March 2015 FORE Georgia Magazine

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MARCH 2014

Masters PREVIEW ISSUE

Cuscowilla among state’s very best

By Mike Blum

Superb design earns national status

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t’s no secret to those who play golf throughout the state that Georgia’s best collection of courses in a condensed area is found on and around Lake Oconee.

State and national lists ranking Georgia’s best courses always include a handful from Lake Oconee, with the Golf Club at Cuscowilla always one of those in a very prominent position.

Cuscowilla’s name is well known to those within the golf industry and to those who enjoy searching out as many of the top-ranked courses in the various listings as they can. But for golfers not as attuned to the inner workings of the industry, Cuscowilla is just another course of indeterminate location and quality.

The Golf Club at Cuscowilla opened in 1997, and immediately was considered one of the jewels of the expanding wealth of courses in the Lake Oconee area. Cuscowilla was designed by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, whose work over the past 25 years includes two legendary resort-oriented

Par-3 11th hole, Golf Club at Cuscowilla

facilities – Sand Dunes in Nebraska and Bandon Trails in Oregon, as well as the acclaimed Plantation course at Kapalua, site of the annual PGA Tour Tournament of Champions.

Cuscowilla has been a staple of national top 100 lists almost from the minute it opened, and has consistently ranked as the best of the outstanding courses on Lake Oconee.

Coore recently visited the course for the first time in quite a while, and came away duly impressed with the work he and Crenshaw did two decades ago, despite the decidedly un-golf-like weather that hit the state earlier this year.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it in a while, and they’ve done a really good job here keeping it up,” Coore said. “They’ve

maintained the contours and tied them in around the edges and created some expanse to grow with tee modifications.

All I can say is well done.”

Cuscowilla is a residential private club that also offers non-resident memberships, along with various stay and play packages utilizing cottages and villas on the property. It is the closest of the Lake Oconee courses to Atlanta, located on the southern tip of the lake in Putnam County.

Jarrod Clark, the Director of Golf at Cuscowilla for more than a dozen years, says a sizeable percentage of the club’s membership is from the Atlanta area, with many of them settling along Lake Oconee and others selecting Cuscowilla as their second club.

“We have a great golf atmosphere here and an active membership,” Clark said.

The active aspect of the membership also applies to the predilection for walking, with Clark pointing out that some 55 percent of the rounds at Cuscowilla are played on foot. [ See Cuscowilla, page 6 ]

MASTERS Crossword Puzzle Page 30

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MARCH 2015

2015 MARCH

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Instruction Fore You

Play like a Pro

By Jeff Frasier

PGA Director of Instruction, Chicopee Woods Having the talent and skills to play like the Professionals on television is a dream for most of us, but in reality… we can learn to play like a Pro every time we tee it up.

Golf can take many years of practice and on course experience; learning to play the game the way you would like to play the game. However, golf is a game of enjoyment and creative possibilities that you can experience with your playing partners.

Don’t worry so much about the swing mechanics, club positions or score; learn to focus on the basics.

Playing golf with the right attitude and mindset can enhance your experience on the course right away and immediately create a playing style that will improve your game. Want to take control of your game, follow these simple suggestions to play like a Pro!

1. Learn the basic lingo and rules of golf.

Learning the proper terminology can make you sound like a great player. Watching golf on the television, reading books and magazines or spending time searching “golf” on the internet are great tools to help you improve your demeanor on the course. Buy a rules book and just learn how to use it, you don’t need to learn all the rules.

2. Play the right equipment.

Forecast

Clubs are an important part of how you will play the game. Having a set of clubs that are

3. Play from the right set of tee markers.

Courses are getting longer, greens are getting faster and rough is getting thicker, make sure you are playing the right tees.

Learn to play from a set of tees that are challenging, but not too difficult. Improve your game from a manageable distance and enjoy it.

4. Follow course rules and regulations while you play.

Conditions often change and courses want you do enjoy your round. Follow the cart path rules, fill your divots, rake the bunkers, fix ball marks and keep up with the group in front of you while playing.

