September 2015 FORE Georgia Magazine

before it could be completed. A group opposed to the construction

of the course shut off its water supplyduring the growing in phase, but TheLion survived thanks to the efforts of alocal couple.

Ed and Jane Newbern, who had loanedthe city money to get the project going,took over ownership of the course andcompleted its construction, but notwithout some personal tragedy.

Georgia-based golf course architectArthur Davis died during the latterstages of The Lion’s development, withhis son Lee overseeing the remainder ofthe work to get the course ready for play.

Not long after The Lion opened, EdNewbern passed away, with his widowrunning the course before she died in2010. The next few years were not thebest ones for The Lion, which closedearly in 2013.

Fortunately for its local and area regu-lars, The Lion wasn’t out of commissionfor long, re-opening in March of 2013after sitting idle for just 2 ½ months. Atrio of local residents assumed owner-ship of the club, and quickly got things

up and running. Lion assistant professional Jake

Ledford, who was with the club when itre-opened, says The Lion is having itsbest year since its brief interlude.

“Things are great,” Ledford said.“Business is up, the course is in goodshape and ownership is good. Peoplearound here are glad we re-opened.”

Ledford says The Lion gets the bulk ofits play from the nearby communities ofDouglasville and Carrollton, along with adecent amount of visitors from metroAtlanta. The course is located just a milenorth of I-20 off exit 11 (U.S. 27) and is

B y M i k e B l um

ike its rolling terrain, TheLion Golf Club in Bremenhas had its ups and downssince it opened in 2001, but

remains one of the best courses in thestate located in a relatively small com-munity, and is enjoying one of itsbusiest years since making its debut 14years ago.

The course has a colorful, if some-what tragic history, dating back tobefore it opened. The course was orig-inally designed to be a municipalfacility, but local politics intervenedand almost put an end to the project

L

[ See The Lion, page 6 ]

.com

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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPPreview

Formerly endangered Lion thriving again

GEORGIAPGA.COM FOREGEORGIA.COM SEPTEMBER 2015

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Small town club has mixed, colorful history

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More effort on short game will produce better scores

Tour Championship preview . . . . . 8

FedExCup Playoffs update . . . . . . 10

Love wins in Greensboro . . . . . . . . 12

Champions event gets sponsor . . . 14

Web.com Finals preview . . . . . . . . 16

White takes Georgia Open. . . . . . . 18

Georgia PGA Match Play. . . . . . . . 20

Mason claims Section title . . . . . . 22

College preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Cherokee caddie program . . . . . . . 26

with minimal head and little bodyaction which makes a sound setup cru-cial to producing solid shots. It'sequally important that when you hitpitch shots your hands don't get overlyactive. However, as the shots getlonger the body plays a bigger role.

On these longer shots you mustuse your lower body to help propel

the club through the ball. Working underthe ball allows your right shoulder tomove almost on the same line as the rightknee, helping keep the clubface squarethrough impact.There's no scooping orcrossing over motion with the hands, andthe clubface never closes. With turning thechest and the lower body propelling, thehands remain passive.

ImaginationAll great short game players have greatimagination around the green.You willbecome more creative by visualizing yourshot options. The general rule of thumbfor short game success is to keep the ballas low to the ground as possible. In otherwords don’t loft the ball unless you haveto. To develop better judgment on shotselection practice tossing balls under-handed to the holes on a practice green.Experiment with different speeds and tra-jectories from high and soft to low andrunning. When doing this, notice whichtrajectory you need and where you haveto land the ball to allow you to get it closeto the hole. You can then use the results asa guideline to select the club and the typeof shot you need to play.

4 F O R E G E O R G I A . C O M

For lower shots use your lower loftedirons, for higher shots use your higherlofted irons. Not only is tossing a ballunderhanded a good concept to help youdevelop short game creativity, it's also aspitting image to help you improve yourshort game mechanics. As you would dopitching a softball, on a chip shot theright-hand faces up through impact underthe left hand. You're not trying to scoopthe ball.The right-hand mirrors the club-face and keeping the palm face upthrough impact help keeps the clubfacesquare. With the proper loft the clubfacedoesn't close until well into the finish ofthe swing. Good chipping strokes requireyou to nip the ball off the turf with a slightdescending blow.

To help you set up properly, imaginethat a tiny car jack has raised your rightheel off the ground.This image will helpyou put more of your weight on your leftside and encourage your hands to beahead of the ball at impact. Just positionthe ball back in your stance and the clubwill automatically swing up and down,striking the ball on its descent.The idea ofpicking up your right heel is to helpimprove your chipping technique.

I often tell my students to practice chip-ping while standing on the left foot only.When you pick your back foot up andencourage your chest to move forward tothe ball, your impact point and the lowpoint of your swing arc will move forward,allowing you to squash the ball.Positioning the weight on the front footalso helps eliminate excessive lower bodymotion. You should focus on the feelingthat the left hand leads the clubhead. Thisis imperative for hitting a solidly struckchip shot. Poor chippers set up with toomuch weight on the right side and make a“wristy” upward strike. Good chipperskeep their hands ahead of the ball atimpact. A cupped left wrist at impact isthe cancer of the golf swing.

Spending time on these short game tipsshould allow you to shave a few strokes offof your handicap.

You can contact J.R. Ross at 678-598-4653 or at [email protected]

3021 Kalah Place, Marietta, GA 30067770-933-04GA / 770-953-6638 fax

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GEORGIA SECT ION, PGA OF AMERICA OFF ICERS

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CHAPTER PRES IDENTS

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AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

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Brian Conley, PGA / [email protected]

Matthew Evans, PGA / [email protected]

Todd Ormsby, PGA / [email protected]

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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 WagnerSection Assistant Carrie Ann Byrne

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Instruction Fore You

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Forecast

FEATURES:

By J.R. RossPGA Director of GolfDogwood Golf Club

The average golfer hitsless than 6 greens in reg-ulation. Translation, youwill have 12 holes whereyou have less than a full shot into thegreen. Every day golfers spend countlesshours at the practice range in pursuit of aperfect golf swing - knowing in reality thisdoes not exist. If only the same amount oftime and effort was put into perfectingyour short game, you would see manystrokes drop off your handicap. Hopefullythis article will give you some structureand ideas on how to improve your chip-ping and pitching.

The MotionIn the short chipping and pitchingmotions there is limited time to makecompensations in your swing so theydemand more exactness than a full swing.Brute strength and club head speed aren't asimportant as touch and feel.

The good news is that, with practiceand sound fundamentals, virtually anygolfer can possess a solid short game, andif you get your technique correct on theshort chip or pitch shots it will not onlysave you strokes around the green, it willhelp your long game.

Remember the chip shot is just a miniversion of the full swing thru impact.Thechip shot requires the shortest of strokes

Chip Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Golf Fore Juniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Crossword puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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just 45 minutes from downtown Atlantaand an easy drive from the Marietta area.

The Lion offers one of the moreunique golf experiences you’ll encounterwithin such close proximity to metroAtlanta, with the layout providing amountain course feel without theseverity inherent at some mountain-stylecourses.

The relatively rugged terrain comes assomething of a surprise to first time vis-itors, considering the club is locatedadjacent to the Bremen Industrial Parkand its address is 400 Murphy IndustrialBoulevard.

The location and address do not accu-rately reflect the setting of the course,which is completely free of developmentand has a natural feel, with the rollingnature of the terrain among The Lion’sstrongest assets.

Davis was responsible for the design ofsome of north Georgia’s top daily fee lay-outs (Stonebridge in Rome, Fields Ferryin Calhoun and Royal Lakes in FloweryBranch) and was also involved in thedesign work for Berkeley Hills, a well-regarded private club in Duluth, andPine Isle Resort at Lake Lanier, which isno longer in operation.

The Lion is a quality layout, withDavis deftly incorporating the terrainand presence of a number of wetlandsareas into his design. Although theCourse Rating/Slope numbers are rela-tively high, The Lion is not an overlydemanding layout, but those makingtheir initial visit may not expect a smalltown course to offer a fairly big test.

“For people playing for the first time,it can be a little challenging,” Ledfordsays. Wetlands areas come into play on anumber of holes, but hazards are not aserious concern until you reach an out-

standing trio of fin-ishing holes that may be the three mostmemorable holes on the course.

The Lion sports five sets of tees, witha pretty sizeable gap between the middletees (gold) and senior tees (green). Thecourse is a very stout test from the tips(black) at just under 7100 yards and israted at 73.7/142.

The next set (silver) measures 6780(72.1/138), with the middle tees aplayable 6446 (70.1/132). The seniortees are a very comfortable 5654(66.6/119), with a few holes having sucha disparity between the middle andsenior tees that those playing the greentees may want to move back to the goldsfor a hole or two to make the holes playmore like they were designed to play.

With a number of the holes beginningwith elevated tees, The Lion doesn’tquite play its listed yardage, but thereare enough uphill approaches to offsetthe downhill tee shots . With a fewexceptions, length is not a major con-cern, with only one par 4 of over 400yards from the middle tees and the 18ththe lone par 5 with serious yardage.

There are a few tee shots that have toclear wetlands, but none of the carriesare excessive. The Lion is reasonablyopen off the tee, but thick tree lines anda few red stakes off the edges of fairwayswill penalize errant drives.

The rolling terrain is a factor both inthe fairways and around greens. You canexpect to come across an uneven lie ortwo, with some bordering moundscapable of providing favorable kicksback towards the fairway or producingslightly awkward lies.

There are also a number of smallermounds along the edges of the greensthat impact both short game shots andthe putting surfaces. The Lion does notfeature a large number of greensidebunkers, but some drop-offs around theputting surfaces will require a deft touchon pitch shots, even on holes where sandis not a factor.

The Lion opens with a mostlytame group of holes beginning

with a straightaway par-4 without muchlength. The lengthier third is among theholes without a bunker, with a slightlyelevated green located in a bowl that cre-ates plenty of movement and providesfor an interesting visual. Like the third,the short fifth includes an uphillapproach shot, this time over sand, withthe fairway dropping off slightly to thetree line near the corner of the doglegright.

The two par 3s on the nine (2 and 4)have wetlands areas between tee andgreen that are not much of a concern,but the greenside mounds give the put-ting surfaces some movement, with thefourth also without a bunker.

Holes 6 and 7 are the most dangerouson the opening nine, with the doubledogleg par-5 sixth requiring accuracy onboth the tee shot and lay-up. Red stakesare in play on both sides of the lay-uparea, and a tree within wetlands on theleft makes the second shot for big hittersa risk/reward with a creek just short ofthe putting surface.

The same creek snakes through thepar-4 seventh, crossing just short of thegreen and guarding the right edge. Thedogleg left is among The Lion’s longertwo-shotters, and is the only one of thegroup with a hazard that seriouslyimpacts play.

The eighth is one of the holes withsenior tees pushed well forward becauseof a wetlands area, but with an amplefairway and modest length, is playablefor shorter hitters from the middle tees.

A short, inviting par 5 closes out thenine, with both the green and gold teesa little too friendly for a hole withoutmuch in the way of defenses.

Both 10 and 11 also have considerablegaps between the gold and green tees,with the par-5 10th a better hole fromthe golds. The fairway on the doglegright slopes toward the trees, withthe hole gradually rising to a greenguarded by a large front bunker.

The 11th is the longest of the par 4s

from the silver and gold tees, but is lessimposing from the much shorter greentees, with a wide, shallow green makingfor a tough target to hit from long rangefrom the other three tees.

Enjoy the short, straight par-4 12th,because it’s the last soft touch left. Thebunker-less 13th is a lengthy par 4 thatrises to a slightly elevated green withplenty of roll from bordering mounds.The par-3 14th is 211 from the slivertees, with the green opening up back leftbehind a deep, imposing bunker. Thepar-4 15th lacks for length, but isamong the tighter holes at The Lion andalso sports one of the more sloping put-ting surfaces.

