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Inside this issue: Austin takes Champions title, Scott Parel aces qualifiers, Symetra Tour in Atlanta, Near win for Katie Burnett...
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tive aspect is largely limited to relativelysmall percentage of young golfers withsufficient skill and confidence to play intournaments while learning the game.
About five years ago, a handful of
junior golf leagues began to appear infour U.S. cities – Atlanta, Tampa, Dallasand San Diego. A total of 16 teams withapproximately 170 players competedthat first year, with the numbers growingto 123 teams and 1,500 players the next
year with the concept expanding intomany new markets.
The participatory levels reached 740teams and 9,000 golfers in 2013 and
By Mike Blum
eam sports are a staple oflife for most youngstersgrowing up in America,whether the sport is base-
ball, basketball, soccer or some otheractivity with a ball involved.
Being part of a team has been anintegral aspect of the formative years ofmillions of U.S. kids, who have bene-fitted from the experience andcamaraderie that team sports provide.
With the exception of scholastic andcollegiate teams, which involve a tinyfraction of golfers who play on a reg-ular basis while in high school andcollege, golf is a purely individualsport.
Millions of American youngsterswho are never going to be accom-plished enough at baseball, basketballor soccer to make a high school team,enjoy playing those sports from anearly age through their teens in LittleLeague, recreation leagues and on clubteams.
Unlike those sports, youth golf hasbeen without teams and its competi-
T
[ See PGA Junior League, page 6 ]
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@FOREGeorgia
JUNIOR GOLF in Georgia GEORGIAPGA.COM FOREGEORGIA.COM MAY 2016
««
PGA Junior League Golf a big hit Individual game now a team sport
Jack Dean (blue shirt) put together JLG teams in Dublin w
ithout a golf course
Austin takes Champions title . . . . . 8 Scott Parel aces qualifiers . . . . . . . 10 Symetra Tour in Atlanta . . . . . . . . 12 Near win for Katie Burnett . . . . . . 14 Echelon Golf Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Willett wins Masters. . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Georgians star on Web.com . . . . . 20 Georgia Senior Open wrap-up . . . 22
GPGA Rivermont preview. . . . . . . 23 Men’s college round-up . . . . . . . . . 24 Women’s college round-up . . . . . . 25 Mini-tour round-up . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
child begin taking golf instruc-tion?”, “What tournaments shouldI be registering my child to playin?”, and my all-time favoriteparent question…“What do weneed to do to get a college golfscholarship?” Well, there’s a lot of golf that
needs to take place between 4, 5,& 6 years of age, and packing the car andsending your child off to play college golf.If your child is going to one day pick golfas the sport they decide to specialize in,then you as a parent better make sure thatit’s Fun, Fun, Fun for them while they’reyoung and first getting started. In caseyou haven’t heard, golf is a tough game.When you add Tough Game + No Fun, youget a very short-lived golf experience fromyour child.
Not every child gets started at 4, 5, or 6years of age. At CCR we have Wee LinksterClinics for children this age; it’s moreabout the exposure to the sport and beingaround golf than really developing a golfswing. Most children would as much liketo tumble down a hill or watch an airplanefly overhead,as swing a golf club.
Attention, compliments, praise, encour-agement, and keeping it as fun as possiblegoes a long way. When your child gets tobetween 7 and 10 years of age, you’ll wantto find a teacher with experience andsomeone who enjoys working with chil-dren. Hopefully your child can find ateacher to build a relationship with andsomeone they really enjoy being around.At CCR we have Future Star clinics for thisage group that is as much about playing
4 F O R E G E O R G I A . C O M
games, keeping it fun, as it is instructional. No matter how much you as a parent
would like your child to play golf, yourchild has to want to golf more. It’s myexperience that kids love spending timewith their peers, friends and family, butdon’t really like having Mom or Dadcoaching them. They love spendingquality time with their family practicing orplaying but not receiving instruction fromthem. My father taught me how to playmany sports, but I had a golf pro teach megolf. Thank you, Dad! I took up golf at theage of 13 with my father, and it was ourthing that we did together.
If your child seems to enjoy practicinggolf, is showing signs of improvement, hasbeen taking instruction, has gotten out onthe course and experienced playing, evenif only for a few holes at a time, and lovingit all, you may want to ask him or her ifthey think they might enjoy playing in atournament. Some children love the ideaof competition and some do not.Competition isn’t for everyone, but can beapproached as a way to measure yourselfagainst other kids your age to see howyou’re doing in comparison.
If you have a child who does not want toplay in tournaments, you may take theapproach of not caring about the result asmuch as being proud of your child forbeing willing to go out and try. If yourchild loves the idea of playing in a tourna-ment, get them registered in US Kids Golfand/or Atlanta Junior Golf or local juniororganization. Check out their websitesand schedule of events and find a tourna-ment near you to get started.
Parents, do your research. If you want achild to like golf and play golf, and pos-sibly later compete in golf, find a facilitythat welcomes and wants children. I hateto steal the line from the movie Field ofDreams, but “If You Build It They WillCome.”
If you offer Junior Clinics, Kids Camps,Girl’s Golf Club, PGA Junior League Golf,Drive, Chip, & Putt, Summer Junior GolfPrograms, Adult/Junior Tournaments,Incentive Programs, and more, you’ll havea successful junior golf program. They willcome, just like they do at CCR! If you’re
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ART DIRECTOR Lori Ors
CREAT IVE SERV ICES Dwayne WalkerCONTR IBUTORS
Lisa Chirichetti • Steve DinbergKate Awtrey • Al Kooistra
GEORGIA SECT ION, PGA OF AMERICA OFF ICERS
PresidentBrian Albertson, PGA / [email protected]
Vice PresidentJohn Godwin, PGA / [email protected]
SecretaryBrandon Stooksbury, PGA / [email protected]
Honorary PresidentMark Mongell, PGA / [email protected]
CHAPTER PRES IDENTS
Central Chapter PresidentCary Brown, PGA / [email protected]
East Chapter PresidentBrandon Youmans, PGA /
North Chapter PresidentJordon Arnold, PGA / [email protected]
AT-LARGE DIRECTORS
Brian Conley, PGA / [email protected]
Jeff Dunovant, PGA / [email protected]
Matthew Evans, PGA / [email protected]
Shawn Koch, PGA / [email protected] Lammi, PGA / [email protected]
Todd Ormsby, PGA / [email protected]
Rashad Wilson, PGA / [email protected]
SENIOR DIV IS ION
PresidentScott Hare, PGA / [email protected]
ASS ISTANTS’ D IV IS IONPresident
Will Bartram, PGA / [email protected]
SECT ION STAFF
Executive DirectorMike PaullAssistant Executive Director/
Junior Golf Director Scott GordonTournament Director Pat Day, PGAOperations Manager Eric Wagner
Foundation Program ManagerMaria BengtssonSection Assistant Carrie Ann Byrne
FOREGeorgia is produced by Golf Media, Inc.Copyright ©2014 with all rights reserved.Reproduction or use, without permission,
of editorial or graphic content is prohibited.Georgia PGA website: www.georgiapga.com.FORE Georgia website: www.foregeorgia.com
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Fore
cast
FEATURES:
By Lisa ChirichettiPGA Professional,Country Club of Roswell
There are countless rea-sons why kids fall in lovewith and pick up the gameof golf. Some children areborn into golfing families.Learning to play the game is a rite of pas-sage in becoming a real member of thefamily. Some children have parents whoexpose them and give them opportunitiesto experience many different sports untilthey find a sport they feel passionatetoward.
Other children might have a close per-sonal friend that plays golf, and thatsparks their interest in getting involved.Some kids like the idea of being part of ateam at their school or have a friend that isalready on the team, and encouragesthem to try out. Perhaps Mom and Dad orGrandma and Grandpa are members at acountry club, such as Country Club ofRoswell, where I’ve been for 15 years, andregister their little darlings in the JuniorGolf Program.
No matter what avenue brought thechild to golf, parents want help and adviceon ways to best help their child grow andsucceed in learning golf.
We receive phone calls and e-mailsweekly from parents who are members ofour club, and from non-members,askingadvice about how they can best help theirchild along in their golf. The questions weget asked most are: “How do I get my childstarted in golf?”, “At what age should my
PRESENTED BY
Instruction Fore You
Getting Your Child Started in Golf
[ See Instruction Article, page 30 ]
JUNIOR GOLF IN GEORGIA:
3 Georgians win AJGA events . . . 26 Georgia junior tours . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Georgia junior camps. . . . . . . . . . . 30
2 0 1 6 M AY 5F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
6 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
1,425 and 17,500 in 2014 beforeanother exponential increase in 2015 to2,500 and 30,000.
PGA Junior League began for young-sters age 13 and under, but some leaguesinstituted a 16-and-under division lastyear.
The PGA of America assumed opera-tions of the league shortly after itsdebut, and the PGA Junior League Golfhas expanded into all 41 PGA Sectionsand 48 states, with leagues havingformed in most Georgia cities withenough local clubs to fill out the rosters.
The person in charge of PGA JuniorLeague Golf in Georgia is Daryl Batey,the Section’s Player DevelopmentRegional Manager. Batey is tasked withtrying to convince club professionalsthroughout the state to form teams andleagues, a challenge in areas of the statewhere there are few courses within rea-sonable proximity to each other.
Georgia began with 12 teams in 2011and a little over 100 players, with thosenumbers having reached more than 100teams and 1,000 players.
Batey says PGA Junior League Golfwas created to be “the Little League ofgolf. That’s what they tried to patternthe thing after.”
Most of the teams that have formed inthe state are from private clubs, particu-larly in metro Atlanta. Some privateclubs have enough teams to form theirown leagues, but Batey says, “the dailyfee courses are buying into the concept.”
Scott Gordon, the Georgia PGA’sJunior Golf Director, points out thatteams can be formed with players from
outside a club, with the efforts of thePGA (or LPGA) member critical toputting together teams and a league inareas where there are not an abundanceof courses.
Batey cited the work of Dublin proJack Dean, who managed to get aleague started in that area without theaid of a club. Batey says Dean con-vinced area courses of the benefits ofhosting a PGA Junior Golf Leaguematch, and the area clubs discoveredthat they were bringing in increasedbusiness while helping to grow the gameat the same time.
The costs of participating in PGAJunior League Golf vary but are not pro-hibitive, with team members typicallygetting coaching assistance from theclub pros who take on the roles of teamcaptain.
In keeping with the team sports con-cept, players wear team jerseys withnumbers and compete in a true teamformat.
Teams consist of a minimum of eightplayers and as many as 10 to 12, witheach “game” consisting of four matchesplayed in a scramble format. The nine-hole matches are broken up into threethree-hole “flags”, with the winningteam receiving a point for winning athree-hole flag for a maximum pointtotal of 12 per match.
For teams with more than eightplayers, team members can be substi-tuted in after the third and sixth holes,with players not participating able tohelp their teammates as a caddie orgreen reader. Each player has to play atleast three holes and over the course ofthe five or six games that make up aseason, “everybody gets to play witheverybody,” Batey points out.
Batey says teams are encouraged tosplit up their teams to pair the moreexperienced players with those in theearly stages of learning the game.
Because the matches are played in ascramble format, Gordon says that thosenew to the game “are not intimidated byhaving to play stroke play. It can also bea mentoring type experience for olderplayers.”
The teams can be mixed by gender,with boys and girls playing from thesame tees, which are set up at yardagesfriendly to the age and skill levels of theparticipants.
The PGA Junior League Golf is notdesigned for the elite player, but some ofthe state’s most talented youngsters haveparticipated on teams that have gone onto compete at the national level. Luka Karaulic, Andy Mao,
Stephen Foernsler and TessDavenport were among the players onthe Hamilton Mill team that won anational title in 2013, with Will Stakel,Bruce Murphy, Deven Patel andPeyton Balent on an Alpharetta teamcoached by Tom Joyce that lost in thechampionship match in 2015.
At the conclusion of the regularseason, which typically is played in Juneand July, the captain of the first place
team selects an all-star team from theleague, which competes at the local andregional level for the right to be one ofeight teams that qualify on a geographicbasis for nationals.
At least one player from each team inthe league must make the all-star team,with the possibility vying for a champi-onship an incentive for the top players tocompete alongside players new to thegame.
A chance at a national team champi-onship is part of the competitive aspectof PGA Junior League Golf, but it’s notthe primary purpose for the league’s cre-ation and increasing popularity.
“If the program does its job, it’s get-ting kids involved at the grass rootslevel,” Gordon said. “The reason for theprogram is to grow the game.”
Batey added that “a lot of good thingsare happening with this program. Thenumbers are going in the right direc-tion.”
Among the challenges for Batey is tofind pros like Dean in the less populatedareas of the state to form teams andcreate leagues. It takes at least fourteams to have a league, with leagueshaving as many as six or seven teams.
One of the cities that does not have aleague yet is Valdosta, but Batey says heis working on that. Among the strongestareas of participation are Peachtree Citywith Chris Knobloch, Atlanta AthleticClub with Chuck Moore and AugustaCountry Club with Gary Cressend.
As in other youth team sports, parentshave a role to play in helping coordinateactivities surrounding the matches,much in the manner of “soccer moms.”
While the captains are responsible forregistering the teams, parents have toregister their children, with informationavailable at www.pgajlg.com. For par-ents who are not members of a club, theweb site will list the closest teams andleagues in their area, with PGA JuniorLeague Golf doing its best to makethings as geographically convenient aspossible.
PGA Junior League[ Continued from the cover ]
Georgia juniorsplace in Drive, Chip & Putt Three Georgia juniors qualifier for the national Drive, Chip and PuttChampionship, held last month atAugusta National just prior to the Masters.
The two Georgia girls who competedin the event both placed second, withBuford’s Skylar Thompson the runner-up in the 14-15 age group with 23points, just behind the winner at 26.5Mary Miller was a close second in the 7-9 division with 23.5 points, with thewinner totaling 24 points. Ryan Knight of Loganville was fourth
in boys 7-9 with a total of 18 points. Qualifiers for the 2017 Drive, Chip &
Putt Championship begin in June,with 10 qualifiers scheduled inGeorgia. Host courses are ReynoldsLanding (June 9), Lane Creek (June16), Charlie Yates (June 20), BridgeMill and Wilmington Island (June 22),Braelinn (July 6), Woodmont (July 7),CC of Columbus (July 18), andCuscowilla and Idle Hour (July 25).
Georgia winners will advance tosub-regionals at Chateau Elan,Augusta CC, World Golf Village in St.Augustine and Pinehurst, with thefinals at Augusta National next April.
For information, visit www.DriveChipandPutt.com.
Chuck Scoggins' Hamilton Mill team won a 2013 national title
Skylar Thompson
By Mike Blum
fter grinding his way to fourwins in his 20-year PGA Tourcareer, Woody Austin hadmixed feelings about turning
50 and joining the Champions Tour. Austin scored his final victory at the
age of 49 in 2013, extending his PGATour career for a few years while delayinghis decision to join the Champions Tourfull time.
Playing part time on the ChampionsTour the last two years, Austin was a fre-quent contender with 16 top-10 finishesin 25 starts.
With his PGA Tour exempt statusexpired, Austin is a full time ChampionsTour player for the first time this year,and has stepped up as a potential chal-lenger to Bernhard Langer’s long reignas the top player among the over-50 set.
Austin scored his second win in threetournaments in the Mitsubishi ElectricClassic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth,firing a final round 64 to get into aplayoff at 11-under 205 with second-round leader Wes Short. Austin wonwhen Short made bogey on the secondextra hole.