5. Learn different shots.

There are many different shots available to you and knowing when to use them will enhance your playability on the course.

Know when to use the shots that will help you manage risk and improve the outcome.

6. Know your yardages for each club.

Getting to know the distance that you hit each

FEATURES:

GSGA preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Masters champ Bubba Watson. . . . 8

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

Georgians in Masters . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Web.com Tour preview . . . . . . . . . 26

Love for Ryder Cup. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Golf in Augusta . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 22 Georgia & Champions Tour. . . . . . 18 Georgia PGA preview. . . . . . . . . . . 20 FOREGEORGIA.COM

club is a critical part of the game. Improve your results by simply knowing what these distances are with your natural swing.

7. Create a consistent setup and routine.

Give yourself a great opportunity to repeat your swing every time you set up behind the ball. Focus on ball position, grip, stance, posture and alignment to make sure the swing has a chance to be repeatable. Make a couple practice swings to make sure the setup feels right. Step into the ball and swing. Develop a routine to make you consistent and more confident in your swing.

8. Play, play, play! Get out and just play golf.

The experience you gain from playing golf will help you develop better skills and habits. Watch your playing partners and learn from how they play the game.

9. Short game fundamentals.

Learn the basic fundamentals of the different shots that are used around the green. Chipping is a low shot used from around the green that gives you more control. Pitching is a higher shot used to carry more distance over uneven terrain. Take the risk out of your short game, focus on executing the shots that you are comfortable hitting.

10. Learn to control putt speed.

It takes time to develop a great putting stroke. Improving the mechanics of Aim, Path and Face Angle are very important.

However, learn to control the speed of your putts and you can eliminate your 3 putts on the course.

Implementing these simple suggestions can improve your game and certainly help you play like a pro.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Woods, Mickelson era . . . . . . . . . . 12

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properly fitted to you will provide you with the best results. Clubs are fitted to a player based on body style and multiple specifications of your swing. If you are playing a set of clubs that do not have the correct specs, you will have a difficult time controlling distance and direction. Have your clubs checked by a local PGA Professional who will use your natural swing to evaluate club speed, ball speed, spin rate and ball flight to calculate clubs specifications geared towards your swing.

P R E S E N T E D BY

DEPARTMENTS: Fashion FORE You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 College update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Golf FORE Juniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Masters crossword puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

You can reach Jeff Frasier at 706-255-3421, or visit his web site at www.frasiergolf.com.

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Central Chapter President Winston Trively, PGA / wtrively@yahoo.com East Chapter President Brandon Youmans / brandonyoumans@pga.com North Chapter President Shawn Koch, PGA / prokoch@pga.com AT - L A R G E D I R E C T O R S

Billy Jack, PGA / bjack@stivescountryclub.org Chad O’Dell, PGA / codell@dhgc.org Bob Stevenson, PGA / rstevenson@troongolf.com Darin Stinson, PGA / dstinson@pga.com Brandon Stooksbury, PGA / bjstook@pga.com Mark Lammi, PGA / mal9599@msn.com Nicole Weller, PGA / nicole.weller@landingsclub.com SENIOR DIVISION

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2015 MARCH

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Cuscowilla’s par-3 third hole

[ Continued from the cover ]

STEVE DINBERG

Cuscowilla

That enables the membership and resort guests to appreciate even more the quality and subtleties of the CooreCrenshaw design and the inherent beauty of the piece of property they had to work with.

Clark says the primary appeal of Cuscowilla “is the uniqueness of the greens complexes and the variety of holes.”

When Coore and Crenshaw were creating Cuscowilla, Coore says the pair “took the natural elements” and went from there.

“We knew part of the course would be open, part through the trees, some holes by the lake and some with ponds. We put together a sequence of holes that we thought would be really interesting and fun to play.

“We’ve got some long par 4s, one or two short par 4s, a long 3, a short 3 and two interesting 5s.”

Along with the variety of holes, Cuscowilla is an eminently playable layout, with reasonable slope/rating numbers for a course of its caliber.