The terrific trio of finishing holesbegins with the par-3 16th with separatetees 150 to 180 feet above the green, awetlands area and creek short and not agreat deal of room to miss. The hole hassome length, especially from the lefttees, but the elevation takes some of thebite out of a striking but demanding“short” hole.

The par-4 17th is among the few flatholes on the course, with the creekwinding along the right side of the holeand crossing in front of the green. Treesalong the right side can impede secondshots from that side, with the angledsecond requiring precision to clear thecreek and find a putting surface thatoffers little depth.

Few courses have a finishing hole tomatch the unique nature of the 18th atThe Lion. A lake on the left sits betweenthe fairway up top and the green below,with the big hitters having the possi-bility to going at the green in two froman angle, and everyone else advancingthe ball close to the end of the fairwayfor a third shot in the 150-yard rangeand up. From the upper fairway, theredoes not seem to be a great deal of green,with a bunker and a bank behind theputting surface popular landing areas forthose who take a little too much club.

The Lion is currently in quality condition, having survived the Summerheat, with its rates very competitive and a quality grill for a post-round biteto eat.

The Lion sportsunique history[ Continued from the cover ]

For information on The Lion, call 770-537-7020

or visit theliongc.com.

http://www.theliongc.com/


http://www.frippislandresort.com/

B y M i k e B l um

t all but a handful of tourna-ments on the PGA Tour, thedefending champion is one ofthe main attractions in the

field the following year, and a victory ina particular event includes many returninvitations, sometimes forthe rest of a player’s com-petitive career.

The Tour Championshipis not one of those tourna-ments.

Winning at East Lake oneyear is no guarantee you’ll be back thenext. Since East Lake became the perma-nent host for the Tour Championship in2004, only four of the 10 championsqualified for the event the next year.

After an unsuccessful start in thisyear’s FedExCup playoffs, 2014 cham-pion Billy Horschel is in jeopardy ofbeing the seventh winner in the last 11years to fail to qualify for an opportunityto defend his title when the TourChampionship returns to East Lake Sept.24-27.

Horschel, who was on the verge ofelimination from the Playoffs in 2014after the first of three tournamentsleading up to the Tour Championship,produced a torrid stretch of play thatresulted in a tie for second in Boston andback-to-back victories in Denver andAtlanta to claim the FedExCup title.

After a solid but unspectacularshowing this season highlighted by athird place finish in the Texas Open,Horschel began the Playoffs 45th in theFedExCup standings, better than he wasat this time last year.

In a recent appearance at the World ofCoca-Cola promoting the TourChampionship, Horschel said he has noproblem having to play his way back intothe field as defending champion.

“It’s a great thing, because you know ifyou get to the Tour Championship,you’ve had a really solid year and youknow you’re one of the best thirtyplayers. And if you win the TourChampionship, the FedExCup may comealong with it.”

Horschel won last year with an 11-under 269 total, finishing three shotsahead of Jim Furyk and Rory McIlroy.It was the third straight year the winningmargin was three strokes and the fifth

time since 2006 that was the margin ofvictory.

With the smallest field of the 47 tour-naments on the PGA Tour, the TourChampionship is a little less likely toproduce playoffs or multi-player battlesfor victory, but has had some thrilling

finishes since it was firstplayed at East Lake in1998.

The first TourChampionship at East Lakewas one of the most closelycontested of the 14 played

in Atlanta, with Hal Sutton winning aplayoff over Vijay Singh, and Furyk andJesper Parnevik both one shot back. Phil Mickelson shot a final round 66

for a come-from-behind win by two overTiger Woods when the TourChampionship returned to East Lake in2000, but it took until 2008 for the nextdown-to-the-wire finish.

In what may have been the mostexciting stretch drive in tournament his-tory, Camilo Villegas emerged from a4-way duel similar to that of 1998,taking a playoff from Sergio Garcia,with Mickelson and Anthony Kimmissing the playoff by just one shot.

Like others before and after him,Villegas was not in the field to defend histitle the next year, joining Bart Bryant,Woods, Furyk, Bill Haas and HenrikStenson on the list of East Lake winnerswho did not make it back the next year.Woods was absent in 2008 after under-going surgery, with the others simply notplaying well enough to qualify the yearafter they won.

The last two tournaments at East Lakethat went down to the final hole came in2010 and ‘11. Furyk made a clutch paron the 18th hole in the rain to edge LukeDonald by a shot and former championRetief Goosen by two in 2010, withHaas taking a playoff the next year overHunter Mahan, with six other playersfinishing one or two shots off the pace.The mostly international group includedK.J. Choi, Aaron Baddeley and LukeDonald one back, with Jason Day,Adam Scott and lone American CharlesHowell two back.

No golfer with Georgia ties has wonthe Tour Championship at East Lake,with former Georgia Southern golferJodie Mudd and ex-Georgia Tech star

David Duval winning at Houston’sChampions Club in the 1990s. Howell,an Augusta native, was second, two shotsbehind Singh, in 2002 for the best evershowing at East Lake by a Georgia golfer.Zach Johnson tied for second, a distanteight shots behind Woods in 2007, high-lighted by a course record 60, and ChrisKirk tied for fourth last year in his firstTour Championship start.

Only one player has two wins at EastLake in the 14 years the TourChampionship has been played inAtlanta, with Mickelson twice comingbehind in the final round to overtakeWoods, who finished second both timesMickelson won.

East Lake, a classic Donald Ross layoutthat was re-designed in the mid 1990s byRees Jones, has had a variety of cham-pions since it first hosted the TourChampionship in 1998. Most of the win-ners (Mickelson, Woods, Singh, Scott,Villegas, Stenson) have been powerplayers, with Goosen and Haasapproaching that category.

But the tournament has also hadchampions at the opposite end of thatspectrum, beginning with Sutton andBryant and including players like Furykand Brandt Snedeker, who rely moreon the quality of their ball striking(Furyk) or their exceptional puttingtouch (Snedeker).

East Lake plays to a par 70 for the TourChampionship, with the fifth and 10thholes playing as par 4s. The course meas-ures around 7,240 yards for the 30players who will comprise the elite field,and has yielded consistent winning scoressince the greens were converted frombent grass to MiniVerde Bermuda afterthe 2007 tournament.

The change was made because of thedifficulty in maintaining bent grassgreens in Atlanta’s summer heat, withthe course virtually defense-less two ofthe last three years it hosted the TourChampionship before the greens wereconverted.

Bryant, a career journeyman who onlyqualified for the Tour Championshiponce, opened with a 62 in 2005 and wonby six shots over Woods with a tourna-ment record 17-under 273. Two yearslater, Woods took advantage of softgreens that enabled players to fire at theflags with impunity. His closing 66 washis only score of the week higher than 64,and he shattered Bryant’s record with a23-under 257 total and an 8-strokemargin of victory.

After converting to MiniVerdeBermuda, which is similar to bent grassas a putting surface but can retain itsfirmness in the heat, the winning scoresthe next four years were between 7 and 9-under. The winner has reached doublefigures under par each of the last threeyears, but Stenson in 2013 and Horschellast year are the only players since 2007to break 270 for 72 holes.

Along with the large, sloping puttingsurfaces, East Lake’s main defense is thegnarly Bermuda rough, which can be aserious concern for players who miss fair-ways or greens. With the two longest par4s (5 and 16) playing downhill, length isnot a huge factor, with several wedgeapproaches to par 4s and one of the twopar 5s (15) easily reachable by everyplayer in the field.

Two of East Lake’s toughest holes arepar 3s, with the island green sixthplaying around 210 yards from a tee putin play several years ago, and the famous235-yard 18th one of the least likely par3s anywhere to yield birdies.

With its compact, gently rollinglayout, East Lake is an inviting course towalk for the players and spectators, withmuch of the back nine consisting of par-allel holes.

A


Tour Championship not kind to previous winnerDefending champs have to earn return invitation

Billy Horschel

STEVEDINBERG


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B y M i k e B l um

olf has had several dominanttrios dating back to Nelson,Snead and Hogan in the1940s and ‘50s, to Palmer,

Player and Nicklaus in the ‘60s and theinternational group of Ballesteros,Norman and Faldo in the ‘80s and part ofthe ‘90s. Tiger Woods had the late ‘90s and the

2000s pretty much to himself with PhilMickelson coming the closest to givingWoods a worthy rival. The Woods’ eraended after the 2009 season despite hisattempts to revive it in 2012 and ‘13,with Mickelson also reaching the end ofhis long run of excellence after the 2013season.

It’s been a while since golf has had aCream-style power trio, but it definitelyhas one now with the emergence ofJordan Spieth and Jason Day this yearto join Rory McIlroy, who first achievedelite status in 2012.

The three twenty-something stars willclose out the 2014-15 PGA Tour seasonin Atlanta Sept. 24-27 at East Lake GolfClub in the Tour Championship, with allthree looking to claim the FedExCuptitle and its $10 million bonus.

Spieth was a clear No. 1 in FedExCupstandings at the end of a regular seasonthat included wins in two majors (Mastersand U.S. Open), a runner-up finish in thePGA and a T4 in the British Open wherehe ended up one shot out of a playoff.

Day overtook Spieth with a win in theBarclays, taking advantage of the four-fold increase in points for the Playoffsevents. Day has been on an incrediblesummer run, winning three of his lastfour starts including the Canadian Openand the PGA Championship. He led theU.S. Open until he collapsed from ver-tigo on the final hole of the third round,and came within one putt on the 72ndhole of making it a four-way playoff inthe British Open.

McIlroy was ninth in points cominginto the Playoffs, missing the BritishOpen and WGC event at Firestone dueto an ankle injury. He sat out theBarclays to rest his ankle for the finalthree Playoffs events and dropped to15th in the standings, having made justnine starts this season. McIlroy, whoregained the No. 1 world ranking afterSpieth missed the cut in the Barclays, has

two wins in his limited schedule (WGCMatch Play and Quail Hollow inCharlotte), along with top 10s in his twomajors pre-injury and a very respectableshowing in the PGA after being side-lined for two months.

Between the three, they have 10 PGATour wins in 2015 and have combined towin five of the last six majors, with bothDay and Spieth coming close to makingit 6-for-6.

The three all have a recent history ofsuccess at East Lake, and will enter thetournament as the players to beat in theTour Championship, with McIlroyjoining Day and Spieth as a strong

FedExCup title contender if he can moveinto the top five in the standings afterthe BMW Championship.

McIlroy and Spieth have runner-upfinishes at East Lake the past two years,with Spieth shooting a final round 64two years ago to finish three behindHenrik Stenson. McIlroy shared the54-hole last year with Billy Horschel,but shot 71 the final round to Horschel’s68 and tied Jim Furyk for second. Daytied for fourth last year after a T6 finishin 2011.

Stenson’s 2013victory came inhis only start atEast Lake, but hewill back thismonth after moving up to fourth in thestandings after his runner-up finishbehind Day in the Barclays. Bubba Watson was third after a third

place showing in the Barclays, withfellow bomber Dustin Johnson sixth.Watson has enjoyed an outstandingseason (two wins including a WGC event,seven top-3 finishes, two of them in otherWGCs) but missed two of four cuts in themajors with a best finish of 21st.

Johnson has also enjoyed a successfulseason with a WGC win at Doral andnine top 10s, three of them in majors.But his otherwise strong 2015 showingwill be marked by his three-putt at the72nd hole to lose the U.S. Open toSpieth and his weekend fade in theBritish after holding the 36-hole lead.

Neither player has established much ofa track record at East Lake, with bothhaving a best Tour Championship finishof fifth -- Watson in 2012 and Johnsonthe next year.