Both of Austin’s Champions Tour vic-tories came in come-from-behindfashion. He came from three shots backin Tucson thanks to a final round 65, andwas four off the pace coming to the finalround at Sugarloaf before tying the tour-nament record.
Austin has long been known as a firstrate ball striker but a suspect putter, with
his success during his PGA Tour careerusually occurring when he managed toget some putts to fall. He holed his shareof putts in the final round at Sugarloaf,rolling in a 25-footer for birdie on thetough fifth hole and holing a 20-footerand a pair of putts in the 10-foot rangeon the back nine. A shorter birdie putt atthe 17th gave him the lead before Shortpulled even with a birdie at 16.
Short, who won once in his brief stayon the PGA Tour and has added aChampions Tour title to his resume, hada 6-footer for a winning birdie at 18 inregulation but missed. He hit two erranttee shots on 18 in the playoff, salvagingpar the first time but taking two shots toget back to the fairway on the secondextra hole for a bogey.
Austin won the playoff with a pair ofpars, earning first place money of$270,000. He is the first ChampionsTour player with two wins this year, butstill trails Langer on the money listthanks to middling finishes in his otherthree starts.
In his two tournament wins, Austinhas shot 65 and 64 the final round. In hisother three starts, Austin’s final roundaverage is over 75, a reflection on bothhis frequent putting woes as well as somemotivation issues.
Austin spent the hour or so betweenwhen he finished and when Short misseda putt to win on the 18th in the player’slocker room, watching the conclusion ofan NBA playoff game as well as keepinghis eye on Short.
“I’m not a range guy,” says Austin,who did not a hit a ball prior to theplayoff. “I’m not a normal person when itcomes to golf.”
Unlike most of his contemporaries,Austin was in no rush to join theChampions Tour as he neared his 50thbirthday.
“The competitor in me did not want tocome out here. This, to me, is my retire-ment. This is supposed to be fun. Ifigured since I stayed competitive at 50,I should be able to make the transition tothe Champions Tour. I’ve kept my ballstriking up enough – I’m still in theupper echelon – so if I can get the ball inthe hole, I can be around the lead a lot.”
Austin needed an eagle at the 18th toshoot even par 72 in the opening round,finishing the day four behind co-leadersMark O’Meara, Tom Byrum and Tom
Watson, whowas coming offhis farewellappearance inthe Masters.
A 69 onSaturday leftAustin fourbehind Short,with 15players in frontof him with 18holes to play.Austin madehis move withfour straightbirdies on theopening ninestarting atthe third, butwas still twobehind Shortafter a birdieat the 10th,his third ofthe day on a par 5.
Birdies at holes 4, 6 and 7 kept Shortin control, but he lost his lead when hebogeyed the difficult par-4 ninth whileAtlanta resident Billy Andrade wasmaking birdie at the 10th, his sixth ineight holes. Bogeys at 11 and 12 costAndrade the lead and dropped him out ofcontention, with Short reclaiming hislead with a birdie at the 11th.
Austin began another birdie streakwith a quick, downhill 20-footer at the15th followed by a 12-footer at 16. Hehit his approach within three feet to atough pin to reach on 17 for his eighthbirdie of the day and the solo lead beforeShort pulled even with a birdie at 16. Aclosing 68 by Short was not enough tohold off Austin’s Sunday surge.
The only other person who had achance to make it a three-way playoff wasPaul Goydos, who shot a final round 67but lipped out a birdie try on 18 andplaced third at 10-under 206.
Tying for fourth at 207 were JoeySindelar and Tom Lehman, who shot67 on Sunday, along with 2014 tourna-ment winner Miguel Angel Jimenez(68) and Colin Montgomerie (69).
Andrade finished eighth at 208 afteran adventurous final round 69 thatincluded seven birdies, four bogeys, twoballs in hazards and one tee shot out ofbounds.
After scores of 70and 69, Andrade began the final roundtwo behind Short, but made bogey on theopening hole after punching his approachunder tree limbs into a greenside bunkerand missing his par attempt.
Andrade didn’t miss much the rest ofthe day, carding six birdies in eight holesbeginning at the third along with a ter-rific par save after pulling his tee shot onthe par-5 fourth into the creek that windsalong the left side of the fairway.
A slick, downhill 8-footer at the thirdstarted Andrade’s stretch of torrid put-ting, and he followed with a 15-footer forpar at 4 and a 20-footer for birdie at 5.He reached the par-5 sixth in two for athird birdie on the opening nine, andconcluded his run of four in a row withputts of 12 feet at the seventh and 25 feetat the long, par-3 eighth.
Andrade took the outright lead whenhe rolled in a 15-footer at the 10th, butwas the first player in his group to tee offon the perilous par-3 11th and mis-judged the wind. His tee shot carriedacross the green and into the pond on theother side of the cart path. He got up anddown to save bogey, but took anotherbogey at the 12th, missing the green andhitting a weak chip following a poor teeshot.
A
8 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Austin captures Gwinnett playoff against Short Scores second Champions Tour win in 3 starts
[ See Gwinnett Champions, page 11 ]
Woody Austin
Wes Short
KATE
AW
TREY
KATE
AW
TREY
By Mike Blum
n baseball, if you get two hitsevery five at-bats over the course of a season, you bat .400,something that hasn’t been
accomplished in 75 years. After five full-field events on the 2016
Champions Tour, Augusta’s Scott Parelis 5-for-5 in Monday/Tuesday qualifiers,with his fifth successful attempt comingin the recent Mitsubishi Electric Classicat TPC Sugarloaf.
Parel, who has played on the Web.comTour since 2003 and remains a memberas he nears his 51st birthday, is lookingto move beyond the Monday qualifiercategory, something he became all toofamiliar with during his long Web.comstint.
To do that, he has to play more likehe’s done on Mondays and Tuesdays asopposed to his play on Friday, Saturdayand Sunday, which has not been asimpressive.
After five 2016 starts on theChampions Tour, Parel was 56th in earn-ings with $50,975, with his best finishesa tie for 19th in his first tournament ofthe year in Boca Raton, Fla., and a tie for28th in Tucson. The other three starts, heplaced between 40th and 60th, includinga tie for 41st at Sugarloaf.
Parel, who grew up in Augusta andstill lives there, discussed his unusualrookie season on the Champions Tourafter the first round of the MitsubishiElectric Classic, when he shot 1-over 217after rounds of 73-73-71.
“It’s been about what I expected,” hesaid of the Champions Tour. “You’ve gotto play. You can’t just come out and dom-inate. The guys here play well and knowhow to get it in the hole. It’s been eye-opening a little bit.”
Parel, who is one of the shortest playersin professional golf at 5-foot-5, has gonefrom being around average in length offthe tee on the Web.com Tour to being inthe top 10 in driving distance as a senior.
“I was pretty much in the middle onthe Web.com, but out here I hit it a littlefarther than most. I thought my distancewould give me a little bigger advantage,but it doesn’t help if you don’t make anyputts.”
Through the Mitsubishi Classic, Parelwas ninth in driving distance on theChampions Tour with an average of 287
yards, and his putting numbers wererespectable, although he has struggledsomewhat on the greens in the finalround, which has accounted for hishighest scoring average coming onSundays.
A poor final round in his season openerin Naples cost Parel a possible top-10finish, with his closing 71 at Sugarloafjust his second under-par Sunday roundin five attempts.
Fortunately for Parel, scoring has notbeen a problem when he’s teed it up inthe five Champions Tour qualifiers heldon Monday or Tuesday of tournamentweek.
Parel, who spent much of his Web.comTour career needing to make it throughMonday qualifiers to get into tourna-ment fields, has averaged 67 in his fiveChampions Tour qualifiers, and has fin-ished tied for fourth or better in each ofthe five. With one exception, the quali-fiers were playing for four spots in thetournament field, with Parel twicehaving to go to a playoff to earn his spot.
Two days after his final round 75 inBoca Raton, Parel was back on the coursein Naples, Fla., and needed only a par onthe par-5 18th hole to earn one of fourspots in the field. Parel bogeyed the holeto wind up in an 8-way tie for fourthplace.
No problem. He eagled the par-5 firsthole to quickly put an end to the 8-manplayoff and needed to go to a playoffagain in the next tour event in Tucson.That one was a much more manageablefour-players-for-three-spots playoff, withParel again emerging as one of event’squalifiers.
Parel did not need extra holes to enjoysuccess in his other three qualifyingattempts thanks to a pair of 66s and a 65in the recent Mitsubishi Electric Classicqualifier at Country Club of the South.The 65 at CCoS included a double bogeyon the opening hole, but Parel shruggedoff his faltering start, running off ninebirdies on the next 17 holes to finishsecond in the qualifier.
After turning 50 in May of last year,Parel made several attempts atChampions Tour qualifiers betweenWeb.com events, but was successful justonce, frequently having to play a coursehe had not seen prior to the qualifyinground.
“Last year I came in blind and did not
do as well,” Parel said. “This year I’vehad time to prepare.”
When the Champions Tour playsback-to-back weeks, the qualifier for thefollowing tournament is pushed back toTuesday, allowing players like Parel toget in a practice round on Monday if theyplayed in the tour event the day before.
After competing in qualifiers thatsometimes included as many as 300players, Parel is much more comfortableon the Champions Tour, where 40 or sogolfers compete for four or more spots.
“The odds are much better,” says Parel,who also admits that the scores requiredto qualify are typically not as low on theChampions Tour.
“In the PGA and Web.com qualifiers,I had to be at my best. There is less pres-sure here. If I play well on Monday orTuesday, I know I have a chance. I don’tfeel like I have to shoot really low.”
Parel believes he has the capability totransfer the quality of his play in quali-fiers into the tournaments.
“On Mondays and Tuesday’s I’veputted lights out, but the greens aretougher and firmer in the tournament.Then there’s the pressure of playing inthe tournament and I just have notputted with quite as much confidence.
“There’s also a little different mindset.During every tournament, it seems like Ibogey the first hole. I don’t feel thatnervous, but maybe I’m more relaxedthan I should be.”
Parel was 56th in earnings after thetour left Duluth, but by the time he teesit up in his next Champions Tour event,he will have dropped farther down themoney list. He may not get into a tour-nament until the Senior PGAChampionship in late May, missing atleast three straight events.
With his playing opportunities lim-ited, Parel will have to perform wellwhen gets the opportunity if he wants toqualify for the first ever Champions Tourplayoffs later this season.
The top 72 players on the money list atthe end of the regular season will get intothe field for the first playoff event in LosAngeles in late October, with the fieldreduced to 54 the next week and then 36for the Schwab Cup Championship.
Parel would need to make it to theSchwab Cup Championship to be exemptfor next year, and the advent of the play-offs makes it “a little bit easier for guyswith no status like me,” says Parel, whoin the past would have needed to be inthe top 30 to be exempt and the top 50to have limited status for the followingyear.
Until then, Parel says it’s “Monday,Monday, Monday. It’s difficult, but it iswhat it is.”
So far, Parel says his experience inMonday qualifiers has been “really fan-tastic,” but with some idle time beforehis next Champions Tour start, Parel willtry his hand at a few Web.com events,and may need to go through a Mondayqualifier or two.
“I’ve done so many of them, I don’teven think about Monday qualifying.There’s no shame in that. It’s just part ofthe deal.”
Parel took a unique path to arrive athis current location, which helps explainhis positive attitude in the face of theobstacles he has to overcome to find ahome on the Champions Tour.
Unlike almost all the players he hascompeted against for the past twodecades, Parel did not play golf in collegeand did not turn pro until he was in hisearly 30s. Parel attended the U. ofGeorgia and graduated with a degree incomputer science. He elected to concen-trate on his studies in Athens, althoughhe did make an attempt to walk on to thebaseball team.
After a decade in the business world,Parel was convinced by some of the
I
10 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Augusta’s Parel perfect in Champions qualifiers Web.com veteran 5-for-5 on Monday, Tuesday
Scott Parel
AL
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After driving into the greensidebunker at the drivable par-4 13th,Andrade had a chance for a birdie thatwould have gotten him back in the hunt,but missed from inside 10 feet.
Needing to finish birdie-eagle to getinto a playoff, Andrade’s tee shot on the17th sailed out of bounds. He managed a“birdie” on his second ball after drivinginto a fairway bunker, holing a longbogey putt from across the green. Herecorded his seventh birdie of the day at18, narrowly missing his eagle attempt
ever since. After making just 10 combined starts
in 2010 and ’11, Parel enjoyed his twobest years as a pro in 2012 and ’13,placing 35th and 31st on the money listin his late 40s. He lost in a playoff inRaleigh in 2012 and scored his loneWeb.com victory in Wichita the fol-lowing year, but was unable to finish inthe top 25 on the money list and earn hisPGA Tour card.
Parel struggled throughout 2014,but bounced back with a bettershowing last year, hoping to play hisrookie season on the PGA Tour this yearat the age of 51. But he got bumped outof the top 75 the final week of the season,just missing the cutoff for getting tocompete in the four events that make upthe Web.com Finals, which offers PGATour cards to the top 25 money winnersfrom that series of tournaments.
GwinnettChampions [ Continued from page 8 ]
2 0 1 6 M AY 11F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
members at West Lake Country Club totake a shot at playing professionally, andthey backed his initial efforts, which con-sisted mainly of playing on regionalmini-tours.
Parel played well enough at the mini-tour level to keep going, but was already38 when he made it to the Web.comTour in 2003. His rookie season did notgo very well, but he made it back twoyears later and has remained on the tour
after a beautiful second shot. “Overall, it was a nice week,” said
Andrade, who had not enjoyed much suc-cess at Sugarloaf when it hosted a PGATour event or in his previous ChampionsTour appearances. “If I had not made somany mistakes today, I would have had achance.
“I had a chance with nine holes to go,and that’s all I wanted to do this week. Ithink I can build on this and it’s a sign Ihave some good play ahead.”
Duluth resident Scott Dunlap, whocame into the tournament fourth on themoney list, shot a final round 66 and tiedfor 20th at 3-under 213.
Augusta’s Scott Parel shot 65 in aMonday qualifier at Country Club of the
South to finish second, making him 5-for-5 in pre-tournament qualifiers thisyear. Parel shot 73-73-71—217 and tiedfor 41st in the tournament.
For the first time since the ChampionsTour came to Duluth in 2013, the tour-nament was not hampered by rain, withno weather problems all week and thefinal round played in sunny, slightlybreezy conditions.
Austin added his third win of theseason the following week, teaming withMichael Allen to win the Legends ofGolf in Branson, Mo. Austin and Allenshot 23-under for 54 holes, with thetournament consisting of 18 holes on thepar-54 Top of the Rock and 18 holes onthe par-71 Buffalo Ridge.
David Frost and RogerChapman were second at 22-under, anddefending champions Andrade and JoeDurant were third at 21-under.
Marietta’s Larry Nelson teamed withBruce Fleisher to win the LegendsDivision for the second straight year witha 19-under total for 45 holes on Top ofthe Rock. John Bland and GrahamMarsh were second at 17-under withAllen Doyle of LaGrange and HubertGreen tying for third at 15-under. Doyleand Green are both retired from theChampions Tour other than this event.
Billy Andrade
KATE
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By Mike Blum
omen’s professional golfhas been missing frommetro Atlanta for almosta decade, but that will
change this month when the SymetraTour makes a stop at Atlanta National inthe North Fulton suburb of Milton.