Because it plays to a par 70 with just two par 5s, the total yardage is a bit deceptive – 6,730 yards from the black tees.

The burgundy tees measure 6,312 and the green (senior) tees are 5,717.

Cuscowilla is rated at 72.7/133 from the back tees, 70.5/128 from the middle and 67.7/121 from the senior tees, with the course playing 5,183 yards to a par of 72 from the forward tees.

Off the tee, Cuscowilla is relatively open, but there are several holes where the tree lines are extremely narrow and keeping your tee shot between them is a real accomplishment. The generally thin tree lines typically allow for recovery attempts, but there are several native 6

FOREGEORGIA.COM

areas along the way that won’t be as kind to errant shots.

When Cuscowilla opened, one of its most distinctive features was its ragged, Scottish-style bunkering, which gave the course a unique look, but also presented the possibility of a near impossible shot if your ball barely rolled into one. The years have softened the bunkers to the degree that they are no longer as striking visually or as menacing from a playing standpoint, but they still pose a serious concern to those who may attempt to take a more direct line toward the green, challenging them from the tee.

“With the fairway bunkers, we created some angles and lines of play that gives different players a chance to show off their skills and have the thrill of hitting over them,” Coore explained.

Even with two par 4s that top out right at 300 yards and offer some “risk/reward” elements, Clark points out that Cuscowilla is more of a “second shot” course, with the intriguing nature of the greens complexes accounting for much of the challenge.

Cuscowilla converted its putting surfaces from bent grass to Champions Bermuda one year ago, and the change has enhanced the quality of the course, while keeping the greens complexes as a major aspect of the course’s defense.

The greens at Cuscowilla have ample amounts of slope, with a number of them falling off around the edges and several featuring false fronts. The ridges that impact many of the greens can make for some touchy pin positions for both approach and short game shots, with most of the greens modestly guarded by sand, allowing for run up shots.

Cuscowilla begins with a relatively open and tame par 4 with staggered fairway bunkers along the left side and a severely sloping green that will test your

putting touch right off the bat.

The remainder of par 4s on the outgoing nine includes a scenic hole beginning with an angled tee shot over a pond (4); the first of two 300-yarders with a sprawling waste bunker bisecting the fairway (5); a very narrow hole with trees just short of the putting surface strong influencing approach shots depending on the angle 7) and two of significant length (6 and 9), with the ninth essentially a par 5 except for those long enough to catch the speed slot on the slightly downhill, dogleg right.

Both par 3s are strong holes, with the mid-length third sporting water not far off the left side of the putting surface, with a long bunker running the length of the green to the right. The long eighth (225) plays downhill, and you can bounce it onto the sizeable green, which is guarded by sand on the right.

The lone par 5 on the nine (2) is not long, but requires some accuracy to find the fairway and also to avoid bunkers in the lay-up area.

The back nine begins with a tee shot that has to clear a finger of the lake, with the angle of the shot enabling you to determine how much of the water you want to take on. The short par-3 11th plays along the lake, but the minimal yardage makes the water less a concern than a ridge through the green that will send tee shots in different directions

depending on where your tee shot lands.

The 12th is the second of the 300yard par 4s, with trees tight to both sides and a small, undulating green that is tough to hit and hold.

There isn’t much in the way of scoring opportunities after the 12th, starting with the long, straight and narrow 13th, one of four par 4s that are longer than 450 from the tips. The par3 16th isn’t much for length (162), but has one of several greens on the closing stretch with plenty of movement will result in some birdie putts that will challenge both your green reading skill and putting stroke.

Coore and Crenshaw had only two cracks at creating an “interesting” par 5, and they certainly succeeded with the 14th, which measures 614 yards from the back tees and 590 from the next set, in addition to playing significantly uphill for the third shot. The hole begins with a tee shot over a sliver of the lake, followed by a second that has to deal with cross bunkers that will leave a blind third shot of almost 200 yards if you can’t clear them. The hidden green is tucked away in a corner, with most pin positions protected by a yawning front bunker.