Two players with considerably betterhistories at East Lake are Justin Roseand Furyk, who were 8th and 11threspectively after the Barclays. Rose hasfinished second, sixth and fourth at EastLake the last three years, and has enjoyeda terrific stretch of golf since tying forsecond in the Masters. He won his nextstart in New Orleans, lost a playoff in theMemorial and had a recent run of fourstraight finishes of sixth or better,including the British Open, WGCFirestone and the PGA. After an opening77 in the Barclays, he followed withscores of 65 and 63 the next two days.

Furyk has made 15 career starts in theTour Championship, winning at East

Lake in 2010 after a runner-up finish in‘06. He also tied for second behindHorschel last year and shows few signs ofslowing down at the age of 45. Furyk,who still struggles when leading late intournaments, won a playoff at HiltonHead this season, coming from well backwith a final round 63.

Watson, a former Georgia Bulldog,and St. Simons resident Zach Johnsonwill be among the contingent of playerswith ties to Georgia in the Tour

C h a m p i o n s h i pfield. Johnson wasfifth in the stand-ings after theBarclays, where hecontinued his con-

sistently excellent play this season,highlighted by his second major title inthe British Open. Johnson has nine top10s in 2015, including five in his lasteight starts. He has three top 10s at EastLake in eight appearances, tying forsecond in 2007 thanks to a course record60 in the third round.

Former Augusta State golfer PatrickReed and ex-Georgia Bulldog KevinKisner have locked up spots for the TourChampionship, ranking 12th and 13thafter the Barclays. It will be the secondappearance at East Lake for Reed, whowon the 2015 opening Tournament ofChampions in a playoff and lost a playoffto Spieth in Tampa, but has not had atop-10 finish since March.

After three uneventful seasons, Kisnerhas emerged as a top player on the PGATour this year, getting into playoffs inHilton Head, the Players and theGreenbrier. He turned in outstandingfinal round efforts in all three but thetournament winners beat him withplayoff birdies on all three occasions.Kisner, a native of Aiken, S.C., has con-tended several other times, including lastyear’s McGladrey Classic, and will play inthe Tour Championship for the first timeand make his Masters debut next April.

In addition to those four, 15 otherGeorgians made it to the second Playoffsevent in Boston, with Stewart Cinkmaking bogey on the 72nd hole in theBarclays to lose a spot in the top 100.

Veteran Jason Bohn advanced from33 to 24 with a tie for ninth in theBarclays, and is looking to qualify for the

G


Golf’s new power trio heading to East LakeDay, Spieth join McIlroy as modern ‘Big 3’

Jason Day

Jordan Spieth

STEVEDINBERG

[ See FedExCup, page 12 ]

STEVEDINBERG


http://www.idealgolfer.com/

B y M i k e B l um

avis Love became eli-gible for theChampions Tour inApril of last year, but

unlike most other PGA Tour mem-bers who have turned 50, he hasresisted the transition to senior golf.

Love competed in only twoChampions Tour events in 2014,both after he completed play on thePGA Tour for the season, and justtwo more this year. He was preparedto make at least one more start on theover-50 tour this year, but a sur-prising outcome forced Love tochange his immediate plans.

After three unproductive years onthe PGA Tour, Love was nearing thepoint of having to reconsider his deci-sion to continue competing againstplayers half his age. But an outstandinground of golf in one of his favorite eventson tour changed all that.

With his recent victory in theWyndham Championship in Greensboro,N.C., Love is again a relevant player onthe PGA Tour at the age of 51. Hebecame the third oldest player to win atournament in tour history, and hiscome-from-behind triumph included ahost of perks that will keep Love fullyoccupied until his role as U.S. Ryder Cupcaptain for 2016 begins to consume mostof his time at some point next year.

Love was scheduled to play in aChampions Tour event the week after hisappearance in Greensboro, but his vic-tory qualified him for the FedExCupPlayoffs for the first time since 2012. Hejumped from 186 to 76 on the pointslist, and was guaranteed at least twostarts in the Playoffs, three if could moveup just six spots on the list prior to theBMW Championship.

The victory also gets Love back intothe Tournament of Champions in Hawaiifor the first time since 2010 and earnshim invitations to two tournaments hehas dearly missed the last few years – theMasters and Players Championship. Helast played in the Players, an event he haswon twice, in 2013, and his most recenttrip to Augusta was 2011.

“It kills me the last couple of years notto play in the Players Championship,”Love said after his victory. “My friends athome assume I’m in the Players because I

won it twice.That one and the Masters are kind ofcrushing that you don’t get in there.”

The way Love had been playing thepast few years, there was little to suggestfrom his record that he still had the gameto compete close to the level that madehim one of the game’s top players formore than two decades.

A variety of physical ailments havemade the last few years particularly diffi-cult ones for Love, who has undergoneneck and foot surgeries that took him offthe course for lengthy stretches. He wasout for 2 ½ months this year after footsurgery, with the rehab process taking alittle longer than he anticipated.

“The neck surgery went prettysmoothly. This one (foot surgery) wentsmoothly, but the rehab didn’t comearound as fast as I wanted. You justwonder, is the body going to wear out?

“I’m very fortunate I bounced backfrom this. I really felt great this week. Myfoot is probably going to hurt the rest ofmy life, but it’s not going to stop me fromplaying. It’s getting better and better.”

Ordinarily, Love’s first victory sincelate 2008 would have been the dominantstory line for the tournament, but it wasovershadowed by the return of Tiger-mania. Tiger Woods played Greensborofor the first time in his career, and wasamong the tournament leaders for 54holes before falling from contention thefinal day, making a late rally to tie for10th after a mid-round collapse.

Love’s victory at the age of 51 took

second billing to Woods’ rareweekend appearance on the leaderboard, with his sizzling surge on thefront nine not drawing that muchbroadcast attention until it had con-cluded.

After opening with scores of 64and 66, Love was only one shot offWoods’ lead after 36 holes, but fellfour back after a third round 69,one-under on the par 70 layout atSedgefield CC. His final round didnot start especially well, as hemissed the fairway off the first teeand made bogey.

Love responded with birdieputts of 14, 6 and 15 feet on thenext three holes, and aftersmashing a 345-yard drive onthe par-5 fifth, hit his secondshot from 188 yards within five

feet for an eagle. He closed out a 5-holestretch of 6-under par with a 10-footerfor birdie at the sixth, but hismomentum stalled when he three-puttedthe seventh from long range for bogey.

A par at the eighth was his first of theday, and was followed by six more pars insuccession. Love sat on 15-under duringthat stretch, just behind leaders JasonGore and Augusta native Scott Brown.

It only took Love one hole to grab con-trol of the tournament. After a 318-yarddrive on the par-5 15th, he ripped a longiron from 211 yards to within 12 feet ofthe pin. He holed his eagle putt to takethe lead, and after back-to-back bogeyson the back nine by Brown, Love had theoutright lead for the rest of the day, fin-ishing one ahead of Gore and two in frontof Brown.

There was a great amount of attentionheaped on Woods and his effort to get

into the Playoffs with a win atGreensboro, with Love coming into thetournament with no eyes on him, eventhough he was one spot in front of Woodsin the standings.

“I had really not been playing forpoints or for position,” Love said. “I’vebeen trying to get my game backthrough a couple of setbacks.”

The victory was the 21st for Love inhis PGA Tour career, with 14 of his titlescoming in events he has won multipletimes, and 13 of the 21 in his nativeSouth.

Love was born in Charlotte and spentmuch of his youth in Atlanta while hisfather was head pro at Atlanta CountryClub. He then moved to St. SimonsIsland with his father and returned to St.Simons after attending college at NorthCarolina.

Among his victories are five at HiltonHead, one of the tournaments he wasforced to miss this spring, three atGreensboro and two each in the Players,at Pebble Beach and the International,which was last played in 2006. His otherSouthern victories came in New Orleansand tournaments at Callaway Gardensand Disney that no longer exist.

The biggest win of Love’s career wasthe 1997 PGA Championship at WingedFoot in suburban New York, and he cametantalizingly close to victory in each ofthe other three majors, twice finishingoutright second in the Masters.

Love will celebrate his 52nd birthdaynext April, a few days after the Mastersends and a day before the tournament inHilton Head Island begins. The celebra-tion will begin at least a week before hisbirthday and continue for several daysafter.

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No Love for a while on Champions Tour

Davis Love

Win in Greensboro reverses career path

Tour Championship for the first timeafter the best season in his career. MattKuchar (27) was also in the top 30 andis attempting to make it to East Lake forthe sixth straight year. Chris Kirk fell from 29 to 39 after

missing the cut in the Barclays, his firststart in more than two months afterbreaking his hand. Fellow ex-UGAgolfers Alex English (41), BrendanTodd (47) and Russell Henley (49)

FedExCup[ Continued from page 10 ]

were among the top 50, of formerGeorgia Tech golfers Cameron Tringale(51) and Bryce Molder (58). FormerBulldog Brian Harman was 62nd aftermaking two holes-in-one in the finalround of the Barclays, with six otherGeorgians in danger of not advancingpast the second Playoffs event. Charles Howell (74), Scott Brown

(84), Will Wilcox (89), Davis Love (90),Hudson Swafford (93) and ChessonHadley (97) all needed strong showingsin Boston to move into the top 70 andqualify for the BMW Championship.


http://mcgladreyclassic.com/

fter three years without afull-fledged title sponsor,there was some concern thatthe future of the Greater

Gwinnett Championship was in somedoubt of continuing as a Champions Tourevent.

An announcement last month endedany worries about the immediate futureof the tournament, as Mitsubishi Electricwill assume title sponsorship through2020.

The tournament will be known as theMitsubishi Electric Classic and willremain at Duluth’s TPC Sugarloaf, whichpreviously hosted an annual PGA Tourevent from 1997-2008. The tournamentwill also retain its post-Masters dates,with next year’s Mitsubishi ElectricClassic scheduled for April 15-17, theweekend after the Masters.

Mitsubishi Electric also extended its

sponsorship of the Champions Tour’sseason-opening event in Hawaii. Thattournament serves as the tour’sTournament of Champions and has beenplayed at Hualalai Golf Club since 1997.Only one other event on the ChampionsTour has been played at the same courselonger, a tournament in Newport Beach,Calif., that has been played at the samecourse since 1996.

This will be the first time since 2008that the Champions Tour has had twotournaments sponsored by one com-pany on its schedule since 2009.Ironically, the company that sponsoredtwo tournaments that year was AT&T,which dropped its sponsorship of thePGA Tour event at TPC Sugarloaf theprevious year after acquiring long timetournament sponsor BellSouth.

The Champions Tour has played atfour metro Atlanta courses over the past

three decades with three different titlesponsors.

Pepsi sponsored an event at HorseshoeBend Country Club in Roswell from1986-88, with two of the three tourna-ments shortened to 36 holes due to rain.The one year the event went the full 54holes, former Atlanta resident Larry

Mowry was the winner. The Champions Tour

returned to the NorthFulton suburbs in 1991, with CountryClub of the South in Alpharetta hostingthe Nationwide Championship for fouryears. The tournament moved to GolfClub of Georgia in 1995 and remainedthere until Nationwide Insurance endedits sponsorship in 2000 to become titlesponsor of what is now the Web.comTour.

The Atlanta area was without aChampions Tour stop until 2013, whenthe Greater Gwinnett Championship wasplayed at TPC Sugarloaf for the firsttime. Mitsubishi Electric served as pre-senting sponsor for three years beforeassuming a title sponsorship role begin-ning with the 2016 event.

Like the first Champions Tour event inthe state at Horseshoe Bend in the late1980s, the tournament at TPC Sugarloafhas endured its share of bad weather inits first three years as host. The firstround of the 2013 tournament wasdelayed four hours by inclement weather,and the opening round the next year wasplayed in cold, rainy conditions.

Both tournaments completed the full54 holes on time Sunday, but last year’sevent was not as fortunate. The firstround could not be completed due toafternoon showers, but with decentweather Saturday, tournament officialswere able to get the first round com-pleted in the morning and the secondround late that afternoon.