The Gosling’s Dark ‘n Stormy Classicwill be played May 19-21 at the highlyregarded Pete Dye layout, with the tour-nament field including a sizeable numberof players who either have limited LPGAstatus this year or have played on the tourin the recent past.
The Symetra Tour is the LPGA’s ver-sion of the Web.com Tour, and serves asthe developmental tour for playersseeking to reach the highest level inwomen’s golf. The top 10 money winnersearn LPGA Tour cards for the followingyear, and many of the top finishers in thefinals of the LPGA Qualifying are playerswho competed on the Symetra Tour.
This will be the first time the SymetraTour has visited Georgia since its inau-gural year of 2012, when the tour made astop in Vidalia. Prior to that, the FuturesTour played at several Georgia coursesthroughout the state, stayed only once formore than a year or two. The last stop inmetro Atlanta was 2008 at Chateau Elan.
Since Symetra assumed title sponsor-ship, the tour has grown significantly inthe number of tournaments and size ofpurses, with 22 events on this year’sschedule. All the tournaments havepurses of at least $100,000, with a fewreaching $200,000.
The Gosling’s Dark ‘n Stormy Classicwas a late addition to the 2016 schedule,and will feature one of the best and mostdemanding courses the tour visits.Atlanta National has been consideredamong the most challenging courses inthe state since opening in the late 1980s,with an ample number of hazards in playalong with some penal bunkers, wasteareas and testy greens complexes.
For the benefit of spectators, the nineswill be reversed for the tournament, withAtlanta National’s par-5 ninth holeserving as the 18th for the Symetra Tourevent. The long and difficult par-4 18thwill be the ninth hole for the tournamentand will play as a par 5, with the par-515th (tournament 6), playing as a par 4to keep the course’s par at 72.
Tournament week begins with practicerounds on Monday, May 16, and a juniorclinic for girls age 18-and-under at 11a.m. on Tuesday. The pro-am is set forWednesday, with the 54-hole tourna-ment played Thursday to Saturday. The144-player field will be cut to the low 60and ties for the final round, with the fieldcompeting for a purse of $100,000.
The tournament will be the seventh onthe tour’s 2016 schedule and the thirdand final stop on a Southern swing thatincludes Greenwood, S.C., May 5-8 andCharlotte May 13-15.
Of the tour’s first four events this year,two were won by players with limitedLPGA Tour status for 2016. BrittanyAltomare won the last of three tourna-ments in Florida, with SamanthaRichdale previously winning in thestate.
The names of the Symetra Tour playersare unfamiliar to all but the most diehardwomen’s golf fans, but many of theLPGA’s top players starred on theSymetra and Futures Tours on their wayto the top. Among that group are InbeePark, Lorena Ochoa, Gerina Pillerand Brooke Henderson, who won tour-naments on both the Symetra and LPGATour last year.
The three most prominent Georgiagolfers on the 2016 Symetra Tour areNewnan’s Jean Reynolds, Jonesboro’sLacey Agnew and St. Simons’ GarrettPhillips, all of whom have played on theLPGA Tour.
Reynolds has played on the SymetraTour since 2008 and played two seasonson the LPGA Tour after finishing secondon the Futures Tour money list in 2009.She has placed 34th, 27th and 31st onthe Symetra money list the past threeseasons, and is currently 17th in earningsafter consecutive finishes of sixth and15th in Florida.
Agnew has played the Symetra Toureach of the last three years, improvingeach season from 70th to 58th to 33rdlast year after splitting her playing timebetween the Symetra and LPGA Tour in2012. Agnew lost in a playoff to currentLPGA Tour player Dori Carter in theGeorgia Women’s Open in 2011 aftercompleting her college career at FloridaState.
Unfortunately for Agnew, she will beunable to play at Atlanta National afterundergoing shoulder surgery earlier this
year. She hopes to return later this season,and will play on a medical extension in2017.
“This is very disappointing,” Agnewsaid of missing the Symetra Tour’sAtlanta stop. “I hope Atlanta Nationalstays on the schedule for next year and isnot a one and done thing.”
Phillips is back on the Symetra Tourafter playing on the LPGA Tour in2015. The former UGA golfer hasplaced between 35th and 40th on theSymetra money list four times between2009 and ’14, but is off to a slow startthis year, making just one of three cutsin Florida.
The fourth Georgian on the SymetraTour is former Mercer golfer LaceyFears from Bonaire, who is a rookie thisseason. Fears played in all three Floridatournaments but did not make a cut.
The tournament’s two sponsor exemp-tions went to two of the most prominentfemale golfers in the state, both of whomplayed professionally after concludingtheir college careers. Margaret Shirley is the state’s most
successful female amateur, reaching thefinals of the USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship the last threeyears, winning the title in 2014. Shirley,who played her college golf at Auburnbefore working at both Georgia andAuburn as an assistant coach, competedbriefly as a professional, winning twomini-tour events before regaining heramateur status.
Shirley, the Executive Director ofAtlanta Junior Golf, has won the GeorgiaWomen’s Open three times, mostrecently in 2013.
The other sponsor exemption went toKaren Paolozzi, a former Futures Tourplayer who is one of the top female clubprofessionals in the country.
Paolozzi, an assistant pro at Druid HillsGC, played the Futures Tour for two yearsabout a decade ago, nearly winning a tour-nament in Tucson, where she lost in aplayoff. She became a club professionalafter that and has been in the GeorgiaPGA Section since early 2014, making hermark at both the state and national level.
In her first appearance in the GeorgiaWomen’s Open, Paolozzi won the title in2014 and tied for second last year behindAshlan Ramsey, who played theSymetra Tour in 2015 and is now arookie on the LPGA Tour.
Later in 2014Paolozzi became just the second womanto make the cut in the PGA ProfessionalNational Championship, getting plentyof air time on Golf Channel’s broadcast.She also placed second in the LPGATeaching and Club ProfessionalChampionship at Chateau Elan behind aformer LPGA Tour veteran, and repeatedthat runner-up finish last year, againtrailing only a veteran ex-LPGAmember.
Paolozzi scored victories against other-wise all-male Georgia PGA fields lastyear, winning both the Assistants’Championship and the Section’s PNC,the qualifier for the national club profes-sional championship. She became thefirst female to win the Georgia PGAPNC and will make a second appearanceat nationals in June.
With her invitation to the SymetraTour event, Paolozzi will have a busystretch of tournament golf the next fewmonths, and will be playing in a U.S.Women’s Open qualifier two days afterGosling’s Dark ‘n Stormy Classic con-cludes.
Thanks to her play in the 2014 LPGAT&CP Championship, Paolozzi earned aspot in the 2015 Women’s PGAChampionship and will be in the fieldagain this year.
“That was very humbling,” Paolozzisaid of playing against the top femalegolfers in the game at last year’s Women’sPGA Championship. “It was a neat expe-rience. I had never played in a major andI really enjoyed that.”
[ See Symetra Tour, page 14 ]
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12 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
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Karen Paolozzi
Symetra Tour to play in May at Atlanta National Shirley, Paolozzi join Reynolds, Phillips in field
By Mike Blum
he last time a Georgia nativewon a tournament on theLPGA Tour was 1995 whenTifton’s Nanci Bowen scored
a stunning victory in the Nabisco DinahShore, one of the tour’s four major cham-pionships.
The winless stretch of more than twodecades almost came to an end last monthwhen Brunswick’s Katie Burnett tied forsecond in the Lotte Championship inHawaii, finishing just one shot behindtournament winner Minjee Lee.
Burnett, in her fourth season on thetour, had just one previous top 10 finishin an LPGA event, that coming two yearsago in the same Hawaii tournament,where she tied for eighth.
In her first five starts of 2016,Burnett’s best LPGA finish was a tie for28th in the Australian Open, althoughshe did tie for fifth in the AustralianMasters, a Ladies European Tour event,the following week.
Burnett has played on both the LPGAand European Tours since she turned proin 2012, enjoying much of her early suc-cess overseas. She notched three top-5finishes on the LET that year, including atie for second in the South African Open.
The 26-year-old Burnett qualified forthe LPGA Tour in her first attempt andtied for 12th in her first-ever LPGA startat Kingsmill in 2013. Playing a partialschedule, she finished the year 99th on themoney list to retain her playing privileges,and played respectably in both 2014 and’15, placing 87th and 85th in earningswith a pair of top-20 finishes both years.
Burnett placed herself in contentionearly in the Lotte Championship, playingholes 1-6 at Ko Olina GC on Oahu in 4-under in both the first and secondrounds. Scores of 70 and 66 had herwithin two shots of Lee after 36 holes,and Burnett moved to the front with abogey-free third round 67 to take a one-stroke lead to the final round. Lee shot 74in the third round and fell to a tie forsixth, five shots off the lead.
A pair of early birdies in the fourthround enabled Burnett to hold off anearly challenge by 2015 U.S. Openchampion In Gee Chun, who had fin-ished second or third in all three previousLPGA starts in 2016, including a tie forsecond in the LPGA’s first major of the
year two weeks earlier. Burnett retained her lead with back-
to-back birdies on the two par 5s on theback nine, but Lee shot 6-under on thefinal nine for a 64 to take the clubhouselead at 16-under. Burnett got to 16-under after the two par-5 birdies and gotup-and-down for a third straight hole tosave par at the 15th.
But after an excellent tee shot at thelong, par-3 16th, Burnett got a little tooaggressive with her birdie putt andmissed her attempt for par coming back.She gave herself a chance to tie Lee whenshe hit a beautiful short iron approach toclose range at the 17th, but lipped outthe birdie try.
Burnett put her second shot on thedangerous par-4 18th on the green, butjust missed her long birdie putt, fin-ishing in a tie for second with Chun at15-under, one behind Lee’s winningscore. Playing with the lead in the finalround for the first time on the LPGATour, Burnett shot a solid 2-under 70and earned by far her biggest paycheck asa pro -- $143,265, exceeding her seasonearnings from both 2014 and ‘15.
“I don’t think I gave it away by anymeans,” Burnett said after the round. “Idon’t necessarily feel like I lost the tour-nament. I feel like Minjee just won it.
“I didn’t hit it great really all week,but I still scored. Again today, I didn’thit it that great, but I still made some
putts coming in. I could have made a fewmore, but that’s how golf goes.”
Burnett played well in the tournamenttwo years earlier, and said she believesplaying in the wind at home in Brunswickand on St. Simons Island has enabled herto deal with the ocean breezes in Hawaii.
Although she was thousands of milesfrom home, Burnett was cheered onduring the tournament by her olderbrother Ben, who is stationed at nearby
Pearl Harbor. With her tie for second, Burnett
vaulted to 24th on the money list, andshould be exempt into the tour’s majorsfor the rest of 2016, as well as locking upher exempt status for 2017.
Burnett followed up her career bestwith a 69 in the opening round the nextweek in the LPGA’s tour stop in SanFrancisco, but her run of outstandingplay ended the day, as she got off to astumbling start and shot 80 to miss thecut by one shot.
Burnett was a relative late arrival tocompetitive golf, playing her first non-scholastic tournament at the age of 16. Itdidn’t take her long to adapt to competi-tion in state and national junior events.She was the Georgia PGA Junior Tour’sPlayer of the Year and earned a scholar-ship to South Carolina, graduating as theschool’s all-time scoring leader.
After turning pro in 2012, Burnettwon her first tournament as a profes-sional in Michigan by 10 shots, qualifiedfor the U.S. Women’s Open and finished25th in the finals of qualifying to earnher playing privileges for 2013. Shereached the finals by winning her secondstage qualifier by six strokes.
Burnett also qualified for the 2013European Tour and divided her time thatyear between the U.S. and overseas,placing in the top 50 on the LET moneylist despite not playing a full schedule.
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Burnett ties for second in LPGA event in Hawaii
14 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Symetra Tour [ Continued from page 12 ]
Paolozzi has made a few trips toAtlanta National to gain some much-needed local knowledge about the course,and hopes that will give her a little edgeover the Symetra Tour regulars, who willhave no more than a practice round ortwo.
“There will not be a lot of birdies outhere,” Paolozzi said of Atlanta National,which will play around 6,400 yards forthe tournament, approximately theyardage from the club’s burgundy tees.
Hazards are seriously in play on abouthalf the holes, including a pair of all-carry-over-water pars 3s that are now partof the front nine. With the par changes toholes 15 and 18, the course will now havea trio of potentially risk/reward par 5s,
with the risk on the converted 18th thedevilishly deep bunker off the right sideof the sharply elevated green.
Instead of having a potentially drivablepar 4, an island green par 3 and a longand demanding par 4 for its closingholes, the course will have a differentfinish for the tournament.
The dogleg right eighth (tournament17) is one of the better par 4s at AtlantaNational, with the second shot over ahazard to a wide, shallow green one of themost demanding on the course. The tour-nament finishing hole is a risk/rewardpar 5 with a large waste bunker in themiddle of the fairway having to be nego-tiated from the tee and a winding streamfronting the green.
Tickets for the tournament are $10 daily, and can be purchased at the gate. For information, visitwww.goslingsclassic.com.
Katie Burnett
Almost becomes first Georgia winner in 20 years
16 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
By Mike Blum
ince it opened almost a decadeago, Echelon Golf Club hasheld the somewhat dubiousdistinction of being considered
the best golf course in metro Atlanta – ifnot the entire state of Georgia – withouta clubhouse.
If the recently begun constructionprocess continues on schedule, sometimeearly next year the club will finally shedthat label and take on a new one – a legit-imate contender for the designation asAtlanta’s (and the state’s) best daily feegolf course.
Echelon has suffered through some upsand downs since it opened under a dif-ferent name (Georgia Tech Club) andstatus (private club) in 2006. One thing,however, has not changed during the pastdecade. Echelon was considered an out-standing layout when it opened in 2006and that hasn’t changed. Neither hasEchelon’s reputation for first rate condi-tioning, particularly some of the metroarea’s finest putting surfaces. Jeff Peltz, who has been involved with
high profile golf course facilities inColorado, Texas and south Florida, took alook three years ago at about 15 proper-ties in the Southeast and decided onEchelon, even though the club waswithout a clubhouse.
Peltz recognized the overall quality ofthe course and its conditions and acquiredthe club, knowing he would need to adda clubhouse at some point. That point isnow, and golfers who have been comingto the club on the North Fulton/Cherokeeborder for years can see visible signs ofconstruction that heralds the arrival of aclubhouse in the near future.
Since Peltz acquired Echelon in early2013, the club has been “stable,” he says,with “a growing membership and soliddaily fee play.” With the clubhouse underconstruction, he expects “the member-ship to grow exponentially because of it.People have come for the golf course andthe quality of conditions and our num-bers have been up with slight increaseseach year.”
With the addition of a clubhouse, thefuture appears bright for Echelon, whichwill be positioned to assume the status ofWhite Columns as the area’s premierupscale daily fee facility before it wentprivate.
Peltz foresees Echelon as “a businessmen’s golf club. We have a lot oftelecommuters who are business reps,and this will be an environment wherethey can entertain and conduct businessin our meeting rooms.”
In addition to its reputation for thequality of its layout and conditioning,Echelon has also acquired some noto-riety for its difficulty, with someelevated Course Rating/Slope numbersfrom the back two sets of tees.
Acclaimed golf course architect ReesJones designed Echelon in part to be ahome course for the Georgia Tech golfteam, with the tournament teesstretching to just over 7,550 yards andrated at a daunting 77.8/154. Thosetees will rarely be used, with the goldtees more than enough of a chal-lenge for pros and lowhandicap amateurs at7,076 yards (74.9/150).