Another tee shot over water is among the aspects of the 15th, but the larger concern is a green with all sorts of movement. The tee shot at the 17th has to avoid a huge bunker at the corner of the dogleg left, with another sharply sloping green mostly surrounded by sand.

Cuscowilla concludes with a par 4 that is just plain long (474) and a little uphill, with bunkers guarding an ample putting surface short and right.

Course conditions are consistently first rate, the overall atmosphere is very golf-centric and the end result is one of the most enjoyable experiences you’ll encounter on a golf course.

For information, visit Cuscowilla’s website at www.cuscowilla.com or call 706-484-0050.

MARCH 2014

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MASTERS 2015

From humble origins to Masters champion (twice) Watson takes unique route to reach elite status

By Mike Blum

U

nlike many of the other players near the top of the World Golf Rankings, Bubba Watson was not a world class player almost from the moment he turned professional.

Watson’s college career started in an unusual place for someone who has won two of the last three Masters – Faulkner State Community College in Alabama.

He joined the golf team at Georgia in the Fall of 1999, several months after the Bulldogs won a national championship, and enjoyed a successful junior season, making honorable mention All-America.

But Watson spent his entire senior season on the sidelines, with the exception of the annual Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, where he competed as an individual after winning the tournament title the year before.

Watson qualified for what was then the Nationwide Tour in his second attempt and spent three seasons honing his game, narrowly earning his PGA Tour card with an assist from Jason Gore. Watson finished 21st on the money list in 2005, with the top 20 moving up to the PGA Tour in ‘06. Gore received PGA Tour status when he won his third tournament in ‘05, opening a spot for Watson.

In his PGA Tour debut at the age of 27, Watson placed 4th in the Hawaiian Open, and tied for 3rd in Tucson. He enjoyed a solid rookie year, easily retaining his tour card, and followed with three more excellent seasons, with the lone stain on his record the lack of a victory.

After placing 2nd for the fourth time on the PGA Tour in 2010, Watson collected his first title later that year in Hartford, and almost added a major shortly after that, losing in a playoff to Martin Kaymer in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

Winless as a professional at the age of 31, Watson now has seven victories, including two of the last three Masters, a World Golf Championship and the Los Angeles Open, one of the most highly prized titles among PGA Tour events.

Watson has risen to second in the

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World Golf Rankings and currently holds the distinction as the highest ranked American player. He will defend his Masters title next month and is looking to be the first player to take home a green jacket three times in four years since Jack Nicklaus in 1966.

“It’s overwhelming to win twice, to be with the great names (that have done that),” Watson said after his victory last year. “Small-town guy named Bubba now has two green jackets. It’s pretty wild.”

Watson’s win last year occurred in a different manner than his playoff triumph over Louis Oosthuizen in 2012, when he hit one of the most spectacular shots in tournament history to extricate himself from deep in the trees right of the 10th fairway.

Both wins, however, did require comebacks. He trailed by three shots after 54 holes in 2012 and was four back early in the final round after Oosthuizen’s double eagle on the second hole. He still trailed Oosthuizen by two after a bogey at the 12th, but birdied the next four holes to earn his spot in the playoff, with both players posting 10-under 278 totals for 72 holes. Watson closed with a 68, giving him four straight rounds under par (69-71-70-68).

After trailing by two or three shots at

STEVE DINBERG

Bubba Watson

the end of each round in 2012, Watson led by three after 36 holes last year thanks a run of five straight birdies on the back nine Friday beginning at the 12th. He increased his lead with an eagle on the second hole, but five bogeys led to a 74 and he fell back into a tie with 20year-old Jordan Spieth going to the final round.

The two engaged in a riveting duel on the front nine, with something happening on just about every hole. Spieth quickly moved ahead by two when he birdied the second and Watson bogeyed the third after attempting to drive the green.

Spieth holed a bunker shot for birdie on the fourth but Watson matched him with the first of his four birdies in a 6hole stretch. Spieth’s bogey at the fifth reduced his lead to one, but he hit it stiff for birdie at the sixth, again forcing Watson to make a putt to tie him on the hole.

