Back-to-back tap-ins for a birdie and an eagle?

You might see it happen on the PGA Tour occasionally, but it took place Wednesday at the Kannapolis Country Club, where the youngest golfer in the field accomplished the feat.

Eighteen-year-old Russell Killough of Mint Hill was playing with two other leaders, club pros Steve Isley of Oak Island and Kent Stuffer of Charlotte, but the rising senior at Independence High School kept his composure.

Killough didn’t match his first-round 68 on Tuesday, but the back-to-back shots on Nos. 14 and 15 were impressive.

First, he hit a sand wedge from about 100 yards that was eating up the flagstick on the par-4 14th. It hit near the cup, then spun back about a foot away for the tap-in birdie.

Killough followed it up by hitting a 6-iron from 195 yards on his second shot on the par-5, 530-yard 15th.It stopped about a foot from the hole for a tap-in eagle.

“He needs me to be his agent,” said first-round leader Isley, a former N.C. State University golfer. “He hits the ball good to be 18 years old. It’s just how long he is. He was hitting 8-irons where we were hitting 6-irons. He’s hitting drives 30 yards past us. The par-5s he killed on the back nine. He doesn’t have to putt good as long as he hits it like that.”

Killough said of the two fantastic shots, “On 14 I hit a sand wedge. It almost went in the hole. I thought it was in.” Then came the more amazing shot from almost 200 yards out on the 15th. “When it hit the green, I thought it was going to go in, because it was rolling right for the hole.”

Killough, who finished third in the recent state 4A tournament at Pinehurst, resembles Tiger Woods and is also a talented young golfer. He’s already been compared to Tiger in the North Carolina media.

“It flatters me and everything, but I’m nowhere close to Tiger Woods. He’s a couple of levels above where I am,” said Killough.

However, like Tiger, he wants to play pro golf when the time is right.

“I want to make sure my game’s all there when I go to the pros. I don’t want to go out there too early and be stuck without a college education,” said the modest golfer.

He admits Tiger is his idol.

“He’s usually always calm. Even if he hits a bad shot, he’s kind of calm. He has control over his game. He has one of the best mental games in the game of golf ever,” said Killough.

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SALISBURY CONNECTION: Former Salisburian Jeff Biggers of Winston-Salem shot a 73 on Wednesday, but didn’t make the cut of 150 because of a first-round 80.

Biggers, who graduated from Salisbury High School in 1989, went on to graduate at Clemson University, then became an assistant pro. He served as head pro at Bermuda Run Country Club in Advance until taking his current position as tournament director.

Biggers is the grandson of Mrs. Jean Dorsett of Salisbury and the late A.D. Dorsett, who died in 1995.

“My grandmother taught me when I was a kid, when I was about 6 years old,” said Biggers, who grew up playing at the Country Club of Salisbury.

“Once I got to the point of being in high school, he (A.D.) started playing with me some. That’s about the time really he started deteriorating with (bone) cancer. We had one good year that we played together in the Labor Day, and that was special,” said Biggers.

The Goode Crowder Dorsett Labor Day Four-Ball Invitational is now played in the memory of both Goode Crowder and Dorsett. The Rowan County High School Golf Tournament also memorializes Dorsett.

Biggers’ son, Blake Adderson Biggers, born last Oct. 15, is named after his grandfather.

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POINTS RACE: Mocksville’s Jeff Lankford, the tournament leader with a 135 entering today’s final round, is chasing former N.C. State University teammate Gus Ulrich in the True Temper Carolinas PGA Player of the Year Points Challenge.

Ulrich leads with 35 points to Lankford’s 30 and Rick Morton’s 25, but first place in this week’s tournament is worth 25 points.

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Contact Ed Dupree at 704-797-4258 or edupree@salisburypost.com .