The majority ofplayers who visitEchelon will play eitherthe blue or white tees,with both very playablefor golfers of moremodest abilities. Theblue tees measure 6,550(71/9/139) with thewhites 6,025 (70.0/129)and a mostly comfortablefit for seniors and higherhandicappers. The for-
ward tees are just under 5,000 yards. Echelon’s hilly terrain results in a size-
able number of elevated tees thateffectively reduces the course’s length,
but there are enough sharply uphill shotsto compensate. With a few exceptions,Echelon is quite generous off the tee,with minimal rough and at least one
fairway bunker on every hole,the vast majority along theleft side.
Thanks to the generosity ofmost of the landing areas,Echelon is more of a secondshot course. Jones providesopen access to almost everygreen, with the bunkers thatflank the putting surfaceslarge, fairly deep and a realtest of your sand game, espe-cially when the pins are cut
in reasonable proximity tothem.
With many of the greens carved out ofhillsides, several holes feature sharpdrop-offs around them, and the puttingsurfaces are also impacted by the bor-dering terrain. The large, rolling greensare not overly undulating, but with theirsize and significant movement, yourentire short game will get a strenuoustest. Thanks to the quality of the greens,you have a chance to hole some putts, butyour touch better be precise.
Even with the lofty slope numbers,there are only about four holes where haz-ards are seriously in play, but wetlandsareas along the way can also swallow upsome miss-hits. Most of the trouble isfound during the middle portion of thecourse, with holes 6, 8 and 11 the mostperilous you’ll encounter at Echelon.
The sixth is a par 4 of moderate dis-
[ See Echelon, page 30 ]
S
Echelon among Georgia’s finest layouts
Echelon’s well-bunkered, par-4 13th hole
Clubhouse to add to course’s lofty status
Echelon’s daunting par-5 11th hole
"We have a growing membership and solid dailyfee play. People have comefor the golf course and thequality of conditions and our numbers have been up." —Echelon Owner/General Manager Jeff Peltz
2 0 1 6 M AY 17F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
By Mike Blum
s he walked from the ninthgreen to the 10th tee Sundayafternoon early last month inAugusta, Jordan Spieth
seemed on his way to a second straightwire-to-wire victory in the Masters.
Spieth closed out his front nine withfour consecutive birdies to take a 5-shotlead over England’s Danny Willett, andseemed poised to become just the fourthback-to-back champion in tournamenthistory.
When Spieth got up-and-down fromthe back bunker on the par-3 12th for astunning quadruple bogey less than 45minutes after the last of his four straightbirdies, his commanding 5-shot lead wassuddenly transformed into a 3-strokedeficit. Spieth played holes 10, 11 and 12in 6-over par, with a pair of bogeysleading up to his meltdown at the shortbut perilous 12th, where he dumped twoshots into Rae’s Creek.
Willett, a late-blooming Europeanstar, rattled off three birdies in a 4-holestretch beginning at the par-5 13th, andfound himself in control of golf’s mostcelebrated event with only two holes leftto play.
After birdies at 13, 15 and 16, Willettwas two in front of playing partner LeeWestwood and long-hitting DustinJohnson, who carded five birdies in a10-hole stretch to put himself in positionfor another disappointing finish in amajor championship.
Johnson predictably flamed out with adouble bogey at the 17th, whileWestwood three-putted the16th for bogey after aspectacular chip-ineagle at the 15th got him within ashot of Willett.Like Johnson,Westwood has ahistory of closecalls in majors,with his tie forsecond givinghim nine careertop-3 finishes inthe four GrandSlam events.
While his threeremaining challengers allstruggled over the closing holesat Augusta National, Willett producedan exceptional chip shot from beyond the17th green to save par. He followed witha drive that spilt the fairway at the 18th,and got a fortuitous bounce on hisapproach shot that left him with an easytwo-putt par that clinched his victory.
Willett matched the best score of thefinal round with a bogey free, 5-under67, and wound up with a 3-shot marginover Westwood and Spieth, who recov-ered from his disaster at the 12th withbirdies at 13 and 15 to give himself achance to force a playoff.
An excellent tee shot at the par-3 16thleft Spieth with a birdie putt of less than10 feet that would have pulled himwithin a shot of Willett, with an invitingpin position at the 18th providing therealistic hope of a 72nd hole birdie and aplayoff in the fading daylight of a lateApril afternoon in Augusta.
Spieth’s uncanny putting touch hadkept him in the lead for the entire tour-nament for a second straight year,offsetting some shaky ball striking thatresulted in an exorbitant number of shotsthat sailed wide right, both off the teeand on approaches. This time, Spieth’sputter failed him. He missed his birdieattempt on the 16th and bogeyed the17th after another errant iron shot to sealhis fate.
After a where-did-that-come-from 41on the back nine, Spieth tied for secondwith Westwood at 2-under for the tour-nament, three behind Willett. Afterwinning the first two majors of 2015,
Spieth has placed second twice and fin-ished one shot out of a playoff in the lastthree majors, with the 2016 Masters theonly one of the three he lost due to hisown failures.
Most of the post-Masters commentaryand reporting focused on Spieth’s back-nine meltdown, much as occurred 20years ago when Greg Norman shot anugly 78 to turn a 6-stroke lead over NickFaldo after 54 holes into a 5-shot defeat.
Even with his bogey-bogey-quad col-lapse at 10, 11 and 12 and an unseemlyback nine 41, Spieth shot 73 on Sunday,and was one indecisive swing away froma 69 and another green jacket. He cardedseven birdies on the day and had a goodlook for an eighth at 16, a far cry fromNorman’s awful final round effort in1996.
Spieth displayed character with hisbirdies at 13 and 15 after squanderinga sizeable lead, and it took a Faldo-likeclutch effort by Willett to deny him achance to win a second consecutiveMasters. Spieth has finished second,first and T2 in his three Mastersappearances, giving up the lead late onthe front nine two years ago to even-tual champion Bubba Watson.
A tournament-best 66 gave Spieth a2-shot lead after the opening round,and he remained in front despite a 74under difficult conditions Friday and aSaturday 73.
Willett hung around near the top ofthe leader board for three days before
making a Sunday surge. He trailedSpieth by just three shots after 54 holeswhen Spieth let a lot of players back intocontention with a bogey-double bogeyfinish.
A bogey at the 18th was Willett’s onlyblemish in a 70 that left him inside thetop 10 after the opening round, and heremained four behind Spieth in a tie foreighth after 36 holes with a 74 thatincluded a lone birdie at the third.
Willett cut his deficit from four tothree after a Saturday 72, which includedstretches on each nine where he alter-nated bogeys with birdies. Birdies at 6and 8 Sunday moved Willett within ashot of Spieth before the leader’s birdierun separated him from the field.
While Spieth was making bogeys on10 and 11, Willett carded birdies at 13
A
Willett capitalizes on Spieth’s Masters stumble Flawless final round produces major victory
STEVE
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Jordan Spieth
18 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Danny Willett
PGA Tour NotesAs Acworth’s Jason Bohnwas returning toaction after suffering a heart attack in late February, Duluth’s Stewart Cinkannounced he was taking a leave ofabsence after his wife Lisa was diagnosedwith breast cancer.
Bohn was sidelined six weeks, returningat Hilton Head, where he made the cut.Cink withdrew from the tournament inCharlotte and said he would not return to the tour until his wife’s conditionimproves.
and 14 to cut his 5-shot deficit to threeand then one. He was one ahead ofWestwood and Johnson before makingbirdie at 16, and wound up winning bythree over Westwood and Spieth with a5-under 283 total, the highest winningscore in Augusta since Zach Johnsonwon at 1-over 289 in 2007.
After moderate breezy conditions onThursday, the scoring average rose signif-icantly as the wind increased in strengthon Friday and Saturday. The low scoreFriday was 71, with Smylie Kaufman(69) and 58-year-old Bernhard Langer(70) the only players under 71 onSaturday. Both faltered the next day, withLanger struggling to a 79 and Kaufmanfading to 81 while playing in the finaltwosome with Spieth.
Dustin Johnson tied for fourth at 287with Paul Casey and J.B. Holmes, whotook advantage of calmer playing condi-tions to close with scores of 67 and 68respectively. Matthew Fitzpatrick, one of five
Englishmen to finish in the top 10,birdied four of his last five holes to matchthe low score of the day (67) and tied forseventh at even par with SorenKjeldsen and Hideki Matsuyama.
A powerhouse group that includedpre-tournament favorites JasonDay, Rory McIlroy and JustinRose tied for 10th at 1-over 289,with McIlroy matching Spieth withseven birdies in a final round 71.McIlroy shot himself out of con-tention with a birdie-less 77 in thethird round, spoiling a heavyweightfinal pairing on Saturday with Spieth.
Although he began the week as the12th ranked player in the world,Willett was mostly known on this sideof the Atlantic as the player who mighthave to miss the Masters because hiswife was about to give birth. The babywas due to arrive on Masters Sunday,but was born the previous week, enablingWillett to compete at Augusta for justthe second time.
Willett was still the last player toarrive in Augusta, but his reduced prepa-ration was outweighed by the experienceof becoming a father for the first time.
Coming into the Masters, Willett wasconsidered at the top of the list of dark-horse candidates due to his outstandingplay internationally over the past year.He has played on the European Toursince 2008, and emerged as one of the
game’s top players last year when he wonthe Nedbank Challenge in South Africaand the European Masters and tied forsixth in the British Open, finishingsecond on the tour’s money list behindMcIlroy.
Willett finished 2015 strong, shootinga final round 62 in the HSBC Championsin China to place third, and tied for fourthin the European Tour finale in Dubai. Hereturned to Dubai to score his fourthEuropean Tour victory early in 2016, andin his first U.S. start of the year, was a
close third in the WGC Doral event,more than holding his own the final dayalong side Adam Scott, BubbaWatson, McIlroy and Phil Mickelson,who all joined him in the top five.
Before turning pro in 2008, Willettwas the world’s top-ranked amateur,but won just once in his first six sea-sons on the European Tour before hisbreakthrough last year. Like GraemeMcDowell, Willett played his collegegolf in Alabama, competing for twoseasons at Jacksonville State. He wasnamed the OVC Freshman of the Yearin 2007, and won the conferencechampionship the next year, one of his
college victories before returning hometo play professionally.
Willett’s game is relatively similar tothat of Spieth. Neither is particularlylong nor accurate off the tee, but both hita lot of greens and make more than theirshare of putts compared to their fellowpros. He was planning on joining thePGA Tour for the 2015-16 season, butdelayed that decision because of theimpending birth of his first child.
Thanks to his Masters victory, Willetthas now accepted PGA Tour member-ship.
2 0 1 6 M AY 19F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
Rory McIlroy
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By Mike Blum
ix tournaments into the 2016Web.com Tour schedule, fiveGeorgians are in excellent posi-tion to finish in the top 25 on
the money list and earn a spot on the2016-17 PGA Tour, with one of thequintet one victory away from an imme-diate promotion this year.
Three of the five are recent GeorgiaTech graduates, with a veteran PGA Tourmember and a Web.com rookie whoalready has two wins this season joiningthe ex-Yellow Jackets in the top 15 onthe money list after the late April eventin Mexico.
Wesley Bryan, an Augusta residentwho played his college golf at SouthCarolina, won the tour’s first U.S. tour-nament of 2016 in Louisiana and added asecond title one month later in Mexico.He also has top-10 finishes in Panamaand Colombia and leads the money listwith almost $261,000, ensuring him aspot on the 2016-17 PGA Tour if hedoesn’t make another cent this season.
Bryan, who teams with his brotherGeorge to form a trick shot duo that hasmany internet fans, competed onregional mini-tours before qualifying forthe Web.com Tour with a top-10 finishin last year’s qualifying finals. He tied forseventh in Panama in his first-everWeb.com Tour event and shot 14-underin Louisiana to score a narrow victorythanks to a tie-breaking birdie on the17th hole in the final round.
A second round 63 powered Bryan to a
19-under 269 total and a 4-shot win inMexico.
Recent Georgia Tech graduate OllieSchniederjans almost joined Bryan inthe winner’s circle, losing in a playoff inCartagena, Colombia. Schniederjans,who grew up in Powder Springs, took thelead with his sixth birdie of the day onthe par-5 18th, but hit his tee shot in thewater when the playoff started on the18th. His opponent, who also birdied thepar-5 18th to force a playoff, reached thegreen in two after Schniederjans’ errantdrive to lock up the playoff victory.
Schniederjans recovered from anopening 74 to shoot 68-66-69 the nextthree days and finish at 11-under 277,
moving up to ninth on the money list.He missed the cut in his first twoWeb.com starts of 2016 before shooting11-under and tying for 35th in Braziland remained ninth with a tie for 13th inMexico. The former No. 1 ranked ama-teur in the world has made six PGA Tourstarts in the 2015-16 season, makingfour cuts. Richy Werenski, a 2014 Georgia
Tech grad, missed the cut in four of thefirst five Web.com events of 2016, buttied for second in Colombia and wassecond in Mexico behind Bryan to movefrom 12th to seventh in earnings.Werenski, who was 79th on the moneylist last year, earned his exempt status for2016 with a strong showing in the qual-ifying finals despite a final round 78.
Werenski shot a final round 68 inBogota and tied for the lead with a birdieon the par-5 18th, but the eventual
champion also birdied the 18th to win byone. He was 12th on the money list. Heshot three 66s in his runner-up finish inMexico, but a second round 75 cost hima chance to win. Jonathan Byrd has played on the
PGA Tour since 2002, winning fourtimes including the final tournamentplayed at Callaway Gardens during hisrookie season. But he has struggled sinceundergoing wrist surgery early in 2013and has only limited PGA Tour statusthis season, making the cut in four of fivestarts with a best finish of T39.
Byrd, a St. Simons Island resident,already has two top-5 Web.com finishes,tying for fifth in the season opener in
Panama and for third in Louisiana,closing with scores 65 and 66 respec-tively. He was 13th in earnings after a tiefor 10th in Mexico. Anders Albertson, Schniederjans’
teammate for four seasons at GeorgiaTech and a fellow Web.com rookie, madea run at victory in Brazil, placing thirdwith a 20-under 264 total, three shotsbehind the winner. After three straightmissed cuts, Albertson shot 62 in thesecond round in Sao Paolo and closedwith back-to-back 66s.
Albertson, who grew up inWoodstock, shared the lead after 18 holesthe next week in Colombia, and woundup tied for 30th. He joined Schniederjansin a tie for 13th in Mexico to stand 15thin earnings after narrowly earning hisexempt status for 2016 in the qualifyingfinals. Trey Mullinax moved to St. Simons
Island after playing on Alabama’s back-to-back NCAA Championship teams in2013 and ’14, and qualified for theWeb.com Tour in his first attempt,placing 60th in earnings last year. Hewas 27th this year, tying for fourth inColumbia, just two shots behind theeventual winner. Mullinax also played inlast Fall’s McGladrey Classic at Sea IslandGC on a sponsor’s exemption and tied for25th after shooting 65 in the openinground.
Recent UGA golfer Keith Mitchellfinished well back in the finals ofWeb.com qualifying late last year, butgot into the season-opening event inPanama after playing well as a rookie onthe Latino America Tour in 2015. Hetied for 14th in Panama after an opening66 to get into the next week’s event inColombia and played respectably there.He did not get into the next three events,but at 70 on the money list after the firstre-shuffle, should be a regular on the tourfor the remainder of the season.