Sunday’s scheduled final round neverbegan, as heavy overnight rains madeTPC Sugarloaf unplayable, withAtlanta’s fickle April weather continuingto plague the course in its role as tourna-

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Mitsubishi Electric takes over as Gwinnett sponsor

ment host of a tour event. Sugarloaf suffered through some nasty

weather during its 12 years as the hostcourse for the PGA Tour’s annual Atlantastop, most memorably in 2005 when thetournament could not begin untilSaturday after torrential rains washed outthe first two days. Sleet halted play for 90minutes Saturday, with the first roundnot completed until Monday morning.

The tournament managed toget in 54 holes, with PhilMickelson winning a 5-wayplayoff, one of his three careervictories at Sugarloaf.

The decision by Mitsubishi will keepthe Champions Tour in Georgia for thenext four years after the loss of three tourevents from 2001 to 2013.

Green Island in Columbus hosted aChampions Tour event in 2003, less thana year after the PGA Tour played for thelast time at nearby Callaway Gardens.Green Island had been the original hostof the Southern Open, which moved toCallaway Gardens and was sponsored fora number of years by Buick, but theChampions Tour event did not survivepast its first year.

That tournament was one of twoChampions Tour events to make itsdebut in Georgia in 2003, with the Clubat Savannah Harbor beginning a decade-long run as host of the Liberty MutualLegends of Golf, the tournament that ledto the creation of the Champions Tour in1980. The tournament remained inSavannah through 2013, when LibertyMutual ended its sponsorship of the tour-nament after more than 30 years.

The Champions Tour found a newsponsor for that event, which has movedto Missouri. Olin Browne won the rain-shortened

2015 Greater Gwinnett Championship,shooting 12-under 132 over the first 36holes. Browne shot a tournament record64 in the second round, with BernhardLanger matching the 64 minutes later tofinish second, one shot behind Browne.

Langer has finished first or second inall three years TPC Sugarloaf has beenthe host course, winning in 2013 andplacing second behind Miguel AngelJimenez last year.

http://www.chimneysgc.com/


http://www.pelzgolf.com/

B y M i k e B l um

istorically, Georgians haveenjoyed considerable suc-cess on what is now theWeb.com Tour, extending

all the way back to its origins as the BenHogan Tour in 1990.

With one notable exception, however,the 2015 season was not an especiallysuccessful one for the Georgia contingenton the Web.com Tour, with just oneplayer among the 25 who have alreadyearned a spot on the 2015-16 PGA Tour.Two others finished among the top 75 onthe money list to gain entry into thismonth’s Web.com Finals, which willsend 25 more players to the PGA Tourfor the upcoming season. Patton Kizzire, who played his col-

lege golf at Auburn and is now a St.Simons Island resident, enjoyed one ofthe finest seasons in tour history andended the regular season as the leadingmoney winner.

Kizzire earned over $518,000 in 19starts, $175,000 ahead of the No. 2 fin-isher on the money list. He scored a pairof wins in August in Utah and Knoxville,was second twice including a playoff lossin North Carolina, and added finishes ofthird, fourth, fifth and sixth along withthree other top 10s.

Prior to this year, Kizzire was justanother mini-tour player who had beenunable to advance beyond that statussince turning pro after graduating fromAuburn in 2008. He reached the finals ofQ-school in his first attempt, but fin-ished near the bottom of the standingsand made it into just four Web.com

events the next year, missing thecut in all four.

Kizzire made just two morestarts on the tour over the next fewyears, and went five years inbetween starts on the PGA Tourafter getting into one tournament inboth 2008 and ‘09. A strong effort inthe finals of Web.com Tour quali-fying last year earned him status onthe tour this year, and he camethrough with a spectacular showingthat earned him exempt status for the2015-16 PGA Tour season.

The 2015 season is not yet over forKizzire, who will join the other top 75money winners from the Web.comTour and players 126-200 on theFedExCup points list in the Web.comFinals. They begin Sept. 10 in FortWayne, Ind., and conclude Oct. 4 withthe Tour Championship at TPC Sawgrassin Jacksonville.

Kizzire is assured of exempt status onthe PGA Tour next year regardless ofwhere he finishes on the Web.com Finalsmoney list. But the other Georgians inthe field will have to finish in the top 25in earnings among the players who didnot finish in the top 25 on the regularseason Web.com Tour.

The two other Georgians among thetop 75 on the Web.com money list arerecent Augusta State standout HenrikNorlander and Luke List, who grew upin north Georgia before playing in col-lege at Vanderbilt.

Among the players in the 126-200 cat-egory on the FedExCup standings areformer Georgia Tech golfer NicholasThompson, Augusta’s Vaughn Taylor,St. Simons resident Jonathan Byrd andAlpharetta’s Roberto Castro, likeThompson a former Yellow Jacket.

Thompson has played seven seasons onthe PGA Tour since 2006, twice fin-ishing in the top 60 on the final pointslist but placing outside the top 125 theother five years. He was 123 coming intothe final event of the season inGreensboro, but missed the cut and fellto 132. He will have some PGA Tourstatus for the upcoming season even if hedoesn’t finish in the top 25 in Finals.

Taylor played well on both the PGAand Web.com Tours this season, but gotinto just 12 PGA Tour events as a pastchampion and despite making 11 cutswith six top-25 finishes, was 151 on the

points list. Taylor, aformer Augusta State golfer with twoPGA Tour wins and a spot on the 2006U.S. Ryder Cup team, will be looking toregain exempt status on the PGA Tourfor the first time since 2012.

Byrd has five wins in his 14 seasons onthe PGA Tour, but has struggled the lastthree years after undergoing wrist sur-gery early in 2013. He played respectablyfor much of the 2014-15 season with sixtop 25s, but his best showing was a tiefor 18th in the season-ending event inGreensboro.

In just his second season on the PGATour in 2013, Castro qualified for theTour Championship at East Lake and fin-ished 21st on the points list, but slippedto 135 the next year and 188 this season.He made 11 of 16 cuts, but a tie for 40thin Memphis was his best finish in a PGATour event offering full FedExCuppoints. He finished one spot out of thetop 25 in the Web.com Finals last year.

Both Norlander and List have playedon the Web.com Tour the last two yearsafter competing as rookies on the PGATour in 2013. Norlander, a member ofAugusta State’s back-to-back NCAAchampions in 2010 and ‘11, was 47ththis season, slipping down the money listafter a pair of top-5 finishes in the firstfour events of 2015.

Like Norlander, List played his bestgolf early in the season outside the U.S.and ended up 64th with only two decentshowings after April. List, a highlytouted amateur, has enjoyed just one big

season as a professional, winning inValdosta and placing second threetimes on the Web.com Tour in 2012,ending up fourth on the money list.

Georgia almost had anotherWeb.com Finals qualifier, asAugusta’s Scott Parel was 76th onthe money list after coming into thefinal tournament 74th. Parel fin-ished $4,500 behind the player in75th, and would have needed to tiefor 26th in Portland to get into theFinals.

Parel, who turned 50 in May,will have limited status next year,but will likely turn his attentionto Champions Tour qualifyingafter competing on the Web.comTour since 2003.

Also finishing in the top 100to earn limited status for next year areformer Georgia Tech golfers RichyWerenski (79) and Matt Weibring (87),and ex-Georgia Southern Eagle AronPrice (100). Finishing outside the top100 were Savannah’s Mark Silvers(105), Atlanta resident CaseyWittenberg (113), former Tech standoutand two-time PGA Tour winner TroyMatteson (119), ex-Georgia BulldogBryden Macpherson (126) and Duluthnative Brent Witcher (134).

Former Roswell resident and ex-UGAgolfer Justin Bolli, who played four sea-sons on the PGA Tour after winningtournaments in four different seasons onthe Web.com Tour, did not play on thetour after May and finished 179 on themoney list. Heath Slocum, who lives in the

North Fulton suburbs, was 211 in theFedExCup standings after the poorestseason in his two decades as a pro and didnot qualify for the Web.com Finals.With four career PGA Tour wins, Slocumshould have full status on the Web.comTour next year and limited status on thePGA Tour as a past champion.

Pre-qualifying for players new to thepro ranks was played early this month,with Brunswick CC hosting one of themSept. 9-11. The first stage of Web.comTour qualifying will be played inOctober, with Callaway Gardens amongthe hosts Oct. 6-9. Second stage quali-fiers are scheduled two weeks inNovember, with the finals to be playedDec. 19-13 at PGA National in southFlorida.

H


Vaughn Taylor

Georgians pursue PGA Tour in Web.com Finals Kizzire ends regular season No. 1 on money list

Luke List

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http://golfgulfshores.com

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B y M i k e B l um

he Georgia Open has lackedfor late tournament excite-ment in recent years, butDavin White and Eddie Lee

delivered plenty of fireworks at lastmonth’s tournament at Pinetree CountryClub neared its conclusion.

Lee, who finished in the top five in thethree previous Georgia Opens, brokeaway from a crowded group of leaders inthe fourth round with three birdies in afive-hole stretch of the final nine.

The three birdies gave Lee a two-shotlead at that point, but White closed outhis round with three straight birdies,capping a run of four birdies in the lastfive holes.

White’s sizzling surge down thestretch gave him a one-stroke victory at8-under 280, the first win for an amateurin the event since future PGA Tourplayer Franklin Langham won his firstGeorgia Open in 1989.

It was the second victory in a GeorgiaPGA tournament for White in the spanof a month, following his win in theChampionship at Berkeley Hills. White,who completed his college career atGeorgia State this spring, also won thattournament with a strong final round,shooting 66 the last day at Berkeley Hillsto win by one over college teammateNathan Mallonee.

White and Lee were part of a five-waybattle for the lead early on the final nine,but the two combined for seven birdiesover the last seven holes, with the otherthree contenders unable to keep pace.

Lee finished second at 281 to takehome the Tilted Kilt Georgia Open firstplace check for $8,000. Matt Nagy, aformer Kennesaw State player fromBuena Vista who tied for third atPinetree last year and was outrightsecond in 2012, was third at 283. JinChung of Duluth and recent Mercergolfer Trey Rule, making his pro debut,were fourth at 284.

White, a Locust Grove resident, saidwinning the Georgia Open “means a lot.It’s a great honor. I’m still at a loss forwords.”

With the victory, White joins a distin-guished list of Georgia Open championsthat range from Tommy Aaron, HughRoyer Jr., DeWitt Weaver and LarryNelson to Tim Simpson, Bob Tway

and Gene Sauers. Langham, MattPeterson, Justin Bolli and RobertoCastro all made their way to the PGATour after winning the Georgia Open,and White expects to begin that processearly in 2016, if not sooner.

White plans to attempt to qualify forthe PGA Tour-sponsored LatinoAmericaTour, but is considering turning pro ear-lier to give himself some professionalexperience prior to making that effort.

White began the final round at 5-under, one shot ahead of Nagy, two infront of West Georgia golfer BarrettWaters of Dallas and three better thanLee and Chung. Rule was next at 1-under, four off the lead.

The leaders all began their final roundson the 10th hole, with White holding atleast a share of the lead until Lee movedpast him early on the final nine. Nagypulled even with White twice early inthe round with birdies at holes 11 and 13around a bogey at the 12th, with bothmaking birdie on the short, par-5 16th.

Rule, playing in the group ahead alongwith Lee, briefly took the outright leadwhen he eagled the 16th, his secondeagle on the opening nine and fourth intwo days. He made two eagles in a thirdround 65 to move into contention aftershooting 78 the day before, achieving theexceedingly rare feat of playing the fourpar 5s in the same number of strokes (14)as the four par 3s, scoring birdies on theother two par 5s while making his onlytwo bogeys on par 3s.