When Spieth collected his fourth birdie on the opening nine at the seventh, his lead was back to two. But when the two players walked to the 10th tee, Watson’s 2-stroke deficit had been transformed into a 2-shot lead.

Spieth three-putted the eighth for bogey after coming up short with his pitch shot, while Watson got up-and-

down for birdie after hitting his second over the green. Spieth also bogeyed the ninth when his approach failed to clear the green’s false front, and Watson birdied after a precise second and a short but ticklish putt.

“Eight and nine were really the turning point where the momentum kind of went my way,” Watson said.

Watson gave Spieth an opening with a bogey on the 10th after an errant approach, but Spieth failed to capitalize on a birdie opportunity at 11 and had to scramble for bogey at 12 when his tee shot came up short and rolled back into Rae’s Creek.

Leading Spieth and Jonas Blixt, like Spieth a Masters rookie, by two with six holes to play, Watson gave fans of “Bubba golf” what they came to see on Augusta National’s two par-5s on the back nine.

Watson launched his tee shot on the 13th over the trees along Rae’s Creek, but missed his line and clipped a branch on the way down, with his ball winding up in perfect position in the fairway.

“Well, I’m not very smart, but I can tell it hit some trees, because I mean, that’s not the line I really wanted to go on,” Watson said. “I’ve hit it there a few times and I’ve hit wedge to that hole.

Today I hit sand wedge in there.”

Watson birdied the hole to expand his lead to three shots, and all three contenders parred in from there. Watson considered attempting a heroic shot through the trees in the fairway at 15, but elected to cut his second shot around the trees and wound up making par. He shot 69 on the day for an 8-under 280 total and a 3-stroke margin of victory, shooting in the 60s three times in the tournament.

After his second Masters title, Watson was asked if felt like it validated him as an elite player.

“No. No. Again, I just got lucky enough to have two green jackets. I’m just trying to keep my tour card every year, and if people say that I’m a good player, that’s great. But I’m not trying to play golf for a living. I’m not trying to play golf for everybody to tell me how great I am.

“I play golf because I love it. The game has brought me everything that I’ve ever owned in my life.”

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MASTERS 2015

4 Georgians making first starts in Masters Todd, Harman among ‘rookie’ contingent

Brendon Todd

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Brian Harman

AL KOOISTRA

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or the second straight year, four golfers with Georgia ties will make their Masters debuts .

The foursome will join seven other Georgians in the Masters field this April, with the possibility that the number could reach 12 by the time the game’s best players arrive in Augusta.

Georgia’s 2015 “rookie” contingent in the Masters consists of three former Georgia Bulldogs and one ex-Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket, with two of the UGA golfers residing in the state, one of whom is among four Georgia natives in the field.

At least six former members of the Georgia golf team will tee it up in the 2015 Masters, seven if you count Patrick Reed and his short but tempestuous stay in Athens before he transferred to Augusta State and led the Jaguars to back-to-back NCAA championships.

Harris English nearly made it seven Bulldogs in the field when he lost in a playoff last month in San Diego, but his close call moved him up to 55th in the World Golf Rankings, and another strong effort or two before the Masters would lift him into the top 50 and a late invitation to compete in Augusta for a second straight year.

English was one of four Georgia rookies in the 2014 Masters, joining Reed, fellow ex-Bulldog Chris Kirk and former Georgia Tech golfer Roberto Castro. Reed and Kirk are back in the field this year, with Castro just trying to get into fields for PGA Tour events after falling from the top 30 in the FedExCup standings in 2013 to outside the top 125 last year.

This year’s Masters rookies include Savannah native Brian Harman, fellow ex-Bulldogs Brendon Todd and Erik Compton, and former Georgia Tech golfer Cameron Tringale.

Rounding out the Georgia contingent in the field are former Masters champions Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson and Larry Mize, recent Masters contender Matt Kuchar and Russell Henley, who began the recent string of Georgia Masters rookies in 2013.