Former UGA golfer BrydenMacpherson struggled last year in hisfirst full season on the Web.com Tour,finishing 126th on the money list. Buthe spent the end of the year in China,where he scored six straight top-5 fin-ishes on PGA Tour China, including apair of victories, and regained hisWeb.com Tour status for 2016.Macpherson, who won the BritishAmateur during his time in Athens, was91st on the 2016 money list after sixevents, with a tie for 20th in Louisianahis best showing.
Snellville native Jonathan Fricke wasright behind Macpherson at 92nd,including a tie for 18th in the 2016opener in Panama. Fricke played theWeb.com Tour full time in 2008 and ’14,finishing around 100 on the money listboth seasons. The former Georgia Stategolfer won the Georgia Open in 2012and ’13.
Savannah’s Mark Silvers was 105th inearnings in his first full Web.com seasonin 2015, regained his status when heclosed with a 66 in the finals of quali-fying. He moved up to 77th after a tie for30th in Mexico, and has made four of sixcuts with a best finish of 27th. Silvers isbest known as a former Big Break winneron the Golf Channel, and also won anumber of events at the regional mini-tour level, along with a victory on the
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20 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Augusta’s Bryan scores 2 Web.com wins3 recent Tech grads near top of money list
Anders Albertson
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Ollie Schniederjans
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2 0 1 6 M AY 21F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
Canadian Tour in 2014. Atlanta native and former UGA golfer
Adam Mitchell made 14 scattered startson the Web.com Tour between 2008 and’14, and has full status for the first timethis year after tying for 21st in the finalsof qualifying late in 2015. He has playedrespectably thus far, but the 2009Walker Cup team member has made justtwo cuts with a top finish of 30th andwas 110th in earnings.
At the age of 41, Reid Edstrom is oneof the Web.com’s veteran players, and isplaying his fourth full season on the toursince 2008. Edstrom, who grew up inmetro Atlanta before attending Auburnand then settling there, tied for ninth inthe finals of qualifying last year, butplayed only two of the first six tourna-ments this season, tying for 25th in thesecond of two tournaments in 25th. Hewas 118th on the money list.
Former Georgia Tech golfer KyleScott made it into just three Web.comevents last year, but competed in the firstsix events of 2016 after narrowly earninghis exempt status in the finals of quali-fying. Despite shooting in the 60s once
in all of his first three starts this year,Scott missed the cut in all three beforemaking it to the weekend in Sao Paolo,Cartagena and Mexico. The Decatur resi-dent was 115th in earnings.
Fellow ex-Yellow Jacket TroyMatteson won twice during his nine fullseasons on the PGA Tour, but has notplayed well since finishing 45th in theFedExCup standings in 2012 and isplaying primarily on the Web.com Tourthis year. Matteson enjoyed one of thebest seasons in Web.com history in 2005,winning twice and leading the tour inearnings, but has not enjoyed a great dealof success in 20 starts since 2013. He was1-for-3 in cuts this season, and was a dis-tant 142nd in earnings.
Atlanta resident Casey Wittenberghas played six full seasons on theWeb.com Tour and two on the PGATour, but began 2016 with limitedWeb.com status after placing 113th inearnings last year. His lone made cut intwo starts thus far this season came inLouisiana, where he scored one of his twovictories in 2012, when he topped themoney list. Wittenberg struggled in his
second shot on the PGATour in 2013 and has beenunable to re-capture his2012 form on theWeb.com Tour the last twoyears.Blake Adams, a
Swainsboro resident andformer Georgia Southerngolfer, lost his PGA Tourstatus earlier this year afterundergoing hip surgery in2014 and is playing theWeb.com Tour this year,making his first cut in Mexico.
SCOTT
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Jonathan Byrd
For updates on this month's tournaments,including the Rivermont Championship, Symetra Tour event at Atlanta National, and women's and men's NCAA Regionals,
visit www.foregeorgia.com.
By Mike Blum
or much of March and April,Billy Mitchell’s thoughts werefar from the golf course, wherehe has been one of Georgia’s top
amateur players for more than a decade. Mitchell’s 23-year-old daughter Sarah
was severely injured in a scooter accidentwhile on vacation in Mexico and spenttwo weeks in the ICU and CCU recov-ering from extensive injuries. After sometouch and go moments, Sarah is out ofthe hospital and is “projected to make afull recovery,” according to her veryrelieved father.
Sarah still has a long way to go to fullyregain her health, but her father felt com-fortable enough to return to competitionin late April, playing in consecutive tour-naments in Thomasville and Gainesville.
Mitchell and playing partner ChrisWaters teamed up to finish second in theGSGA Four-Ball Championship at GlenArven, falling out of a tie for first whenthe winning team eagled the final hole.
The next day, Mitchell was playingwithout a partner in the Yamaha GeorgiaSenior Open at Chattahoochee GC, andput himself in position for victory afteropening with a 3-under 69.
Mitchell followed with a 68 andwound up in a playoff with former PGATour caddie John L. Smith, the brotherof Frederica Club head pro Hank Smith.Mitchell parred the 18th to win on thefirst extra hole when Smith encounteredan awkward yardage for his second shot
in the playoff. He made bogey aftercoming up short with his approach.
After playing professionally all overthe world during the 1980s and ‘90s,Mitchell regained his amateur statusand settled in the Atlanta area in themid-‘90s. He has lived in east CobbCounty since 2001 and has been a longtime fixture in Georgia amateur circles,winning the GSGA Public LinksChampionship in 2010 and ’11, andquailfying16 times for various USGAevents.
Mitchell, whose father is a career clubpro in the Daytona Beach area, says hehas “nothing but respect for PGA profes-sionals,” and said his victory wasparticularly sweet coming againstGeorgia’s standout group of senior clubpros.
“Wins are all special,” said Mitchell,with his playoff victory at Chattahoocheeespecially sweet because of all he experi-enced in the weeks leading up to thetournament.
“Your perspective on life changes. I’vealways loved this game, but this helpsput golf back in place.”
Over the years, Mitchell has had anumber of close calls in statewide tour-naments.
“I’ve knocked on the door a lot, but Ihaven’t closed the deal.”
That could have happened again inthe Yamaha Georgia Senior Open, asMitchell built a 3-stroke lead early onthe back nine of the final round afterbeginning his day with four birdies onhis first six holes.
A double bogey on the par-5 13th holecost Mitchell the outright lead, but hefollowed at the next hole with a birdieand found himself in a playoff after parson his last four holes. Mitchell was inbetween clubs for his second on the 13thand said he “tried to back off a 3-wood. Ipulled it and hit the cart path.”
The ball bounced into thick trees leftof the green and was sitting up in leaves.Mitchell hit “right under the ball” andbarely advanced, getting back to thefairway with his fourth shot before chip-ping onto the green and two-putting.
“I bounced back with a birdie after theseven,” Mitchell said, quickly regainingthe top spot over Smith, who pulled evenwith his birdie at the par-5 15th.
Mitchell and Smith both finished at 7-under 137, with Mitchell shooting 68
thefinal round with six birdies and the oneslip on the 13th. Smith, part of a three-way tie for the lead after an opening 68,closed with a 69 highlighted by an eagleon the par-5 eighth. His only bogey ofthe day came on the opening hole, withhis two birdies coming onChattahoochee’s back nine par 5s. Craig Stevens, who won the Georgia
Senior Open three times between 2011and ’14 and was runner-up in 2012, fin-ished one shot out of a playoff for thesecond straight year, the third time he’scome up one shot short in the last fiveyears. Stevens, an instructor atBrookstone G&CC, was third at 138 aftera pair of 69s.
Stevens carded three birdies on theback nine and had an excellent chance fora fourth after a beautiful tee shot on thedownhill par-3 17th, but missed fromfive feet and came up just short on hisbirdie try on the 18th.
Smith, a Statesboro resident, tookhome $2,200 for finishing as low pro inhis first appearance in the Georgia SeniorOpen. He shared the first round lead at68 with Marietta CC Director of GolfStephen Keppler and Atlanta proShouting Huang.
Without a great deal of tournamentoptions for players 50 and over, Smith isprimarily playing in pre-qualifiers andMonday qualifiers on the ChampionsTour. He has made it through most of thepre-qualifiers, but has yet to play his wayinto a tour event.
Prior to turning 50,Smith caddied forSwainsboro’s WillClaxton on the PGATour for two-plus years,but Claxton has notplayed since under-going hip surgery twoyears ago. SinceClaxton’s injury, Smithhas played more thanhe’s caddied, andplaced 20th in the2014 Georgia Openand tied for sixth lastyear at Pinetree.
Smith said he was“definitely encour-aged” by his GeorgiaSenior Open
showing. “I only had two bogeys thewhole tournament.”
Unfortunately for Smith, he made athird bogey on the first playoff hole, thepar-4 18th. After a beautiful drive, hehad what he described as “an odd yardageinto the green,” and caught his shortsecond shot heavy, coming up well short.He was unable to get up and down forpar, with Mitchell making a routine parfor the victory.
“I saw one or two of those shots today,”Smith said of his final round playingpartners. “And then it happened to me.”
Keppler, who has finished fifth, third,third, second in a playoff and fourth inhis five Georgia Senior Open starts,earned a spot in the final pairing of thesecond round with an opening 68 high-lighted by an eagle at the par-5 13th.
After 11 pars and a birdie on his first12 holes in the final round, Keppler wasone shot off Mitchell’s lead and was inposition to move into a tie with a well-placed wedge shot on the 13th. But hechunked his approach and made bogey,keeping himself in contention with abirdie at the par-4 14th.
Keppler was just off the green on thepar-5 15th in two with an excellentchance for a second straight birdie, butbarely advanced his chip shot and suf-fered another costly bogey. Kepplerbirdied the 18th hole for a 71 and a tiefor fourth at 5-under 139 with JohnsCreek amateur Don Marsh, who shot asecond round 69.
[ See Senior Open, page 23]
F
22 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Mitchell wins Georgia Senior Open in playoff
Billy Mitchell
Takes title after daughter’s serious accident
John L. Smith
GEO
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By Mike Blum
ach of the first two RivermontChampionships has featured adown-to-the-wire finish withmultiple players having an
opportunity to win the Georgia PGAevent late in the final round.
This month’s tournament, one of sevenindividual Georgia PGA events thatdetermine the Section’s Player of theYear, will feature a format change,playing all 36 holes in one day withshotgun starts to both rounds.
In order to have the top finishers afterthe morning 18 paired together in theafternoon round, the field will be re-paired for the second round, which isscheduled for approximately 2 p.m. afteran 8:30 a.m. start for the first round.
The tournament field consisted of alittle over 70 players in 2014 and justover 60 last year, when the date waschanged from March 31-April 1 to mid-May. The 2016 event is scheduled forMay 9. Travis Nance, an assistant at Coosa
Country Club in Rome, has taken aliking to Rivermont, winning the tour-nament last year after losing in a playoffin 2014 to Georgia Golf Center assistantpro Chris Nicol, who placed sixth lastyear.
Nicol’s win in 2014 was his second inan inaugural Georgia PGA event, as healso won the first Championship atBerkeley Hills in 2010. He led atRivermont after an opening 66, shootinga 70 in the second round to tie Nance at6-under 136. Both players had chances to
win in regulation, but each made bogeyon the 18th hole.
Nance hit his tee shot on the firstplayoff hole – the 18th – into the treesleft of the fairway and was unable to findhis ball, enabling Nicol to win with abogey. Nance shot 3-under 68 in bothrounds, as the course was played as a par71 with the par-5 12th hole converted toa par 4 for the tournament.
Nicol and Nance finished just ahead ofa trio of veteran Georgia PGA standoutswho have a combined 12 Player of theYear titles among them. Seven-timeGPGA Player of the Year Tim Weinharttied for third at 137 with two-timeaward winner Sonny Skinner. JamesMason, the Section’s Player of the Yearthree times between 1997 and 2000, wasfifth at 138.
Low amateur for the tournament wasAtlanta-based radio golf broadcasterBrian Katrek, who was tied withWeinhart for second after an openinground 67 that included a 6-under 29 onthe back nine, his first nine of theopening round. Playing in the finalgroup of the second round with Nicoland Weinhart, Katrek shot 74 to tie forseventh overall at 141.
Nance, who played briefly on what isnow the Web.com Tour and won twiceon the Hooters Tour during his career asa tour player, collected his first GeorgiaPGA title last year at Rivermont with a3-under 139 total, edging Weinhart,West Pines head pro Chris Cartwrightand amateur Erik Martin by one shot.
Martin, a former Rivermont member,led by two shots after an opening 67 and
held a comfortable lead for most of thesecond round before playing holes 12-16in 5-over. He reclaimed a share of thelead when he birdied the sharply down-hill par-3 17th, but a three-putt bogey atthe 18th dropped him into a tie forsecond, one shot behind Nance, whoposted scores of 70 and 69.
Nance carded four birdies the final day,including a pair on the back nine at holes11 and 14. Nance eagled the drivablepar-4 11th twice in 2014, hitting his teeshot both days within 10 feet of the hole.
Weinhart, the Director of Instructionat Heritage Golf Links, came up one shotshort of a playoff for the second straightyear, carding a pair of 70s. He collectedthree birdies on the back nine in thesecond round, but also suffered a pair ofbogeys.
Cartwright held a share of the lead latein the final round, but dropped into a tie
for second when he bogeyed the17th. He also shot back-to-back scores of70.
Nicol shot a final round 70 to placesixth at 142, making a strong early movebefore his charge stalled on the backnine. Skinner, the head pro at Spring Hillin Tifton, tied for seventh at 143 withHighland CC head pro Todd Ormsbyand CC of the South instructor DavidPotts, who was tied for second after anopening 69. Ormsby’s 67 was the lowround of the day.
Cherokee T&CC assistant PeterJones, who tied for sixth the previousyear at 139, was one of five players tyingfor 10th last year at 144. Also tying for10th was Rivermont Director of GolfMatthew Evans, who shot 69 in theopening round.
The tournament will again be spon-sored by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.
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2 0 1 6 M AY 23F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
Senior Open [ Continued from page 22 ]
Huang fought back after a shaky startto shoot even par 72 and tie for sixth at140. He struggled to find fairways earlyin the final round and bogeyed three ofhis first four holes, saving par on the par-3 third after topping his tee shot. He was3-under over his final 14 holes, closingwith birdies at 15, 16 and 18 around abogey at the 17th.
An adventurous finish to his openinground left Huang with a share of the leadgoing to the final day of play. Huang hadtwo birdies and no bogeys for his first 14holes before going birdie-eagle-birdie onholes 6, 7 and 8. The two birdies came on
Chattahoochee’s front nine par 5s, withhis eagle the result of a hole-out on thedifficult par-4 seventh.
But with a chance to claim the out-right lead after 18 holes, Huang madedouble bogey on the ninth to finish tiedwith Smith and Keppler, who set thestandard when he shot 68 as part of thefirst group off the first tee.
Sharing sixth place with Huang wasAthens amateur Doug Stiles and SpringHill head pro Sonny Skinner, the 2012Georgia Senior Open champion. Stilesclosed with a 67, making six of his sevenbirdies late on each of the nines. Skinnershot 69-71, scoring birdies on two of thefirst three holes the final day but man-aging just one more over the final 15holes.
Tying for ninth at 141 was defendingchampion James Mason of Dillard andamateur Larry Vaughan of Greensboro.Mason shot 70 the second round with 16pars and two birdies, while Vaughan hadsix birdies in a 68.