Rule and Nagy lost their share of thelead with bogeys at the difficult par-418th, with Nagy and White both takingbogey at Pinetree’s first hole, the 10th of

the day for the leaders. Chung moved into a tie for the lead at

5-under with birdies at 1 and 2, with Leejoining him at the top when he birdiedthe third. Consecutive bogeys at 2, 3 and4 dropped Rule out of contention, withhis second shot to the par-5 secondending up out of bounds by inches. Hewas 11-under on the other par 5s the lasttwo days with four eagles and threebirdies, but the bogey at the secondproved extremely costly.

When White bogeyed the third holeafter driving into a fairway bunker, Leehad the lead by himself. Lee, who haslived in the Atlanta area for about fiveyears after playing professionally inJapan, birdied the short, par-4 fifth, butWhite matched the birdie minutes laterwhen he drove the green and had aserious look at eagle.

Lee also birdied the seventh, the othershort par 4 on Pinetree’s front nine, hittinghis second shot within three feet. Whitehad only 73 yards left for his second shot,and “from the middle of the fairway, Iexpected to get it inside ten feet.”

Instead he left himself about a 20-footer, but holed it to stay within one ofthe lead. Lee had a chance to post 8-under, but his short birdie try at thepar-5 ninth lipped out. White pulledeven when he hit his tee shot on the par-3 eighth behind the hole in the 20-footrange and again holed his birdie attempt.

White went for the ninth in two andlike Lee did in the group ahead, missedthe green just to the left. Unlike Lee,White was able to hole his short birdieputt after a deft chip to claim the title.

“That was one of the best finishes I’ve

had in a tournament,” White said. Hefelt it was especially good considering “Iwas out of the lead by two shots after the13th. To finish that well is the bestfeeling in the world.

“I actually went out and won it and Iknow I earned it.”

Lee had mixed feelings after hisrunner-up finish, but came away withfirst place money and said he was “happywith how well I played today.”

The missed birdie putt at the 18thstung Lee a bit, but he left the tourna-ment with the realization that he didn’tlose it. His 67 was the low round of theday as he carded six birdies after takingbogey on his opening hole.

“He deserved to win,” Lee said ofWhite. “To close out a tournament likethat, good for him.”

Lee, who plays out of Laurel Springs,has been playing and “teaching a littlebit,” but said he plans “to focus more onmy game and maybe go back on tour.”He is considering returning to play inJapan and also might attempt qualifyingfor the European Tour.

The first time Lee made an impact inthe Georgia Open was 2012 at TheLegends at Chateau Elan, placing third,three shots behind Jonathan Fricke. Hewas one shot out of second the next yearat The Legends and tied for fifth atPinetree last year, also finishing at 7-under 281.

After the consecutive bogeys at 18 and1, Nagy carded seven straight pars beforea closing birdie at the ninth gave him a71 and a tie for third for a second straightyear at 283.

Rule shot 69 and Chung 70 to tie forfourth at 284. Chung stayed close to thelead before a bogey at Pinetree’s toughpar-4 sixth, while Rule rallied withbirdies at 5 and 9 after the three straightbogeys. Rule, from Eatonton, enjoyed asuccessful career at Mercer and won the2014 Dogwood Invitational.

Waters closed with a 73 to tie for sixthat 286 with Statesboro pro John L.Smith, who shot a final round 70.Buford’s S.M. Lee, the GSGA Juniorchampion, was eighth at 287, followedby Bradley Smith and EmmanuelKountakis at 288. Smith, an instructorat Eagle’s Landing, was low among theclub professionals in the field.

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Late birdie run lifts White to narrow victory First amateur to win Georgia Open since ‘89


[ See Georgia Open, page 23 ]

Davin White

Eddie Lee

GEO

RGIA

PGA

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http://riverpinesgolf.com

http://www.applemountaingolf.com

B y M i k e B l um

hree of the top five seeds inthe Georgia PGA Match PlayChampionship reached thesemifinals, which were played

at Peachtree Golf Club for a secondstraight year.

Top-seeded Sonny Skinner, the 2006Match Play champion, was among thefour semifinalists, as was second-seededTim Weinhart, one of just two GeorgiaPGA members to win the event threetimes. Neither player made it to thefinals. Matthew Evans, the No. 5 seed, ral-

lied on the back nine to defeat Skinner1-up in his semifinal match, with MarkAnderson, the lowest seed of the fourplayers at No. 22, getting past Weinhart2&1 in the other semifinal.

That set up a championship match oftwo veteran Georgia PGA members whohave been frequent contenders over theyears, but between them had just one vic-tory in a Section points event, thatcoming 12 years ago in a tournamentthat has not been contested for more thana decade.

Anderson, the owner of the oneGeorgia PGA individual title among thetwo finalists, added a second career vic-tory, outlasting Evans on the 19th hole ofa tightly-contested championship match.Anderson led for only three holes duringthe match, which was all square for mostof the back nine.

Evans won the first two holes, but hislead was gone by the sixth hole. He wononly two more holes the rest of the day,taking a 1-up lead at the ninth, but thatadvantage did not last long. Evans three-putted the par-5 10th for a par fromrelatively close range and never led again.

Anderson took his first lead when healmost holed his second shot on the par-4 13th for a conceded birdie, with Evanspulling even when he reached the par-516th and two-putted for a winningbirdie.

The last two holes were halved withpars, with both players missing par puttsin the 5-to-6-foot range on the 18th.That sent the match to the first hole andsudden death, with neither player havingmuch success on the hole earlier in theday.

Anderson bogeyed the hole to startboth his matches, while Evans was

unable to keep his tee shot outof the trees right of the fairway.He found the trees for a thirdstraight time in the playoff,and this time he clipped abranch with his second shot,coming up well short of thegreen.

Evans hit a deft pitch shotto a similar range as the putthe missed at the 18th, withAnderson also missing thegreen before chipping toapproximately the samedistance as Evans. AfterEvans missed his parattempt, Anderson holedhis to score his first GeorgiaPGA victory since the 2003 Lake OconeeClassic.

Anderson had lost in a playoff in Aprilin the Georgia Senior Open. Consideringthat and his struggles on the openinghole, he said he was “not overly excitedgoing there for extra holes.”

Things did not look good for Andersonafter he pulled his second shot well leftand long on the first playoff hole, butEvans was having problems of his ownbefore putting the pressure on Andersonafter his precisely played pitch shot,

Anderson said one of the main reasonshe was able to win his two matches atPeachtree was that “I did not let badshots bother me.” He faced a delicatethird shot on the playoff hole, but hit hischip the perfect speed coming down theslope to get inside Evans’ third and givenhimself a second chance to win.

On the final hole of regulation,Anderson had a putt to win, but his parattempt spun around the lip to send thematch to extra holes. Given a secondchance to close things out, Andersoncame through to end a long day for thefinalists.

Because of heavy rain the previous day,the two players had to walk 36 holeswith a caddie, as Peachtree’s cart paths donot cover the entire course. Anderson feltfatigue was a factor, but both players heldup well in the championship match,shooting right around par for the roundon a difficult course with some of themost demanding greens complexes in thestate.

Anderson, an instructor at BrunswickCountry Club who previously worked inthe Atlanta area, said he was “a little

deflated” thathe did not win the match in regulation,but added, “I was no worse off than I wasat 18. It was sudden death after wereached 18.”

After his off-target approach on thefirst playoff hole, Anderson’s short gamepulled out the victory, and he said, “Thatup and down was as good as I could do.That was my first par in four tries onnumber one,” including his practiceround for the tournament.

Anderson credited Frederica head proHank Smith for some swing helpAnderson says has his game “moving for-ward. I’m on the right track and I’mlonger at 55 than I’ve ever been.”

Prior to this year’s Match PlayChampionship, Anderson had enjoyedlittle success in the tournament otherthan 2004, when he reached the finals atSettindown Creek before losing to ClarkSpratlin, who won the event for thethird time in four years.

With an improving game, Andersonwill take his second shot at qualifying forthe Champions Tour after failing to getpast the first stage last year.

Evans, the Director of Golf atRivermont G&CC, is still looking for hisfirst victory in a Georgia PGA Sectionevent after a number of close calls. He hasa solid track record in the Match PlayChampionship, reaching the quarterfi-nals twice and the semifinals once overthe last five years. He came within onematch of making it to Peachtree last year,losing in the quarterfinals to eventualchampion Brian Dixon.

“This is definitely disappointing,”Evans said. “I missed a couple of putts

and lost control of the match.” Evans quickly went 2-up in the title

match. He scrambled for a par on thefirst hole after an errant tee shot, and wonthe par-5 second with a two-putt birdie.He came close to going 3-up after three,but his approach shot on the par-4 thirdspun down the slope and well away fromthe hole after landing within a foot of thecup on the fly.

Anderson holed a birdie putt in the15-to-18-foot range on the par-3 fourth,and the two players matched two-puttbirdies on the par-5 fifth. Evans had toscramble for a bogey to tie Anderson onthe par-3 sixth, and lost his lead when hemissed the green and was unable to savepar at the seventh. Anderson stayed evenwith a nice par putt at the eighth, butmissed the green again at the ninth for abogey to fall behind for the last time inthe match.

Both players hit superb second shots toreach the par-5 10th, but after Andersonmade his birdie, Evans said he “got tooaggressive” with his eagle attempt fromabove the hole, and three-putted for parto give up his lead.

Anderson took his first lead with abirdie at the 13th, but Evans pulled evenwhen he hit the par-5 16th in two andlagged his eagle try close enough for aconceded birdie. Anderson drove in therough and was forced to lay up short of apond, leaving a long third shot thatresulted in a par.

Earlier in the day, Anderson had failedto clear the pond with his second shotfrom the rough, but was 3-up at the timeand closed out his match with Weinharton the next hole.

Weinhart, an instructor at the

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Anderson captures title in Match Play

[ See Match Play, page 23 ]

Mark Anderson

Matthew Evans

Needs 19 holes to edge Evans in finals GEO

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B y M i k e B l um

ifteen years after his third vic-tory in the Georgia PGAChampionship, James Masonadded a fourth title, winning

the recent rain-drenched event at SeaIsland Golf Club’s Plantation course.

Mason finished the rain-shortened, 36-hole tournament at 6-under 138, twoshots in front of former champion TimWeinhart. Tommy Brannen, also aformer champion, was third at 141, withKyle Owen fourth at 142.

The 64-year-old Mason played theChampions Tour for more than a decadeafter winning a tournament in NewJersey as a Monday qualifier in 2002, buthas played only a handful of tour eventsin recent years. He is playing primarilyin Georgia PGA events, winning theGeorgia Senior Open earlier this year andturning in top-10 finishes in two Section

events before his victory in the SectionChampionship, which is sponsored by E-Z-GO and presented by Taylor-Made/adidas Golf/Ashworth/Adams andthe PGA Tour.

Mason became the second GeorgiaPGA member in four years to win theSection Championship for a fourth time,15 years after his third title in the event.Mariette Country Club Director of GolfStephen Keppler accomplished thatfeat in 2011 and tied for fifth this year,the first time he has been outside the topthree since 2004.

Before he turned 50 in 2001 and madeit to the Champions Tour the next year,Mason won the Georgia PGAChampionship three times in a four-yearstretch from 1997-2000, and did notcompete again in the event until 2012.He tied for second last year, a distant 10shots behind Frederica head pro HankSmith.

“It feels great,” Mason saidof his victory. “It solidifiesthat I can still compete. Weplay golf courses that arepretty long and tough, and I’mecstatic I’m still able to playwith ‘em. It gives me a reasonto get up and still practice.”

Although many of theSection’s top players likeKeppler, Brannen, SonnySkinner and Craig Stevens arealso seniors, Mason is the oldest of thegroup. While he remains one of theSection’s top players – he’s second behindWeinhart in the Player of the Year stand-ings – Mason can see the effects of agingin his game.

