By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

A Topeka native, Lyle Christensen lived in Hays for nine years and always enjoyed playing golf at Smoky Hill Country Club. He became a member, won the club championship two seasons ago, and has a photo of the signature hole, the par-3 18th, as the backdrop on his laptop screen. A month ago, Christensen moved back to Topeka to work at a rehabilitation training clinic. This weekend, though, Christensen returned to Hays to play Smoky Hill and participate in the 36th annual Hays City Merchants Golf Tournament.

"Always loved coming back and playing in the city tournament," he said.

By his recollection, Christensen, 40, has finished second in the Merchants "a couple times" and was third last year. On Saturday, he fired a 73 on the par-71 layout. With three groups left on the course, Christensen was in third place, one shot back of the co-leaders, Jeff Ummel of Overland Park and Jeff Dinkel from Hays. The tournament concludes today with 18 holes at Fort Hays Municipal Golf Course.

"It would be nice to be able to win this thing," Christensen said. "You are going to have to go low at the Fort, depending on what the wind does. There are always going to be low scores at the Fort, that's just the way it is. Going to go out to the Fort a little bit this afternoon and see how it is playing there and hopefully put up a good number. There is some good talent out here."

Christensen called Smoky Hill one of his favorite courses, a shorter setup that measures 6,261 yards and suits Christensen's game well. The right-handed swinger is 5-feet tall and called his game "pretty consistent."

"I am not going to set any driving records or anything like that," he said. "You just have to be able to be consistent and be able to hit from the short grass. If I start hitting it wild there, then I am not going to be able to play. But if you hit it from the short grass every time and get up and down and make some putts here and there, then anybody can compete."

Christensen began 2-over through the first six holes before he birdied the seventh. He parred the next two holes, including the par-4 ninth, the fifth-hardest hole on the course.

"I missed some putts that I should have made," he said. "I should have birdied nine, puts you one up on the field there, had an opportunity to do it, just didn't get it done, had a couple mistakes on the back. That's going to happen, that's golf, I'm pretty happy with 73."

Overall, he hit 10 of 18 greens and missed only a few fairways.

"You hit good shots, you are going to be able to score," he said. "That's kind of neat about this golf course. Some of the college kids, they see the yardage and they get in trouble because they think they can bomb it everywhere. They get a little wild and they are chipping it out from underneath a tree."

Even when he was in trouble, Christensen managed to avoid big numbers. On the back nine, he nearly added another birdie on the par-4 14th. He hit underneath a tree, but was able to knock his next shot to about 10 feet. Christensen missed the putt, but was pleased with the par.

"We will call it the Liberty Mutual Shot of the Day," he said with a smile.