Currahee Club Director of Golf ClarkSpratlin, Brunswick CC instructorMark Anderson and Peachtree Cityamateur Jack Kearney tied for 11th at142. Spratlin shot 72 the second day,playing his first 12 holes in 4-over beforeclosing with birdies on four of the lastsix. Anderson began his first round with13 straight pars before consecutivebirdies at 14, 15 and 16 for a 69. He set-tled for a 73 the next day with just onebirdie. Like Mason, Kearney had 16 parsand two birdies in a final round 70.
Stephen Keppler
2014 Champion Chris Nicol
Travis Nance
Rivermont GPGA event set for 36 holes in 1 day
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By Mike Blum
he Georgia Bulldogs wontheir first SECChampionship since 2010,taking the 2016 title at Sea
Island Golf Club. Lee McCoy, a seniorfrom Clarkesville, captured the indi-vidual title, also the first for theBulldogs since 2010.
The Bulldogs finished the tournamentwith a 13-over 853 total on the par-70Seaside course, three shots ahead ofrunner-up Texas A&M. Florida andArkansas tied for third at 861.
Georgia and Kentucky battled for thelead over the first two rounds, with theteams tied after 18 holes and Kentuckytwo ahead going to the final day. But theBulldogs closed with a 5-over 285, thesecond lowest team score of the finalround, while Kentucky shot 302 and fellto seventh place.
Both Georgia and Kentucky shot 3-under 277 in the first round, the onlyunder par team scores for the tourna-ment. McCoy and Peachtree Cornerssophomore Zach Healy opened withscores of 68 and junior Greyson Sigg ofAugusta added a 69. Valdosta seniorSepp Straka contributed a 72.
The Bulldogs fell two shots behindKentucky after 36 holes, shooting 11-over 291 in the second round. McCoymatched par at 70 to take the individuallead, while freshman Tye Waller ofGriffin had the second low team score at72. Also counting was a 75 by Sigg anda 76 by Healy.
McCoy claimed the individual titlewith a final round 69, giving him a 3-under 207 total, two strokes ahead of therunner-up. Straka recovered from a poorsecond round to shoot 71, with Siggmatching that score. Waller chipped inwith a 74, with Healy’s 76 not counting.
Sigg finished tied for 10th at 215 withHealy T18 at 218. Waller, who shot 221,and Straka both had two of their threerounds count.
The victory was the seventh career titlefor McCoy, who closed out his victory byholing a 25-footer for birdie on the 54thhole. It was Georgia’s 29th SEC
Championship title,six of which have come at Sea Island GC.
Eight of Georgia’s titles havecome under head coachChris Haack. Georgia will play in one
of six NCAA Regionals May16-18, with the NCAA Championshipset for May 27-June 1 in Eugene, Ore. Kennesaw State won the Atlantic
Sun Championship for a second straightyear, scoring a 7-stroke victory at theLegends at Chateau Elan. The Owls ledby six after an opening score of 5-under283, and held on with totals of 291 and290 the next two days for an even partotal of 864.
All five Kennesaw golfers finished tiedfor 12th or better, with all five con-tributing at least two counting scores.Sophomore Fredrik Nilehn was one ofthree players under par in the openinground with a 70, and added a 72 the finalday to place third at even par 216. Chris Guglielmo, a junior from
Cumming, closed with scores of 72 and ateam-best 70 in the third round and tiedfor fourth at 217. Freshman Jake Fendt,also from Cumming, shot 71-74-74 andtied for eighth at 219. Wyatt Larkin, asophomore from Morganton, shot 69 thefirst day and contributed a final round 74to tie for 12th at 220 with juniorTeremoana Beaucousin, who openedwith scores of 73 and 71. Augusta easily won the Mid-Eastern
title for the second straight year, scoringa runaway 33-shot victory at Crosswinds
in Savannah. The Jaguars’ starters fin-ished first, second, third, fourth and tiedfor fifth, with senior Robin Peterssonearning medalist honors.
The Jaguars posted scores of 284-280-270 for a 30-under 834 total. Augustaled by just three shots after the openinground, but expanded its lead to 14 after36 holes before shooting 18-under thefinal day to finish 72 strokes ahead of thethird place team.
Petersson shot 69-67-69 for an 11-under 205 total, four ahead of sophomoreBroc Everett, who closed with a 64 totake second at 209. Junior JakeMarriott was third at 210, with seniorMaverick Antcliff firing a final round66 to take fourth at 213. JuniorEmmanuel Kountakis of Augusta shoteven par 216 to tie for fifth. Georgia State won the stroke play
portion of the Sun Belt Championship atSandestin Resort’s Raven course to earn aspot in match play, but lost in the finalsafter an overwhelming semifinal victory.
The Panthers led by six strokes afterthe first round, by six after 36 holes andfinished six ahead of runner-up Troy witha 4-under 848 total for 54 holes, postingscores of 282-279-287. But aftersweeping past No. 4 South Alabama 4-0-1 in the semifinals, Georgia State lost 3-2to Troy in the title match.
In the semifinals, the Panthers got bigwins from sophomore brothers Max andAlex Herrmann by scores of 4&2 and3&2, Lexington junior NathanMallonee (3&2) and senior J.J. Grey,
the team’sNo. 1 (6&5). Woodstock freshman NickBudd halved his match.
In the finals, Grey won big (6&5again), but Mallonee lost 5&3 and Budddropped a 2&1 decision in the openingmatch. Both matches involving theHerrmann brothers went down to thewire, with Max winning 1-up but Alexlost on the 19th hole in the decisivematch.
Max Herrmann and Grey sharedmedalist honors at 3-under 210, withHerrmann closing with scores of 70 and67 and Grey shooting 65-70 the first tworounds. Herrmann won the individualchampionship in a playoff.
After a non-counting first round, AlexHerrmann shot 64 the next day andclosed with a 72 to tie for eighth at 214.Budd opened with a 71 and tied for 24that 220, with Mallonee T32 at 222. Georgia Southern finished last in the
11-team Sun Belt tournament, 41 shotsbehind Georgia State at 889. SophomoreArcher Price tied for 12th at 215,shooting 69-71 the first two rounds. Inhis final round for the Eagles, Griffinsenior Henry Mabbett shot a team best73. Georgia Tech placed fourth in the
ACC Championship hosted by NorthCarolina State. The Yellow Jacketsplayed consistently with scores of 287-288-289 for an even par 864 total, 25shots behind Clemson. Tech trailed by 14
[ See College roundup, page 25 ]
T
24 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
McCoy, Bulldogs claim SEC victories Owls, Jaguars win conference titles
Lee McCoy
UG
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Chris Guglielmo
COLLEGE Roundup
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By Mike Blum
he Georgia Lady Bulldogsfinished a distant sixth in theSEC Women’s GolfChampionship at Greystone
CC in Birmingham, ending the 54-holeevent 30 strokes behind Alabama’s win-ning total of 859.
The Lady Bulldogs posted scores of296-296-297 for a 25-over 889 total.They trailed by 10 shots after the firstround and by 14 after 36, with Alabamapulling away in the final round with a 7-under 281 to finish five shots in front ofrunner-up Florida, which was tied for thelead with one round to play.
Freshman Jillian Hollis led Georgia,tying for 11th at 219, with juniorHarang Lee T16 at 221. FreshmanBailey Tardy of Peachtree Corners shot 1-under 71 in the opening round, but closedwith scores of 77 and 75 and tied for 23rdat 223. Roswell’s Rinko Mitsunaga, thethird freshman in Georgia’s startinglineup, closed with back-to-back scores of75 and placed 39th at 228.
Georgia closed out the regular seasonat home earlier in April, hosting theannual Liz Murphy Collegiate Classic,which featured three rounds of matchplay to give the Lady Bulldogs someexperience in that format prior to theNCAA Championship, which will beplayed May 20-25 in Eugene, Ore.
The Lady Bulldogs placed second out
of 12 teams in stroke play qualifyingwith an even-par 288 total, two shotsbehind UCLA. Lee was second individu-ally in qualifying with a 69, with Tardythird at 70. Hollis shot 74, Mitsunagacontributed a 75 and sophomoreIsabella Skinner of Cumming shot 76.
Georgia won its first match, defeatingPurdue 3 ½ - 1 ½ with Lee, Tardy andMitsunaga all winning their matcheshandily. Lee won 4&3, Mitsunaga scoreda 3&2 victory and Tardy took her match3&1. Hollis halved her match andSkinner lost.
The Lady Bulldogs finished 1-2 inmatch play, losing to Alabama 3 ½ – 1 ½and to Southern Cal 4-1. Lee, who wonall three of her matches, was the loneGeorgia winner in the team’s finalmatches, with Hollis getting her secondhalf against Alabama. Hollis and Tardyboth lost 1-up against USC.
The Augusta women’s team, whichdoes not belong to a conference, closedout its season with tournaments atClemson and Ohio State.
The Lady Jaguars were eighth atClemson with an 885 total, shooting 1-over 289 in the first round and 291 in thefinal round. Junior Teresa CaballerHernani closed with a 5-under 67 at theReserve at Lake Kiowee to tie for secondindividually at 210, two shots behind thewinner.
Junior Eunice Yi of Evans tied for36th at 224, with Roswell junior Jessica
Haigwood shooting 71 in thefirst round before struggling thenext two days.
Augusta shot 911 on thedemanding Scarlett course atOhio State to finish in eighthplace. Junior Josefine Nyqvist ledthe Lady Jaguars, tying for 11th at 224,with Yi T20 at 226 and Haigwood T43at 236.
Georgia and Augusta were the onlywomen’s teams from the state to earnNCAA Division 1 bids. Georgia is theNo. 2 seed in the Texas A&M Regional,while Augusta is seeded 11th in the LSURegional. Newnan’s Ji Eun Baik, whoplays at Mississippi State, will competein Regionals as an individual. Riverdale’sMariah Stackhouse and defending
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College roundup[ Continued from page 24 ]
after 18 holes and by 18 after 36. Sophomore Chris Petefish tied for
seventh at 4-under 212, shooting 69-74-69. Junior Vince Whaley was T25 at218, followed by Columbus sophomoreJames Clark (T29, 219), Acworthjunior Michael Hines (T31, 220) andAlbany sophomore Jacob Joiner (T39,223). All five Tech players had at leastone under-par round.
Both Georgia Tech and Georgia Stateare in line to get bids to NCAARegionals on May 5, joining Georgia,Kennesaw State and Augusta in the field.The Regionals will be played May 18-20at six sites, with the NCAAChampionship at Eugene (Ore.) CC May
27-June 1. In late Spring regular season events: Augusta placed third and Georgia
was fourth in the annual 3M Invitationalhosted by the Jaguars at Forest Hills.Augusta led Illinois and Texas by threeshots after 36 holes with scores of 275and 283, but the Jaguars shot 288 thefinal day to finish nine behind Illinoisand six behind Texas with an 18-under846 total.
Petersson led Augusta, tying for fourthat 8-under 208. Everett tied for 13th at213 and Antcliff was T16 at 214 afteropening with a 67.
McCoy was low for the Bulldogs,placing seventh at 209 with scores of 69-70-70. Straka shot a final round 67 totake 11th at 211, with Healy T20 at 215and Sigg T35 at 219. Kennesaw State was ninth at Forest
Hills with an 870 total. Beaucousin tiedfor 25th at 216, with Guglielmo T27 at217 after a final round 69. Larkin had theteam’s low score – a 67 – in the openinground.
The Owls closed out the regular seasonwith a second place finish in the IrishCreek Collegiate in Charlotte, four shotsbehind Wake Forest at 7-over 859.Kennesaw led by three after openingwith a 284, and remained one aheadgoing to the final round after a 283.
Guglielmo tied for 10th at 71-69-74—214, with Nilehn shooting threestraight scores of 72 to tie for 12th at 216with Larkin, who opened with a 70.Fendt shot 70-72 the last two rounds andwas T19 at 218, with his 72 the team’slow score in the third round.
In its final two regular season events,Georgia Tech tied for second behind the
Mariah Stackhouse
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host team in the Clemson Invitational,and tied for third in an event inPrinceton, N.J.
The Yellow Jackets posted a score of872 at Clemson, 11 shots behind theTigers. Whaley earned medalist honorsat 208 with scores of 70-67-71, finishingtwo ahead of the runner-up. Clark tiedfor seventh at 217, with Hines openingwith scores of 73-70 before struggling inthe final round.
Whaley shot 74-68—142 to tie forninth at Princeton, with Tech one shotout of second with a 578 total, but 35behind Duke’s winning score. Joiner andPetefish tied for 12th at 143. Georgia State was fourth in its reg-
ular season finale in Mississippi with ascore of 880 at Old Waverly. Malloneetied for 12th at 219, with Grey T17 at221 and Budd T22 at 222.
Georgia, Augusta receiveNCAA invitations
NCAA Champion Stanford will host aRegional, with Stanford the No. 3 seed.
All four regionals will be played May5-7.
Georgia’s other Division I women’steams ended their seasons in conferencetournaments. Georgia Southern placed fourth and
Georgia State was seventh in the 9-team Sun Belt tournament at theSandestin Resort in Destin, Fla.Kennesaw State took third in theAtlantic Sun tournament at ReunionResort in Kissimmee, Fla., and Mercerwas fourth in the Southern ConferenceChampionship at Savannah Quarters.
Mercer was led by the freshman MaryJuniga, who tied for 10th at 225. Fellowfreshman Payton Schanen of Alpharettawas 12th at 227 with sophomore HannahMae Deems of Taylorsville T15 at 232 andMoultrie junior Marin HannaT17 at 233.
After no Mercer golfer broke 80 thefirst day, the team improved 38 shots inthe second round, shooting 1-under 287.Juniga shot 70, sophomore JaelynTindal shot 72 and both Schanen andHanna posted scores of 73.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE Roundup
By Mike Blum
trio of Georgia juniors wonAmerican Junior GolfAssociation tournaments intheir home state in recent
events hosted by Coosa Country Cluband Country Club of the South. Nicolas Cassidy of Johns Creek and
Jenny Bae of Lawrenceville swept theboys and girls titles at Coosa, withAlpharetta’s Chandler Eaton scoring adecisive victory at CCoS.
Cassidy, a freshman at Johns Creek HS,shot 9-under 133 at Coosa to capture hisfirst AJGA title by four strokes overJacob Bayer of Lawrenceville, whoposted scores of 68-69. Austin Fulton ofVilla Rica tied for fifth at 141, closingwith a 68.
Although it was Cassidy’s initialAJGA win, it was not the first time hehad contended for victory.
“I head the lead with three holes left inKentucky last year and finished fourth,”Cassidy recalled. “I didn’t play too bad atthe end, the other kids came from behindand caught me. I closed out better thistime than I did before.”
Cassidy opened the tournament atCoosa with a 5-under 66, carding fourstraight birdies in a back nine 31 to leadby two. He pulled away from the fieldwith a 32 on the front nine the next dayand was 6-under after 11 holes before set-tling for a 67.
A hot putter helped provide Cassidywith a comfortable margin midway
through the final round, beginning witha stellar 20-putt total in the openinground.
“I putted really well,” he said of hisfirst-round showing at Coosa. “That gaveme a lot of confidence and I kept puttingwell the next day and got to 6-underafter 11 holes. I chilled the last sevenholes.”
Winning an AJGA tournament “is adream for me,” said Cassidy, who hasplayed four years in AJGA events. “Thekids out here are really good and I wasreally excited to win.”
