, the most (in)famous hole is the 187-yard 11th, to a narrow angled tabletop green with amazingly deep bunkers on either side.

Ben Hogan cursed the hole, and it is not unusual in tournament play to see players lay up short of the green rather than go back and forth from bunker to bunker. Other notable holes include the 432-yard 16th, protected in front by a deep Lion's Mouth bunker, and the 333-yard 14th, which features one of the best greens Raynor ever built.