“At Berkeley Hills, I played with a guywho was out-driving me by 90 yards,”Mason offered. The winner of the SectionChampionship is ordinarily offered a spotin the PGA Professional NationalChampionship, but as a non-active LifeMember, Mason is not eligible for anexemption to nationals.

That’s OK with Mason, who says thecourses they play at the PNC “are 7200and 7300 yards and that’s a little long forme. I can still play 7000-yard courses andI look forward to playing in the SeniorPNC. But it’s getting harder for me tocompete.”

Mason tied for second in last year’sSenior PNC in south Florida to earn aspot in the 2015 Senior PGAChampionship, and hopes to make areturn to the senior major next year if hecan play well enough in the Senior PNCnext month in California.

With an exemption into the finals ofChampions Tour qualifying, Mason isconsidering making a trip to Arizona toplay at TPC Scottsdale, but won’t decideuntil shortly before the tournament.

This was the second time since 2009that the Section Championship wasreduced to 36 holes by the weather, butunlike 2009, the tournament was com-pleted on schedule. The 2009 tournamentwas not completed until December, somethree months after it began.

With bad weather in the forecast,Georgia PGA officials hoped to get in 36holes the first day and complete the tour-nament the next day. But the first roundwas delayed four hours and the scheduledsecond round was washed out. What

turned out to be thefinal round was halted by lightning, andplay was completed just minutes beforeheavy rains hit the waterlogged course.

“Sea Island did a tremendous job ofgetting the course in shape,” Mason said,noting that the area had three or fourinches of rain the previous day. “They dida hell of a job to get in 36 holes.”

Mason, who lives at Sky Valley andteaches and plays out of the Orchard,shot a bogey-free 68 the first day withbirdies on his first (18) and last (17) holesin the shotgun start. He hit 16 greens inregulation to lead Dunwoody CC headpro Kyle Owen by a shot, with OceanForest assistant Michael Ferguson nextat 70, and Weinhart, Skinner andCartersville CC head pro Bill Hassellthe only other players under par at 71.

With four birdies on his first six holesin the final round, Mason built a com-fortable lead, making three in a row atholes 4, 5 and 6 shortly before the light-ning delay. Mason was coasting after playresumed until hitting his second shot onthe par-4 12th over the green and intothe water for a double bogey, and had toscramble for bogey on the 13th.

No one was able to make a serious runat Mason, who settled down with fourpars and a birdie at the 18th for a 70 anda 2-stroke victory at 138. Weinhart, aninstructor at the Standard Club, birdiedfive of his last 10 holes for a 69 after adouble bogey on the par-3 seventh.Brannen, the head pro at AugustaCountry Club, overcame a triple bogey atthe fifth with seven birdies and shot 69to finish third.

Like Weinhart, Owen made doublebogey on the seventh and shot 73 to takefourth. Ferguson tied Keppler for fifth at143, shooting 73 after a slow start andfast finish, highlighted by an eagle at thepar-5 18th. Tying for seventh at 144 wasEric Reeves of Capital City Club andBrookstone CC instructor Stevens.

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Mason captures 4thGeorgia PGA Championship

James Mason

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Standard Club, was making his seventhappearance in the semifinals, includingwins in 2005, ‘11 and ‘12 and losses inthe finals in 2000 and ‘10. His semifinalwith Anderson went back and forth earlybefore Anderson won four holes in a six-hole stretch beginning at the seventh,three with birdies.

During that stretch, Anderson alsoholed a putt of some 40 feet for a par and

a half, and admitted he was the benefi-ciary of a few good breaks that turnedless-than-quality shots into successfulones. He also holed his share of putts,building a 4-up lead after 12 that was toomuch for Weinhart to overcome.

Evans was 2-down after nine in hissemifinal against Skinner, who has had abusy summer with trips to ChampionsTour majors in California and Englandand an appearance in the PGAProfessional National Championship inPhiladelphia.

Skinner still had the lead midway

Match Play[ Continued from page 20 ]

Kountakis, who lives just outsideAugusta, played at Mercer the last twoseasons with Rule, but has transferred toAugusta State.

Veteran amateur Bob Royak ofAlpharetta, a former Atlanta Openchampion, led by a shot after an opening68 that included five birdies on the frontnine and an eagle on the 16th. Mini-tourpro Ryan Chitwood of Gainesville, whofinished 11th at 289, was the only other

player to break 70, carding a 69. Waters,Nagy and Champions Tour player JamesMason were among a group at 70, withWhite shooting 71 with four birdies.

White took the second round lead at139 with a 68, one of just two scoresbelow 70 that day. He ended the daywith a 4-shot lead over Waters andChitwood, the only other players underpar for 36 holes. Smith, Chung, Royakand Lee were fourth at 144. Smith shot72 with six birdies while Chung was 3-under over his last three holes for a 69,highlighted by an eagle at the 16th.

Georgia Open [ Continued from page 18 ]

through the back nine, but hit his teeshot in the water on the par-3 13th andbogeyed the 15th before Evans took thelead with a birdie at 16 after reaching thepar 5 in two.

Anderson came out of the GeorgiaPGA’s East Chapter bracket, winning hisfirst three matches against players fromthe southeast corner of the state. Heneeded 19 holes to win his first matchover Drew Pittman from Forest Heightsin Statesboro before closing out his nexttwo matches on the 15th and 16th holes.He edged Bill Murchison of Towne

Lake Hills 1-up in the quarterfinals. Evans had tough matches in the first

three rounds, needing 19 holes to getpast Brian Corn of Peachtree GC in thesecond round and taking his next match1-up over Brookfield’s Michael Parrott.He won his quarterfinal match 4&3 over2010 champion David Potts of CountryClub of the South.

Weinhart won his quarterfinal match4&3 against defending champion Dixon,while Skinner defeated 2007 championGreg Lee of Chicopee Woods 2&1 in theother quarterfinal.

Royak also eagled the 16th, but that washis lone highlight in a 76. Lee rallied fora 72 with four birdies on the back nine.

While White settled for a 72 and a 54-hole total of 211, Nagy and Rule madebig moves. Nagy played his last fiveholes in 6-under for a 30 on the nineincluding an eagle at the par-4 fifth. Hefinished with a 67, the second best scoreof the day behind Rule’s 65, which fea-tured five birdies on his first nine andeagles on holes 2 and 9. S.M. Lee hadseven birdies in his 69 to end the day tiedfor sixth at 1-under .

The tournament was played withoutits defending champion, as Jay McLuen,who also won in 2011 at BarnsleyGardens, got a sponsor’s invitation intothe PGA Tour event in Reno that week.Recent Kennesaw State player JimmyBeck, who was second behind McLuenlast year on the course where he playedhis college golf, had to miss the tourna-ment because of an ailing hip.

Fricke was a late addition to the field, but the two-time champion played poorly the first day and missedthe cut.

http://lanierislandsgolf.com/

B y M i k e B l um

or most of the state’sDivision 1 golf teams, theoutlook for the 2015-16season may not be quite as

bright as last year following the loss ofa talented senior class.

One of the few exceptions is 2015NCAA semifinalist Georgia, whichreturns four of its top five players, pro-viding senior Lee McCoy elects toremain in Athens for the entire season.McCoy, who will be a member of theU.S. Walker Cup team, could turn prothis month, but indications are that hewill remain with the Bulldogs.

Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State,Georgia Southern, Georgia Southern and

Mercer all lost senior standouts, withMercer also having its top returningplayer transfer to Augusta State.

Among the highlights of the 2015 Fallschedule is a new match play event atEast Lake, which will bring together thesemifinalists from the 2015 NCAAmen’s and women’s championship events.Among the teams in the field are theGeorgia men and Stanford women, withRiverdale’s Mariah Stackhouse the topplayer for NCAA women’s championStanford.

Georgia Tech will host two annual Fallevents – the Carpet Capital Collegiate atThe Farm Sept. 11-13 and the U.S.Collegiate Championship at Golf Club ofGeorgia Oct. 16-18.

Kennesaw State, which will be in theCarpet Capital field, will host its ownevent at Pinetree CC Oct. 19-20, withBerkeley Hills the site of an annual Falltournament hosted by Georgia State.Mercer will play in both tournaments.

Georgia After reaching the NCAA semifinals

last year and returning four of their fivestarters, the Bulldogs begin their Fallschedule as one of the country’s topteams, contingent on McCoy’s return.

McCoy, a senior from Clarkesville,matched the school record of four wins ina season, held by current PGA Tour

standouts Chris Kirk andRussell Henley. Three ofthose victories came in suc-

cession last Spring, two in thestate, and McCoy was a first team

All-America selection, going 2-0 inGeorgia’s two NCAA matches.

Duluth’s Mookie DeMoss was theonly senior starter for the Bulldogs, whofielded a team of five Georgia residents inthe NCAAs. Also returning from a teamthat won three tournaments and placedsecond three times are sophomore ZachHealy of Peachtree Corners, juniorGreyson Sigg of Augusta and seniorSepp Straka of Valdosta.

Healy was Honorable Mention All-America as a freshman, with both Siggand Straka turning in a number of solidefforts. Among the candidates forplaying time are redshirt freshmen JackLarkin of Atlanta and MatthewBeringer of Macon and incomingfreshman David Mackey ofWatkinsville.

The Bulldogs will be a well-traveledteam this Fall, with tournaments inCalifornia, Oregon and Hawaii, alongwith stops in Nashville and Atlanta.Georgia’s first two Spring starts are inPuerto Rico and Mexico before playingfour straight tournaments in the state.

Georgia Tech The Yellow Jackets will be without the

standout duo of Ollie Schniederjansand Anders Albertson for the first timesince the Spring of 2011, with the two

leading Tech to four wins and threerunner-up finishes as seniors.

Their stellar careers, however, endedon a disappointing note, as Tech nar-rowly missed qualifying for match playat the NCAA Championship aftermaking it four times in the previous sixyears.

Tech returns three starters and threeothers with varsity experience, but theJackets enter the season in the rare posi-tion of being without a dominantplayer. The Georgia Tech golf programhas sent a steady stream of future starsto the pros, but begin the 2015-16season lacking the reputation of paststars like David Duval, StewartCink, Troy Matteson, Matt Kuchar,

Bryce Molder, Roberto Castro andSchniederjans.

Leading the way among the returneesare junior Vincent Whaley and sopho-more Chris Petefish, the lonenon-Georgians on the team’s 8-manroster. Whaley was co-medalist in a tour-nament at Ohio State, with Petefish andColumbus sophomore James Clark bothstarting in most of the matches asfreshmen.

Junior Michael Hines of Acworth wasa frequent starter as a freshman in 2012-13, but after redshirting in 2013-14,played sparingly last season. He is incompetition for a spot in the lineupalong with sophomores Jacob Joiner ofLeesburg and Michael Pisciotta ofAlpharetta, and freshmen Tye Waller ofGriffin and Tyler Joiner, Jacob’syounger brother.

Jacob Joiner had several respectableshowings as a freshman, and is part of ayoung team that consists of two juniors,four sophomores and two freshmen.

Kennesaw State The Owls have to replace their top

player – Jimmy Beck of Columbus –along with veterans Austin Vick andKelby Burton of Evans, with the triohaving nine years as starters amongthem.

A pair of international players tops thelist of returnees, with Sweden’s FredrikNilehn winning twice as a freshman andjunior Terremoana Beaucousinturning in a second straight strongseason.

There will be plenty of competition forthe remaining spots in the lineup. JuniorChris Guglielmo of Cumming playedextensively as a freshman two seasonsago, but after a tie for fifth as an indi-vidual last Fall at Kiawah Island, madeonly one more start. Wyatt Larkin ofMorganton made seven starts as afreshman, with redshirt sophomoreBuster Bruton of Dallas also looking tobreak into the lineup after seeing littleaction his first two seasons.