Cassidy is the fifth Georgian to win inthe last seven AJGA tournaments atCoosa, with the tournament resumingafter a two-year absence. Rome has beenthe site of an AJGA event since 1996,with Coosa the host course since ’99.Among the past winners are GeorgiansRoberto Castro, Chris Kirk andHudson Swafford, all current PGATour members. Bae, a freshman at Collins Hill, won a
Junior All-Star event, which is limited toages 15-and-under, last year. Her win atCoosa was her first in the AJGA againstan all-age field.
“It was harder to win last week,” Baesaid after playing in the AJGA event atCountry Club of the South. “Now I’mcompeting against players with moreexperience.”
Earlier last month, Bae led an AJGAevent in Florida after opening with a 71,but slipped to fourth, three shots behindthe winner, after a second round 77.
Bae recorded ninebirdies at Coosa,posting scores of 68and 71 for a 3-under139 total, threestrokes ahead ofMarietta’s ElizabethReedy, who shot 70-72—142.
“My putting sup-ported me a lot,”Bae said. “That wasthe highlight of mygame.”
Bae was two infront after theopening round andmaintained herlead throughout the finalround, carding four of her nine birdies tomatch par of 71.
This is Bae’s second year of playing inthe AJGA, and she has taken to playingevents outside Georgia.
“I like traveling. It’s pretty fun playingnew courses I’ve never played and seeingplaces I’ve never been to before.” Eaton wound up winning at Country
Club of the South by six shots, with thetournament reduced from 54 holes to 45after some rainy weather delayed playduring the second of two rounds the firstday. The second round was completedSunday morning, with just nine holesscheduled for the afternoon with morerain in the forecast. Thomas Hogan of St. Simons led
after an opening 66, but Eaton took con-trol of the tournament with four birdieson the front nine before play was haltedin the afternoon. He settled for a 70 witha double bogey on his final hole and ledby four going to the final nine holes.
Eaton, a senior at Alpharetta HS, putthe tournament away with birdies onfour of the first five holes on the backnine, and shot 3-under 33 to finish witha 10-under 170 total. Hogan fell backwith a 76 in the second round includingthree double bogeys. He claimed secondplace at 4-under after shooting 2-underon the back nine Sunday afternoon.
It was the second AJGA win for Eaton,who won a pre-season event in 2014. Hiswin at CCoS came in a higher profile set-ting, and he said his victory was “a hugedeal. This is one of the best fields in the
AJGA. “My goal was to win at the junior level
this year and then in college and at theamateur level.”
Eaton will attend Duke on a golfscholarship, and is looking forward toattending an outstanding school with atop-20 golf program.
With his victory, Eaton became thefourth Georgian to win at CCoS since theNorth Fulton club began hosting anAJGA event in 2009. Past winnersinclude Alpharetta resident FrancoCastro, current UGA standout LeeMcCoy and Buford’s SM Lee, last year’schampion.
“I drove it really well and a made a lotof putts,” Eaton said, a good formula tonotching 16 birdies in 45 holes on a dif-ficult golf course.
Eaton went from one shot behind after18 holes to four ahead after 36, andexpanded his lead thanks to a hot start onthe final nine holes Sunday afternoon.
“That was kind of weird,” he said ofplaying with a large lead in the finalround. “I’ve never done that before. It’seasier to lose it, because everybodybehind you is playing more aggressively.”
Winning close to home was a big dealto Eaton, who was able to score a signifi-cant AJGA victory with his familypresent before wrapping up his juniorcareer.
Other than a possible appearance inthe Rolex Tournament of Champions at
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3 Georgians win AJGA events in home state
26 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Eaton, Cassidy, Bae take titles at CCoS, Coosa
Nicolas Cassidy
Chandler Eaton
Jenny Bae
JUNIOR GOLF in Georgia
[ See AJGA roundup, page 29 ]
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By Mike Blum
or junior golfers throughoutthe state, there are a multitudeof competitive options rangingfrom local organizations that
offer introductory playing opportunitiesto events involving top juniors from allover the country and around the world.
Beyond the local level, there are threestatewide junior organizations offeringtournament schedules, two regional toursthat include a number of stops in Georgiaand the country’s most prominentnational operation, which is based inGeorgia and annually holds tournamentsin various parts of the state. Anothernational junior organization also calls theAtlanta area home and plays a series ofevents in the metro area.
The three statewide junior operationsare the Georgia PGA Junior Tour, theGeorgia State Parks Junior Tour and theGeorgia State Golf Association’s JuniorSectional program, which consists ofregionally-oriented events.
Georgia PGA Junior Tour
The Georgia PGA initiated a statewidejunior tour in 2002, providing a quality,affordable bridge for the state’s top juniorplayers between local organizations andregional and national tours.
Almost all the state’s top juniors havecompeted in Georgia PGA Junior Tourevents on their way up the tournamentladder, with the tour visiting many of thestate’s top courses and featuring stops inalmost every geographic section of thePeach State.
This year’s Georgia PGA Junior Tourbegan in February at Valdosta CountryClub and included a high school teamevent at Chateau Elan in April. A total of13 tournaments remain on the 2016schedule, including the Georgia PGAJunior Championship, which is separatefrom the tour. The GPGA JuniorChampionship will be played June 6-7 atJennings Mill outside Athens and doesnot require Junior Tour membership toparticipate.
Among the highlights of the 2016schedule is a one day Summer Series event
July 26 at East Lake. All the other tourna-ments on the schedule are played over 36holes.
Other tournament hosts for GeorgianPGA Junior Tour events this year includeLegacy on Lanier, Stone Mountain GC,the UGA course, Country Club ofColumbus, Callaway Gardens, Sea IslandGC (Plantation), Oak Mountain inCarrollton, the new Georgia Southerncourse, Chattahoochee in Gainesville,Coosa CC in Rome and a season-endingTour Championship at Great Waters onLake Oconee.
The majority of courses hostingGeorgia PGA Junior events this year havebeen the site of either PGA or Web.com.
Tournaments are divided into five agegroups (boys 11-13, 14-15 and 16-18;girls 11-14 and 15-18), with winners ineach division as well as overall boys andgirls champions in each tournament. Thetop players in each division qualify forthe season-ending Tour Championship.
Membership is $75 per year and pro-vides entry into all tour events with theexception of the Tour Championship.Membership benefits include a tour cap,towel and bag tag, a USGA Rules of Golfbook and various other items.
Scott Gordon is the Georgia PGA’sJunior Golf Director.
GSGA SectionalProgram
In addition to its two JuniorChampionships, the GSGA conducts aseries of events in each of seven desig-nated sections of the state. The metroAtlanta area is spread out among fourdifferent sections, with each of the seven
sections conducting four or five tourna-ments in June and July.
Juniors can play in sectional eventsoutside their geographic area, but canonly earn points for events within theirsection. The leaders in points in the var-ious age groups qualify for the JuniorSectional Challenge Match. The GSGAdivides its junior fields into seven divi-sions, including four for the boys(11-under, 12-13, 14-15, 16-18) andthree for the girls (11-under, 12-13, 14-18).
The GSGA Sectional Program is opento all juniors, with pre-registration feefor each event $20.
Both Junior Championships will beplayed June 20-22, with the boys playingat Athens Country Club and the girls atReynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee.The GSGA also conducts qualifiers forthe U.S. Junior Championships, with theboys playing June 27 at the UGA courseand the girls qualifier June 13 atCartersville CC.
Richard Adams is the GSGA’s Managerof Rules and Competition for Junior Golf.
Georgia State ParksJunior Tour
This is the ninth year of operation forthe Georgia Junior Tour, which plays itstournaments at State Parks courses.
The 2016 season began with tourna-ments in March and April at the Lakes atLaura Walker and Brazell’s Creek, andwill include seven more events from Maythrough August.
Other tournaments this year are at GolfClub of South Georgia, the lone non-StateParks course to host a tournament (May
21-22); Georgia Vets (June 4-5); JekyllIsland GC (June 25-26); Creek at HardLabor (July 9-10) Arrowhead Pointe (July30-31); Highland Walk (Aug. 13); andLittle Ocmulgee (Aug. 27-28).
Annual memberships are $20, withentry fees $100-$110 for two day events.All events are played on weekends, withfive age groups for boys and girls startingwith ages 7-9.
Karl Gross, a long-time head pro atState Parks courses, operates the GeorgiaJunior Tour and can be reached via e-mailat: kgrosspga@gmail,com, Informationis available at gastateparks.org.
There are two regional tours that playa sizeable number of tournaments in thestate.
Southeastern Junior Tour
The tour, which is based in Auburn,Ala., was founded for former GeorgiaPGA Tournament Director ToddThompson, and has been a popular choicefor top Georgia juniors since it began inthe mid 1990s.
Almost half of the 36 tournaments onthe SJGT’s 2016 schedule are played inGeorgia, with most of the rest held inAlabama, many of them on courses thatare part of the Robert Trent Jones GolfTrail.
The age range for the tour is 12-19,with three boys divisions and two girlsdivisions. The tour’s schedule mirrors theschool year, beginning in mid-Augustand concluding with its TourChampionship early the followingAugust.
Two of the 15 Georgia tournaments onthe 2016 schedule have already beenplayed with 13 remaining this year.
Other Georgia stops this year include:Chattahoochee GC (May 7-8); UGA GC(May 28-29); Achasta (June 1-2);Georgia Club (June 6-7); Idle Hour (June13-14); Berkeley Hills (July 25-26);Doublegate (Aug. 13-14); Forest Hills(Aug. 27-28); CC of Columbus (Sept. 10-11); Glen Arven (Sept. 24-25);Kinderlou and UGA GC (both Oct. 8-9);Callaway Gardens (Nov. 5-6).
Earlier events were at played at SeaIsland GC and Brunswick CC.
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JUNIOR GOLF in Georgia
Plenty of options for state’s junior golfers7 tours based in or visit Georgia courses
28 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Hurricane JuniorGolf Tour
The Jacksonville-based tour began playin 2008 and quickly expanded its reachbeyond Florida with events in Georgiaand the Carolinas. This year’s scheduleincludes tournaments all over the country,with the tour playing as many as four andfive events each week in different states.
The tour plays several events eachmonth in Georgia, with CallawayGardens, King & Prince GC, White Oak,Chateau Elan, Jekyll Island GC andTraditions of Braselton hosting tourna-ments earlier this year. The White Oakand Traditions events are part of thetour’s Canongate series of tournaments inmetro Atlanta.
Remaining tournaments this year onthe HJGT include: Bartram Trail (May7-8); Canongate I (May 28-30); RoyalLakes (June 25-26); Georgia Club (July6-7); UGA GC (July 16-17); Forest Hills(July 30-31); Heron Bay (Aug. 6-7);Braelinn (Aug. 20-21); Canongate IRoquemore (Sept. 3-5); Flat Creek (Sept.17-18); Jekyll Island GC (Oct. 1-2);Bentwater (Oct. 15-16); UGA GC (Oct.29-30); Jones Creek (Nov. 5-6); Bear’sBest (Nov. 19-20); and Sea Island Retreat(Nov. 26-27).
Two national organizations based inmetro Atlanta also play events in thestate.
American JuniorGolf Association
The AJGA represents the ultimategoal for the elite junior golfers across thecountry and outside the U.S., with theorganization based in Georgia since itwas founded in the late 1970s.
Horseshoe Bend in Roswell was theAJGA’s original home, with the organi-zation moving to more spaciousaccommodations at Chateau Elan morethan 15 years ago.
The AJGA conducts events all over thecountry, including seven in Georgia thisyear. The tour has already visited CoosaCountry Club and Country Club of theSouth on consecutive weeks in April.
Other sites for AJGA events this yearinclude Chateau Elan (May 29-30),WindStone GC in Ringgold andBrunswick CC (both June 7-9), and JonesCreek in Augusta (July 12-14). PGATour players Vaughn Taylor and DavisLove have leant their names to the tour-naments in Augusta and Brunswick.
Great Waters on Lake Oconee will hostthe Rolex Tournament of Champions,
one of the top events in junior golf, June28-July 1. The event has been playedannually since 1978, with HorseshoeBend hosting it eight times in the 1980sand ‘90s. Chateau Elan served as tourna-ment host in 2003, when soon-to-beUGA golfer Brendon Todd was thechampion, and again in 2012 at CapitalCity Club’s Crabapple course. Phil Mickelson won the Rolex three
straight years at Horseshoe Bend, withother Rolex champions including DavidDuval, Webb Simpson and Georgianatives Charles Howell and LouisBrown.
The AJGA’s Georgia tournamentsinclude open events, an invitational, aJunior All-Star events for players age 12-15 and a tournament for juniors lookingto earn a coveted spot in AJGA openevents.
U.S. Kids Golf The Norcross-based junior golf com-
pany also features a competitive aspect,with local, regional and national events.Atlanta is one of the U.S. Kids Golf localprograms , with the state also hosting aRegional Championship USKG event atJekyll Island GC.
Jekyll Island hosted the first USKGRegional Championship in 2004, withpast winners including Lexi Thompson,current UGA golfer Lee McCoy andGeorgians Ashlan Ramsey and MariahStackhouse.
The 2016 event was held in March,with Alpharetta’s Patmon Malcom andBrad Peacock among the age groupwinners.
U.S. Kids Golf plays a StateInvitational at Callaway Gardens June18-19 for juniors in Georgia and neigh-boring states looking to play in regionaland national events.
There are also Spring and Summertours with eight events each in theAtlanta area. The Spring schedule wrapsup this month with events at MysteryValley and Orchard Hills, the latter theTour Championship.
The Summer schedule begins Junes 10at Orchard Hills, with other tourna-ments at Fairways of Canton, Rivermont,TPC Sugarloaf, Heritage Golf Links,Horseshoe Bend CC, Braelinn and theTour Championship July 25 at WhiteColumns.
There are eight USKG age groups forboys and four for girls, ranging to age 14.Georgia PGA member John Godwin isthe Tour Director for the Atlanta series oftournaments and can be reached [email protected].
JUNIOR GOLF in Georgia
Cedar Lake Golf ClubLoganville • 770-466-4043 • Dial DB Direct678-794-6715 for info and registration.Tuesday & Thursday • 10 a.m. • June 7-July 2Resident PGA Professional David Bowmanwill host his Train & Play series for Juniorplayers 12 years old through high school. Each session will include 1 hour of skilltraining and then access to the course.
RiverPines Junior Golf CampJohns Creek • 770-442-5960 • 4775 OldAlabama Road Johns Creek, Ga 30022www.riverpinesgolf.com/shop/category/35-registrationsAges 7-14: June 7-10 • June 13-16 • June 27-30 • July 11-14 • July 18-21 •August 1-4 • 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.Contact: [email protected]
Cherokee Run Golf ClubConyers • 770-785-7904 www.cherokeerungolfclub.com 2016 ScheduleJr. Golf Camps (Ages 6-12)Summer Camp #1:June 1-4 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m. (4 days)Summer Camp #2:July 20-23 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m. (4 days)
The Oaks Course Camp Summer Junior Camps • Covington770-786-3801 • www.golfoaks.com 11240 Brown Bridge Road Covington, Ga 30014Ages 6-16Week 1: June 6-13 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m.Week 2: June 13-17 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m.Week 3: June 27-July 1 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m.Week 4: July 18-22 • 9 a.m.-12 p.m.Contact: Gary Miller, Head GolfProfessional, [email protected]
Idle Hour Junior Golf Summer CampMacon • 478-477-8777 • www.ihcgolf.com251 Idle Hour Drive Macon, Ga 31210 Ages 4-17: July 12-15 & August 9-12Ages 4-5: 8:30-11 a.m.6 & Up: 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.Contact: Neal Johnson, [email protected]
Emory University Eagles Golf CampSmoke Rise Country ClubStone Mountain • 404-712-4538www.swingingeaglesgolfcamp.com Ages 10-18:May 31-June 3 • 9 a.m.-4 p.m.Contact: [email protected]
Fairfield Pros of Tomorrow7500 Monticello, Villa Rica • 770-836-1112Ages 8-17: June 6-10 & 20-24 • 9-11 a.m.