Todd and Harman both earned their invitations to the 2015 Masters with victories on the PGA Tour last year. Todd won the Byron Nelscn Championship a month after last year’s Masters, shooting a final round 66 to defeat former Masters champion Mike Weir by two strokes.

The 29-year-old Todd, a 2007 UGA graduate, enjoyed an outstanding 2014 season, finishing the year 27th in the FedExCup standings to make his first appearance in the Tour Championship at East Lake.

Most of Todd’s success last year came in a 6-tournament stretch beginning with his victory in which he recorded five finishes of eighth or better. During that run, he finished 17th in the U.S. Open in his first appearance in a major, playing in the final twosome Saturday and shooting in the 60s three of the four rounds.

Todd, who has settled in Atlanta since graduating from Georgia, was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2005 NCAA championship team and is in his fifth season on the PGA Tour. He has two wins on the Web.com Tour, including a rain-shortSTEVE DINBERG

By Mike Blum

ened victory in the final Stadion Classic at UGA in 2013, which enabled him to make his full-time return to the PGA Tour last year.

So far this season, Todd’s best finish is a tie for eighth in the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

Harman is in his fourth season on the PGA Tour, and scored his first win last year in the John Deere Classic. He also shot 66 in the final round to hold off fellow St. Simons Island resident Johnson, who closed with a 64, by one stroke.

The victory earned Harman a spot in the British Open the following week as well as the PGA Championship the next month, and he turned in solid efforts in both events. Harman came close to qualifying for the 2014 Tour Championship, ending up 36th in the FedExCup standings, but is off to a relatively slow start in the 2014-15 season, with a pair of top 20s in Hawaii early this year his best finishes.

Harman, 28, was the No. 1 junior in the country prior to beginning his college career in Athens, and was a Georgia Amateur champion and U.S. Walker Cup team member before his freshman year at Georgia, making a second Walker Cup appearance four years later.

Compton played two years in Athens before turning pro in 2001, and spent most of his career playing primarily on what is now the Web.com Tour with an

occasional PGA Tour start on a sponsor’s exemption.

The 35-year-old Compton is a double heart transplant recipient, with the most recent procedure in 2008. Since then, Compton has established himself as more than just a medical marvel, winning a Web.com event in Mexico in 2011 to earn his PGA Tour card for the first time in 2012.

The highlight of his tour career was a tie for second in last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, one of his three top-5 finishes and his first ever start in a major. His best finish this season is a tie for 10th in the Humana Challenge.

Tringale, 27, went straight from his college career at Georgia Tech to the PGA Tour, making it through Q-school in his first attempt after graduating in 2009. Following a difficult rookie season, Tringale again turned in a strong showing at Q-school to regain his playing privileges, and has been a successful PGA Tour player since, placing 63, 90 and 79 in the FedExCup standings the next three years before his breakthrough season in 2013-14.

A pair of fourth place finishes got Tringale into the Playoffs, and he earned his spot at East Lake with a tie for second in the Barclays, ending the season 20th on the points list to earn his Masters invitation. Tringale has competed in the other three majors, making his profes[ See Georgians, page 14 ] MARCH 2015

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MASTERS 2015

Woods-Mickelson era in Augusta may be

By Mike Blum

J

udging by the recent results of golf’s two most prominent players over the past two decades, the Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson era seems to have come to an end.

Mickelson is coming off the least successful season of his career in 2014, and began 2015 with three nondescript efforts in tournaments he has won multiple times, missing the cut in the last two.

Woods suffered through an injuryplagued 2014, and when he returned to action early this year, his recurring back problems flared up again, forcing him to withdraw from his second start of 2015.

When healthy the week before, Woods sprayed his tee shots all over the lot in the Phoenix Open, and put on almost embarrassing chipping display, alternately skulling and chunking short game shots one after the other.

STEVE DINBERG

Tiger Woods

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His response was to take a break from the PGA Tour, which included skipping his hometown tournament (Honda Classic). He did not qualify for the WGC event at Doral and his return to the tour was uncertain.