Freshmen Jake Fendt of Cummingand Zack Zediker of Macon will be partof a roster that consists of five golfersfrom Georgia and five from outside theU.S.

The Owls will also have a new coach,as Cartersville native Bryant Odomtakes over for Jay Moseley, who tookthe head coaching job at Ohio State.Odom has been head coach the last twoyears at Western Carolina, and played hiscollege golf at Georgia. He played pro-fessionally on the Nationwide (nowWeb.com) Tour and among his profes-sional wins was the 2008 Georgia Open.

Georgia State The Panthers return four of their top

six players from a team that won theFurman Intercollegiate and had secondand third place finishes last Spring. Oneof the two departing seniors is LocustGrove’s Davin White, who has won twoGeorgia PGA events, including theGeorgia Open, since he completed hiscollege career in May.

Georgia returns senior J.J. Grey, theteam’s top player, who is coming off astrong Spring showing which included awin and two runner-up finishes in thespan of four tournaments.

Junior Nathan Mallonee ofLexington, the runner-up to White inthe Georgia PGA event at BerkeleyHills, Georgia State’s home course, alsoreturns, along with sophomore brothersAleander and Max Herrmann, whoboth played well after breaking into thelineup as freshmen.

Competing for the fifth spot in thelineup will be Hayden Poole of JohnsCreek, who saw limited action as afreshman, and a trio of incoming

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Veteran Bulldogs look to be best in state Other Georgia teams lost best players

Lee McCoy

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COLLEGE Preview

[ See College Preview, page 26 ]


http://marketplaceministries.com/

addies are a tradition as old,honored and enduring as thegame of golf itself. Thecaddie is “his patron’s guide,

philosopher and his friend, his instructorwhen he (is) off his game, and co-arbiterwith the opposition caddie in all dis-putes,” Robert Browning wrote of theearliest days of the game in his “Historyof Golf.”

A quality caddie program distin-guishes a fine private golf club, and isoften the difference between a good andgreat golf club. By providing access tothe game as it was designed to be playedand is most enjoyed, caddies enhance theexperience for players. And caddie pro-grams serve to introduce the game toyoungsters, inspiring a new generationwith a passion that will last their life-times. For these reasons and many more,quality caddie programs play a vital rolein growing the game of golf.

The caddie tradition thrives today atAtlanta’s Cherokee Town and CountryClub, where the golf program histori-cally has been committed to a first-ratecaddie program. Each year, the stafftrains and develops young men andwomen as caddies with the goal ofteaching them to learn and respect thegame, and to develop in them an appre-ciation for how it is played and for thecamaraderie and companionship amongthose who play.The club’s commitmenthas resulted in a program that is roundlysupported by the members. Thissummer, 124 caddies will loop at the twoCherokee courses, most of them youngmen and women who will look back ontheir summer work as an extraordinaryexperience and opportunity.

In 2008, Cherokee introduced a pro-gram designed to further encourage moremembers to experience playing with acaddie. This initiative -- the CaddieCircle – provides caddies Thursday thruSunday till 3:00 p.m. daily for just $25 abag. Caddies receive their usual full payfor the rounds, the difference subsidizedby participating members, which hasgrown to 235 this year. The program has

helped Cherokee grow its total to whatwill be nearly 14,000 rounds supportedby caddie loops in 2015.

In 2000, Cherokee Town and CountryClub established a Caddie ScholarshipFund. Fifteen years later, The CherokeeCaddie Scholarship Foundation has 159club members donating monthly to theprogram, which will provide a dozenscholarships to local universities.Cherokee’s scholarship caddies are stu-dents at the universities of Georgia,Georgia Tech and Georgia State, out-of-state institutions including Notre Dame,

Penn State and Villanova, and in varied,focused programs like those of SouthernPoly Tech. Since its beginning the pro-gram has produced more than 80 collegegraduates. These young people are newambassadors of the game. One of thecaddie corps from 2002 is now aCherokee member.

Cherokee’s robust caddie program hasbeen a win for everyone involved.Members enjoy the game as it was meantto be played and their courses as theywere meant to be experienced. Caddiesearn good pay as they learn valuable life’s

lessons the game teaches. And Cherokeeenhances its reputation as one ofAmerica’s finest private golf clubs.

As the golf committee chairman wroteto members in 2008, “We believestrongly that an excellent caddie serviceprogram will result in more walkingrounds, attract new members, enhancethe Club’s national reputation and pro-vide a golf experience like no other.”That’s good for the club, good for theplayers and caddies, and good for thefuture of the game we love.

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College Preview[ Continued from page 24 ]

GROWING the Game

Cherokee Town & Country Club: A First-Rate Caddie Program

freshmen – Nick Budd of Woodstock,Nathan Williams of Gainesville andSam Asbury of Atlanta.

The Panthers will again host a tourna-ment at Berkeley Hills this Fall, with theAuto Trader Collegiate scheduled forOct. 12-13.

Georgia Southern The Eagles lost four starters from the

their 2015 Sun Belt Conference champi-onship squad, including No. 1 playerScott Wolfes of St. Simons Island, whohad a win and four other top-3 finishes inan outstanding senior season. Charlie Martin of LaGrange and

Matt Mierzejewski of Cumming arealso gone, along with Kim Koivu, theteam’s No. 2 player behind Wolfes.

The lone returning starter is sopho-more Archer Price, the only returningplayer to post a top-10 finish last season.Henry Mabbett, a senior from Griffin,has been in and out of the lineup during

his three years with the Eagles, and islooking to make a bigger impact duringhis final season.

Senior Andrew Klasing, who was inthe starting lineup for the Eagles’ appear-ances in the Sun Belt Championship andRegionals, also returns along with soph-omore Jake Story, who had the team’sthird lowest scoring average as afreshman. Caleb Morris, a senior from Metter,

has played sparingly since his freshmanyear, but will be looking for playing timealong with freshman Steven Fisk fromStockbridge and two transfers into theGeorgia Southern program.

PGA Tour member Blake Adams, whoplayed at Georgia Southern, will serve as avolunteer assistant for the Eagles thisseason when he is not out on tour.

Mercer The Bears will be without their top

two players from last year, as Eatonton’sTrey Rule graduated after an out-standing career and sophomoreEmmanuel Kountakis, an Augusta arearesident, transferred to Augusta State.

The team’s other three startersincluded a freshman, sophomore andjunior, but none had scoring averagesbelow 75 and combined for just two top10s in 33 starts.

Augusta StateThe Jaguars return their entire squad

from a team that enjoyed a number ofsolid finishes and closed out the 2014-15season by easily winning the MEACChampionship. The Jaguars were com-peting in that conference for the firsttime, becoming the only school with anational caliber golf program in theMEAC.

Leading the way are seniors MaverickAntcliff and Robin Petersson, theteam’s top two players last season, andfellow starters Jake Marriott and ViktorEdin. Jackson Stroup and BrocEverett also saw significant action, withMarietta’s John Yi playing sparingly as afreshman.

The Jaguars have also added Augustaarea resident Emmanuel Kountakis,the No. 2 player for Mercer last season asa sophomore.

Paolozzi capturestitle in playoffKaren Paolozzi of Druid Hills Golf Clubwon the Georgia PGA National Car RentalAssistant Championship last month atLaurel Springs, defeating BrentWhitehead of Capital City Club in a playoff.

Both players shot 4-under 138, withPaolozzi posting consecutive scores of 69and Whitehead firing a 64 in the afternoonround of the one-day event. Both playersqualified for the national AssistantChampionship, which will be played Oct.29-Nov. 1 in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Also qualifying for nationals were TravisNance of Coosa CC, who was 3rd at 72-67—139 and Chris Cartwright of West Pines,who was 4th at 69-71—140. Cartwrightwon a playoff over J.P. Griffin of CherokeeT&CC, who closed with a 67 for a 140 total. Senior Division:Amateur Jack Kearney

won a Georgia PGA Senior Division tourna-ment at Cateechee in Hartwell last month,posting a 141 total to edge fellow amateurBill Leonard by one shot. Clark Spratlin, Director of Golf at

Currahee Club, was 3rd overall and low proat 143, with pro James Mason of Dillard4th at 144. Mason led after an opening 67but slipped to a 77 the next day. AmateurDoug Stileswas 5th at 145 after shooting a69 the first day.

Mueller wins 2in U.S. AmateurKyle Mueller of Watkinsville, a member ofthe golf team at Michigan, had the bestshowing of Georgia golfers in last month’sU.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields in Chicago,reaching the third round before beingdefeated.

Mueller was the lowest seeded playeramong the 64 who qualified for match play,getting the 10th and final spot from an 18-man playoff at 3-over 143 after a birdie onthe fourth playoff hole following three pars.He followed that with a 1-up victory overAustralia’s Brett Coletta, the qualifyingmedalist at 7-under 133.

Mueller won three of the first five holesto go 2-up. He was 3-up after 11 holes andheld on despite losing two of the last fourholes. In the second round Muellerdefeated Alex Burge of Illinois 2-up, win-ning four holes with birdies. He birdied thefirst hole to go 1-up and never trailed, fin-ishing out the match with a birdie at 18.

In the third round, Mueller fell 3-downafter three holes against Japan’s Kevin

Konishi and lost 2-up. Mueller was 4-downafter five before winning holes 7, 8 and 9 toget back in the match. He lost holes 12 and13 to go 3-down, but won holes 14 and 16to take the match to the final hole.

UGA golfer Sepp Straka of Valdostareached the second round before losing toDerek Bard, who lost in the finals toBryson DeChambeau, who also won theNCAA individual title. Straka tied for 8th inqualifying at 138 and won his first match3&2 over Canada’s Garret Rank. Straka was2-down after four holes, but pulled evenafter seven, and won holes 14, 15 and 16 totake the match.

Also reaching the second round wasAugusta State’s Maverick Antcliff, whoshot a second round 65 in qualifying to tiefor fifth at 137. Antcliff won his openingmatch 1-up after being 3-down after fiveholes. He was still 1-down after 15 beforewinning holes 16 and 17. Antcliff lost 5&4 inthe second round to Stanford’s MaverickMcNealy.

UGA golfer Lee McCoy of Clarkesvillelost to a tough first round opponent for asecond straight year, falling 3&2 toVanderbilt’s Hunter Stewart, who survivedthe 18-for-10 playoff. McCoy was seededfourth after shooting 136 in qualifying, andled 2-up after five, but Stewart won thenext four holes, three with birdies, andadded birdies at 12 and 13 to go 3-up.

Also losing in the first round wasAlpharetta’s Billy Kennerly, a recentClemson graduate. Kennerly also survivedthe massive playoff and was the first of the10 players to advance. He lost 1-up toSouth Carolina’s Matt NeSmith, almost ral-

lying from 3-down with four holesto play.

Kennerly earned his spot in theU.S. Amateur by winning theCanadian Amateur the week before,shooting 12-under 275 for a 6-stroke victory. Kennerly shot underpar in all four rounds with scores of68-68-69-70.

Other Georgians to qualify for theU.S. Amateur but fail to reach matchplay were Atlanta’s Chris Harris,Savannah senior Doug Hanzel,Kennesaw State golfer ChrisGuglielmo of Cumming, Elberton’sShad Tuten, Georgia Tech golfersTye Waller of Griffin, Chris Petefishand Vincent Whaley, UGA’s ZachHealy of Peachtree Corners,Georgia State’s Jake Fendt ofCumming, and Valdosta State’s JakeHarpe of Griffin. U.S, Women’s Amateur: UGA

freshman Bailey Tardy reached the thirdround of last month’s U.S. Women’sAmateur in Portland, Ore., winning twotough matches before losing 2&1.