Marietta Golf CenterPlease see Junior and S.N.A.G. listings for dates and times.
Frasier Golf InstructionChicopee Woods Golf CourseGainesville • 770-534-0512 • www.frasiergolf.com Junior Camps: (Ages 7-15) June 7-9 • June 21-23 • July 19-21
Hamilton Mill Golf Club Dacula • 770-362-7571 • 1995 HamiltonMill Parkway Dacula, Ga 30019Ages 5 to 15: May 30-Jun 2 • June 6-9 •June 13-16 • June 20-23 • June 27-3 • July11-14 • July 18-21 • July 25-28 • Aug 1-4 •9:30 a.m.-12 p.m.Contact: Charles Scoggins, 770-362-7571 • [email protected]
The Hampton Club (King and Prince Golf Course)Hampton Junior CampsSt Simons Island • 912-634-0255 Ages 8-16: June 28-30 • July 19-21 • 8:30-11 a.m.Contact: [email protected]
Georgia Southern University Junior Golf Day CampStatesboro • 912-GSU-GOLF (478-4653)1031 Golf Club Road, Statesboro, Ga 30458• www.recreation.GeorgiaSouthern.edu/summer
Ages 5-16Camp 1: June 13-17Camp 2: July 18-22 (all 8 a.m.-12 p.m.)Contact: [email protected]
Laurel Springs Golf Club Junior Summer CampSuwanee • 770-884-0065 • 6400 Golf Club Drive, Suwanee, Ga 30024 • scheduling.carenmahergolf.comAges 7-14: June 6-9 • 9-11 a.m.SNAG Camp, Ages 5-8:June 20-23: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.June 27-30: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 11-14: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 18-21: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 25-28: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Windy Hill Golf AcademyAll Camps will be hosted at Fox Creek Golf Club • www.atlgolflessons.comAges 4-6: $69June 13-15: 12:30-2 p.m.June 27-29: 12:30-2 p.m.July 18-20: 12:30-2 p.m.Ages 7-10: $125June 1-3: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.June 13-15: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.June 27-29: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 18-20: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.Ages 11-15: $199June 20-23: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 11-14: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.July 25-28: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
West Pines Junior Golf CampDouglasville • 678-391-1600 • 9090 RoseAve, Douglasville, Ga • westpinesgc.com Ages 8-14:June 7-10 • June 21-24 • 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.Contact: Chris Cartwright,[email protected]
Crooked Creek ClubAlpharetta • 770-475-2300 ext. 112 • 3430 Highway 9 North, Alpharetta, Ga30004 • www.thecrookedcreekclub.comAges 6-15Instructional camps: June 1-3 • June 22-24 • July 13-15Oncourse camps: June 8-10 • June 29-July 1 • July 27-29 (Participants must beable to walk and carry their own bag).All 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Lunch included)Contact: Director of Player Development,Tom Joyce Jr., PGA, [email protected]
Lake Spivey Summer Junior Camps8-10 a.m.Monday, Wednesday, FridaySession I: June 6, 8, 10 Session II: July 18, 20, 22One Week (members): $50; Second Week: $90 First week (non-members): $65.00; Second week: $120Tuesday Night Jr Clinics:5:30-7:30 p.m.May-August • $10/Jr. per nightSign-up on Tuesdays by 5 p.m.Contact: 770-471-4653
Kinderlou Forest Golf Academy Kinderlou Forest Golf Club229-834-1775 • Bob BurkJune 14-17 • July 12-15 • August 2-5Contact: 229-219-2300 ext. 1
JUNIOR GOLFDirectory
AJGA roundup[ Continued from page 26 ]
Reynolds Lake Oconee late in June,Eaton may be done with junior golf,closing out his career on a high note.
Cassidy, playing on his home course,tied for fifth at 2-under 178, reboundingfrom an opening 75 to shoot 5-under forhis next 27 holes. He tied with JohnsCreek teammate Andy Mao, whobirdied three of his final four holes in thelast round for a 3-under total on his finalnine. Also tying for fifth at 2-under wasJake Milanowsi of Peachtree City.Tying for ninth at even par 180 wasJustin Kim of Rome and LukeSchniederjans of Alpharetta. Kayley Marschke of Suwanee was the
top finisher among the Georgia girls inthe field, tying for sixth at 5-over 185.Lauren Lightfritz, also of Suwanee, was11th at 188.
In the tournament at Coosa, PeachtreeCity’s Jackson Lawlor tied for ninth at143, with Logan Perkins of LocustGrove T11 at 144. Elisa Yang ofNorcross tied for fifth in the girls divi-sion at 147.
In other recent AJGA tournaments: Luka Karaulic of Dacula tied for
third in Frisco, Tex., at 144, two behindthe winner. Karaulic was tied for the leadafter an opening 70. Corey Chrzanowski of Suwanee
placed sixth in an AJGA Preview eventat Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla, withHannah Jones of Sandy Springs tyingfor sixth in the girls division. Evans
Copeland of Columbus shot a finalround 69 to finish fifth in a Previewevent in Ocala, Fla., three behind thewinner. Atlanta’s Najae Butler tied forfourth among the girls, also three behindthe winner.
For complete results of
the GHSA state boys
and girls golf tourna-
ments this month, visit
www.foregeorgia.com
2 0 1 6 M AY 29F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
30 F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM MAY 2 0 1 6
Instruction[ Continued from page 4 ]
looking at facilities and they’re notoffering programs such as these, there’s areason. If the facility wants Mommy andDaddy and believes that children are to be
seen and not heard, the golf staff is eitherunderstaffed or extremely lazy, or theleader of the operation talks the talk, butdoesn’t walk the walk.
Junior Golfers push one another toexcel. Find a facility that has a lot of kidswho love the game and a successful junior
golf program with a lot of programmingtargeted towards children if you wantyour child to grow, succeed and love thegame of golf.
This year at CCR we have four of ourjunior golfers moving on to play collegiategolf. JonErik Alford is going to play at Ohio
Echelon[ Continued from page 16 ]
tance with the uphill second shot havingto carry a ravine just short of a steep hillthat requires you to carry the approachall the way to the green. The par-3 eighthis not especially long, but a pond at thebase of a hill makes for another all-carryshot with a pair of bunkers behind theputting surface making for some diceysand shots to a green that slopes towardthe trouble.
Any list of the state’s toughest holes willinclude the par-5 11th, which starts with atee shot over a wetlands area that is not asintimidating as it looks like, providingyou’re playing from the correct tees. Thehole turns gently to the left before takinga sharp leftward turn after crossing a ravinewell short of the green that is definitely in
play for big hitters as well as the distancechallenged. The bunker-less green sits atan angle for players approaching from theother side of the ravine, and is not an easytarget to hit with the ravine uncomfortablyclose on the left.
With the 500-yard gap between themain three sets of tees, making the cor-rect choice should not be difficult exceptfor those with an unrealistic view of theirown ability. Echelon is a much moreplayable course than the numbers mightattest, with plenty of scoring opportuni-ties if you are reasonably accurate off thetee and can fit your approach shotsbetween the greenside bunkers.
The downhill nature of many of theholes will treat some run-up shots sur-prisingly favorably, with the lack ofserious length on a number of holes fromthe blues and whites allowing for moreshort and mid-iron approaches than you
would expect. The changes in elevation provide gor-
geous views along with memorable holes,the considerably downhill par-4 13thamong them. The par-5 14th, however, isconsiderably uphill, and plays muchlonger than its seemingly friendlyyardage, the opposite of the 13th and thepar-3 15th, holes that are much longeron the scorecard than in actuality.
The consistently interesting back nineincludes a short but pesky par 4 (No. 12)and one of the more distinctive finishingholes you’ll encounter. The dogleg rightpar-4 18th has plenty of length and avery challenging second shot that has toavoid trees down the right side and asevere drop-off short that will claim anyshot not well-judged and well-struck,with a narrow target nestled at an anglebetween the descending terrain and asprawling back, left bunker.
State, Amanda Doherty is going to play atFlorida State, Madison Barnett is going toplay at Wofford and Jordyn Sims is goingto play at North Georgia. Congratulationsto these Junior Golfers who definitelypushed one another, definitely had funand definitely love golf.
For a course of its caliber, Echelon’sgreens fees are quite reasonable, andmany out-of-town visitors accustomed tohigher costs at home have been pleas-antly surprised by Echelon’s affordability.
Echelon is relatively remote for thoseoutside the North Fulton/south Cherokeearea, and Peltz points out that “peopleare still discovering we’re here,” eventhough the club’s 10th anniversary isapproaching.
Both White Columns and TrophyClub of Atlanta are located nearby, withEchelon not quite as distant from otherparts of the metro area as you mightthink. At any rate, the drive throughrural North Fulton is a pleasant one, withthe destination well worth the time ittakes to get there.
For information in Echelon, visitwww.echelongolf.com or call 770-888-4653.
2 0 1 6 M AY 31F O R E G E O R G I A . C OM
By Mike Blum
or the past 25-plus years,Georgia’s aspiring youngplaying pros have had multiplemini-tour options in the state
and around the Southeast. From the T.C. Jordan Tour (which
became the Hooters Tour) to theHurricane Tour, the DP Tour, the eGolfTour, the Peach State Tour and otherslong since forgotten, young tour prosthroughout the Southeast have hadplenty of options to hone their gamesbefore taking their shot at what is nowthe Web.com Tour, and eventually thePGA Tour.
Most of the state’s current and recentPGA Tour members developed theirskills on at least one of the above tours.From veterans like Zach Johnson,Bubba Watson, Stewart Cink, VaughnTaylor and Jason Bohn, to former tourplayers Dave Schreyer, FranklinLangham, Matt Peterson, PaulClaxton and Justin Bolli, to morerecent pros like Brendon Todd,Roberto Castro, Kevin Kisner, BrianHarman and Scott Brown, those tours– the Hooters Tour in particular – gavethe region’s promising young pros a placeto experience life as a tour player beforemoving up to the major leagues.
In recent years, however, those optionshave dwindled. The two Southeast mini-tour mainstays – the Hooters and eGolfTours, were both absorbed into a newentity known as the Swing ThoughtTour, which is still struggling to providethe number of opportunities and pursesthat were available when the Hooters andeGolf Tours were viable operations.
The Georgia-based Peach State tourprovided a bridge from college golf to the
more popular mini-tours, but encoun-tered financial problems a few years backand went out of business.
The PGA Tour has expanded its pres-ence into golf’s minor leagues the pastfew years, creating the LatinoAmericaTour and taking over the Canadian Tour,but neither is as convenient an optionas the regional mini-toursthat attracted largenumbers ofyoung Georgia pros.
Savannah native TimO’Neal and Atlanta residentDrew Weaver have enjoyed recent suc-cess on those two tours, but only arelative handful of players from Georgiahave ventured north or south of the U.S.border in pursuit of their golfing goals.
The Swing Thought Tour has thelargest share of the state’s mini-tourplayers, and is introducing a GeorgiaSeries of tournaments beginning in Mayto go along with its National Pro Series,which is largely a scaled-down combina-tion of the former Hooters and eGolfTours.
The National Pro Series began its2016 schedule at Kinderlou Forest inValdosta, and includes July tournamentsat Grand Island in Albany and SapeloHammock on the Georgia coast, alongwith two South Carolina stops in theAugusta area that have long historieswith the Hooters Tour.
The Swing Thought Tour held three events early in the year along theGeorgia coast, and has scheduled 10 tour-naments in the Georgia Pro Seriesbeginning this month, with one of the 10in Alabama.
The Georgia Pro Series schedule beginsat Governor’s Towne Club May 12-13 andincludes stops at Bartram Trail (May 22-23), Chattahoochee GC (May 31-June 1),Callaway Gardens (June 29-30), Bear’sBest (August 2-3), Eagle’s Landing(August 30-31), a second CallawayGardens stop (Sept. 13-15), BrunswickCC (Sept. 27-28) and Crooked Creek(Nov. 1-3), which has reclaimed its orig-inal name after changing to AlpharettaAthletic Club East.
Georgia golfers won two of the threeearly-season tournaments played on thecoast, beginning with St. Simon’ TreyMullinax, who won the 2016 seasonopener at Brunswick CC before he beganplay on the Web.com Tour.
Mullinax shot 9-under 133 (67-66),scoring birdies on four of his last sixholes including 16, 17 and 18 to finishtwo ahead of recent UGA golfer JoeyGarber (67-68—135). Fellow ex-Bulldog Keith Mitchell, like Mullinax a2016 Web.com member, tied for third at136 (66-70), with St. Simons’ ScottWolfes sixth at 138 (66-72) and Athens’Dylan Freeman T7 at 139.
Warner Robins native Chris Wolfewon by four shots at Sapelo Hammock,shooting 68-68—136, with Evans’ ChipDeason second at 140. Tying for third at141 were Freeman, recent UGA golferMichael Cromie and Savannah’s DrewAimone, who shot a final round 66.Wolfe led by one shot after 18 holes andpulled away on the front nine the nextday, shooting 6-under 30. Like Mullinaxthe week before, Wolfe took home$5,000 for his victory.
Wolfes shot 66-70—136 the nextweek at Sanctuary Cove in Brunswick,but finished six behind the winner.Deason and Aimone tied for third at 137along with Forsyth’s Jay McLuen,Eatonton’s Trey Rule and Ringgold’sHunter Cornelius, who played onGeorgia Coastal’s NAIA Championshipteam with Freeman.
Former Georgia Tech golfer JamesWhite of Acworth won the National ProSeries event at Kinderlou Forest,shooting 9-under 279 at the former
Web.com Tour tournament site. Whiteled by six shots after 54 holes with scoresof 70-69-66 and wound up winning bythree after a final round 74, taking home$16,500 for his victory.
Fellow ex-Yellow Jacket Seth Reevesof Suwanee tied for third at 283, openingwith a 68 and closing with a 69. Duluth’sBrent Witcher, who played his collegegolf at Valdosta State, was seventh at284, with Roswell’s Bryan Fox eighthat 285. Cornelius shot a final round 67 tofinish 11th at 287, and Wolfes matchedpar of 288 to tie for 12th.
Garber won the next National ProSeries event in Texarkana, Tex., by awhopping 10 shots, shooting 19-under265 with scores of 62-65-70-68 to takehome $16,500. Former UGA teammateT.J. Mitchell of Albany tied for 10th at283.
At Amelia Island, Fla., Rule finishedthird at 13-under 203, one shot out of aplayoff. The recent Mercer golfer and2014 Dogwood Invitational championposted scores of 71-64-68, with a bogeyon the 17th hole in the third roundkeeping him out of the playoff. Cromieshot 69-69-67 and tied for fourth at 205.Augusta’s Dykes Harbin, who playedhis college golf at South Carolina, tied foreighth at 206 after opening with scoresof 69-66. Reeves closed a 66 to tie for12th with Garber at 207.
F
White, Garber among state’s mini-tour winners Swing Thought Tour beginning Georgia Series
James White
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Joey Garber
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