Tardy, from Peachtree Corners, ralliedfrom 3-down after four holes to win heropening match 1-up, but pulled even after10 holes and birdied two of the last five totake the lead. She also trailed 2-down afternine holes in her second round matchagainst the No. 4 seed, winning on the 19thhole. Tardy won holes 10, 11 and 12 to takethe lead before her opponent birdied the17th to take the match to extra holes.

In the third round, Tardy was all squareafter eight holes before losing the ninthand 10th holes to birdies. She never gotcloser than 1-down after that.

Also reaching match play was Riverdale’sMariah Stackhouse, a senior at Stanford.Stackhouse was 1-up after 16, but lost thelast two holes in a 1-up defeat.

Qualifying for the event but missing thecut were Roswell’s Rinko Mitsunaga,former UGA golfer Emilie Burger Meason,Rachel Dai of Milton, Katy Harris of St.Simons and 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur cham-pion Margaret Shirley.

Hanzel, Coble repeatGSGA Senior titles Savannah’s Doug Hanzel and Augusta’sLaura Coble defended their titles in recentmen’s and women’s GSGA SeniorChampionships.

Hanzel won by 13 shots at Brickyard GCin Macon with an 11-under 205 total,

posting scores of 70-69-66. Marietta’s MelMendenhall was 2nd at 218, followed byRoswell’s Mark Nickerson at 219 and JackHall of Savannah and Jack Kearney ofPeachtree City at 220. Hanzel has won thetournament three of the last four years

Coble shot 77-73—150 at ReynoldsNational to finish two shots ahead offormer tournament winner Brenda Pictorof Marietta. Cheryl Grigg of Sea Island was3rd at 157, followed by Roswell’s LeslieElkins at 160 and Greensboro’s SueRheney at 162. U.S. Senior qualifying: Atlanta’s Jorge

Cora earned medalist honors in a U.S.Senior Amateur qualifier at Berkeley Hills,shooting 69 on his home course. MarkBurden of Atlanta and Bill Leonard ofDallas tied for 2nd at 71, with Marietta’s JeffBelk getting the 5th and final spot with a72. He won a playoff over Roswell’s PhilipBeaty and Sandy Springs’ Gary Unell, whoare the two alternates.

Wolfes in top 10in eGolf finaleScott Wolfes of St. Simons, a recentstandout at Georgia Southern, tied foreighth in the final eGolf Tour event in LakeWylie, S.C., last month. The tour wasacquired by the SwingThought.com Tour,which previously took over the Hooters Tour.

Recent UGA golfer Michael Cromie wonthe next-to-last eGolf event in NorthCarolina, winning by one with a 14-under202 total to earn $11,000. Augusta’s DykesHarbin finished the year fifth on themoney list with almost $45,000, winningonce and placing second twice.

In recent tournaments on theSwingThought.com Tour, former UGA golferAdam Mitchell of Atlanta lost in a three-way playoff in the annual Kandy WatersMemorial event, shooting 22-under 262 atthe River Club in North Augusta, S.C. Rookiepro Anders Albertson of Woodstock tiedfor ninth at 269, with Augusta’s ChaseParker T12 at 270, and Harbin and rookiepro Trey Rule of Eatonton T17 at 273.

Recent Georgia Tech golfer Seth Reevestied for 5th in Elgin, S.C., at 14-under 270,two behind the winner. Former Norcrossresident Reid Edstrom tied for seventh at271, with Savannah’s Tim O’Neal andAcworth’s James White T15 at 273.

Wolfes tied for ninth in a SwingThoughtevent in Knoxville, shooting 63 in the finalround to finish at 10-under 274. Decatur’sKyle Scott was 12th at 274 and Reeves wasT13 at 275.

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Fry, Park winGPGA Jr. eventsDacula’s Hunter Fry was the boys winnerof a Georgia PGA Junior Tour event lastmonth at Sea Island Golf Club’s Retreatcourse, finishing with a 3-under 105 totalfor 27 holes, with the tournament unable tocomplete 36 holes due to rain.

Fry led by three shots after an opening71 and shot 34 for nine holes the next dayto expand his margin to four over Newnan’sNathan Garner. Tristan Cooper ofGainesville was 3rd in the 16-18 age groupat 110. Chase Weathers of St. Mary’s won the

14-15 division winner at 111, with Ben Carrof Columbus and Carter Pendley of Daltontying for 2nd at 113. Lindsey Cordell ofRome shot 113 to win in 11-13 by one overDrew Soupiset of Kennesaw.

The girls winners were Maggie Sullensof Cumming (15-18) at 130 and Josie Arantof Tifton (11-14) at 126.

Buford’s Sanghyeon Park shot 74-72—146 at Callaway Gardens to win the boysdivision by one over Newnan’s Jaden Hall.

Andrew Register of Dawsonville was 3rdin 16-18 at 150.

Pendley was the 14-15 winner at 76-72—148, two ahead of Woodstock’s GarronTerrell. Duluth’s Will Stakel of Duluth shot72-74—146 to win 11-13 by eight overAlex Colligan of Evans and Peyton Balentof Cumming. Skylar Thompson of Buford was the

girls winner at 77-72—149, with SandersHinds of Midland 1st in 11-14.

The next two Georgia PGA Junior Tourevents are at the Georgia Southern coursein Statesboro Sept. 12-13 and Oct. 10-11 atChattahoochee GC.

Eaton captures SJGT ChampionshipAlpharetta’s Chandler Eaton won theSoutheastern Junior Golf TourChampionship at Atlanta Athletic Club lastmonth, shooting 3-under 141 (73-68) onthe Highlands course to win by one stroke. Grant Sutliff of Suwanee was 2nd in the

14-15 division at 145, one behind thewinner, with Nicolas Cassidy of Johns

Creek 3rd at 147. Connery Meyer ofMarietta shot 8-under 64 the first day andwon the 12-13 age group by one at 139.Sam Barrett of Thomasville was 3rd at 146.Decatur’s Ayanna Habeel was 3rd in girls12-14 at 159. Elizabeth Funderburk of Moultrie won

the girls division at Doublegate in Albanyby five shots with scores of 76-74—150.The tournament was the first on the SJGT’s2015-16 schedule.

Barrett was the boys 12-13 winner by awhopping 23 strokes, shooting 74-68—142. Joseph Kim of Martinez was 2nd at145 in 16-19, one behind the winner, withBill Sharpe of Albany 3rd at 147. Ben Carrwas 2nd in 14-15 at 151, two back of thewinner.

In a SJGT event at the Furman Universitycourse in Greenville, S.C., Will Kahlstorf ofAthens was the boys winner by two withscores of 73-69—142. Sutliff was 1st in 14-15 at 74-69—143, with Brendan Patton ofAlpharetta 2nd at 145. Alison Crenshaw ofSuwanee was 2nd among the girls at 151.

Perkins, Pyon takeHurricane titlesLogan Perkins of Locust Grove and CarolPyon of Macon won Hurricane Junior GolfTour titles last month at Heron Bay, one ofthree Georgia courses to host events on thetour in August.

Perkins shot 70-66—136 to win the boysdivision by three over Dacula’s PeterChung. David Bartels of Peachtree Citywas 3rd at 141. Brandon Cho of Suwaneeshot 146 to win the 13-14 age group by twoover Jason Quinlan of Cumming, withAndrew Garger of Sharpsburg the 11-12winner at 148.

Pyon shot 70-69—139 to finish 1st by 10shots among the girls. Liza Eubanks ofPeachtree City shot 156 to win the 11-14division by five over Macon’s Eujin Pyon.

At Flat Creek, Peachtree City’s DanielFienemann shot 69-70—139 to take 1stamong the boys, two ahead of Perkins.Liam Shinn of Norcross turned in the low

boys score, winning the 13-14 age groupwith scores of 68-70—138. Beck Burnetteof Blairsville was 2nd at 144. Carol Pyonwas 2nd in the girls division at 152, withThienna Huynh of Lilburn winning aplayoff over Eubanks in 11-14 after bothfinished at 158. Ryan Hines of Woodstock shot 71-71—

142 at Forest Hills in Augusta to take theboys division by seven over Augusta’sMichael Stallings and Newnan’s CarsonWhitten. Greg Smith of LaFayette won the13-14 division by 13 at 76-71—147.Kendall Smith of Martinez was the girls 11-14 by 16 at 78-74—152, with Woodstock’sTyler Dawson 2nd in 15-18 at 159.

Grenville-Wood 2ndat Norman AcademyJoshua Grenville-Wood of Peachtree Citywas 2nd in the American Junior GolfAssociation’s Greg Norman ChampionsGolf Academy Championship at theBarefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.He shot 1-over 214 to finish one behind thewinner, sharing the first round lead with a68, matching the low score of the tourna-ment. Seong Lee of Leesburg was 9th at 218,

closing with a 69. Tying for 12th at 222 wereDougan Annan of Avondale Estates, JakeLawson of Atlanta and Jacob Bayer ofLawrenceville. Leiko Niwano of Duluthtied for 7th in the girls division at 227, withLouise Yu of Duluth 9th at 230.

In other AJGA tournaments last month: Sam Barrett shot 2-under 214 in Rogers,Ark., to tie for 3rd, with St. Simons’ ThomasHogan 5th at 215 after a final round 67.Tommy Su of Johns Creek tied for 9th inCentreville, Va., and Luke Schniederjans ofPowder Springs was 8th in Kannapolis, N.C.,with a 1-under 209 total, closing with a 67.Luka Karaulic of Dacula tied for 13th at212. Anna Buchanan of Athens tied for 5th

in Shreveport, La., at 227, with Marietta’sElizabeth Reedy T8 in Powhatan, Va., at234.


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Across1. The Tour Championship sponsor, 2 words5. The Tour Championship is thefinale of this Cup’s Playoffs9. Is the most strokes under par, or fewest strokes over par10. Winner of the Tour Championshipin 200711. Edge of the cup13. Participate in a golf tournament14. The PLAYERS Championshipwinner in 201516. Initials of the winner of thePLAYERS Championship in 201217. Number of strokes an eagle isunder par18. First name of The TourChampionship winner in 200919. Former Tour Championshipwinner, Tom ____23. Winner of the 2013 PGAChampionship, _____ Dufner

25. Most successful Ryder Cup captain, ____ Jacklin26. Canadian golf Hall of Famer who won The PLAYERSChampionship in 2006, Stephen ___28. This hole is a par 5 at East Lake GC31. Fails to be32. First name of the FedEx cupwinner in 200834. Tied35. Signal36. Medical show37. East Lake GC’s signature hole39. At the Masters, it’s the CarolinaCherry hole43. Lie in a sheltered spot45. Payne ____ Award, presented tothe current or former PGA Tour playerwho exemplifies professionalism,integrity and commitment to public citizenship46. Spanish for “two”47. Drain of energy

Down1. Name of the sterling silver commemorative putter given by East Lake Golf Club to the winner of The Tour Championship, 2 words2. Golf club where The TourChampionship was held in 20033. One of the top Central Americangolf courses is at the Fairmont Hotel in _____ Rica4. Rules6. Atlanta golf course hosting the TourChampionship, 2 words7. Use of the wrong club, for example8. The PGA’s ____ has a golfer on it12. The Tour Championship winner in2001, ____ Weir15. Bobby Jones’ original putter has a____ degree lie, 2 words16. State that is the home of BelgradeLakes golf course, abbr.18. Golfer’s target20. First name of the 1987 TourChampionship winner

21. ____ victory from the jaws ofdefeat!22. Jordan Spieth won this sportsaward for best male golfer in 201524. British ____ tournament27. Overall term describing golf tournaments29. “____ bought a new putter”30. Great golfers control their ___ in tough situations33. East Lake is the home course ofthis legendary golfer37. Viewed from Pebble Beach Golf Course38. The Honors Course in Ooltewah is a top golf course in this state40. Chicago locale41. It’s turned during every swing42. ____ Open Championship44. For this reason

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September 2015 FORE Georgia Magazine

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