There is always the chance one of the two will regain a semblance of past form and put a halt to the discussion about their era coming to an end, but Woods may be done before reaching his 40th birthday, and age and a suspect putter may finally be catching up with Mickelson, who turns 45 in June.

During their careers, Woods and Mickelson have made their biggest impact in Augusta, combining for seven Masters titles and 21 top-5 finishes.

From 1996-2013, at least one of the two finished in the top 10, and no Masters from 2000 on did not have one of their names (usually both) in a prominent position near the top of the leader board.

Until last year.

The 2014 Masters began without an injured Woods in the field, and Mickelson exited Friday afternoon after missing the cut, his first MC since 1997.

For almost two decades prior to last year, Woods and Mickelson were Augusta’s dominant figures, compiling surprisingly similar results over that span.

Upon closer examination, however, their Masters records have a few distinctions, and on the 20th anniversary of the first time one of the two made an impact in the tournament, here is a look back at their Masters histories to date.

Mickelson, by 5 ½ years the older of the two, made his Masters debut as an amateur in 1991, and made the cut in his first attempt after an opening 69. Woods also made the cut in his first Masters in 1995, matching par his first three rounds before closing with a 77.

That was also the year Mickelson made his first of many runs at victory in Augusta. He shared the lead after an opening 66 and began the final round just two shots back of Ben Crenshaw and Brian Henninger. Mickelson went double bogey-bogey on holes 6 and 7 and his hopes of a first green jacket were dashed. He shot 73 and tied for 7th, six behind Crenshaw, who

shot 68 the final day.

Mickelson again started fast the next year, firing a 65 on Thursday, a score he has never matched in 18 subsequent trips to Augusta. But Greg Norman stole the headlines that day with a record-tying 63, and Mickelson never really factored in the tournament, failing to break par in the next three rounds. He wound up third outright, just one shot behind runner-up Norman, who lost the most lopsided final round duel in Masters history to Nick Faldo, who closed with a flawless 67 to turn a 6-stroke deficit after 54 holes into a 5-shot victory.

That tournament effectively ended the European era in Augusta, which began in 1980 with the first of two victories by Seve Ballesteros. Faldo’s comeback victory in ‘96 was the 10th by a European player in 17 years, and Jose Maria Olazabal made it 11 for 20 in ‘99.

But that turned out to a last gasp for the Euros, who have not won in Augusta since. A new Masters era was launched two years earlier, when Woods stamped himself as the first serious challenger to Jack Nicklaus for the title of Best Golfer of All Time.

In the most dominant performance in Masters history, Woods shook off a 40 on his first nine Thursday, playing his final 63 holes in 22-under par. After a 30 on the back nine that afternoon, Woods shot 66-65-69 the next three days, with his 18-under 270 the lowest in tournament history, and his 12-troke margin of victory eclipsing the Nicklaus mark of nine, set in 1965 when he shot 271 to run away from the two other members of golf’s Big Three – Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

The next three years were quiet ones in Augusta for both Woods and Mickelson, who combined for four top 10s and never finished lower than 18th. Mickelson was within two after 54 holes in ‘98, but struggled on the back nine Sunday. He was on the fringes of contention going to the final round the next year, but played the first six holes in 4-over, more than offsetting six birdies the rest of the round. Woods shot 40 on the back nine that day to fall out of the top 10.

The next 10 years in the Masters were all about Woods and Mickelson, who won three times each and contended on an almost annual basis. It began in 2001

with the most dramatic head to head battle between the two, with soon-to-be British Open champion David Duval adding to the mix.

In one of the most exciting Masters final rounds that has seemingly faded from memory, the three staged an epic Sunday shootout that unfortunately fizzled at the end. Woods led Mickelson by one after 54 holes, with Duval three back in a tie for fifth. Duval made it a threeway battle when he birdied seven of the first 10 holes.

Duval birdied the 15th to tie Woods for the lead, but promptly bogeyed the 16th and missed birdie chances at 17 and 18. Mickelson, playing with Woods in the final group, also birdied 15 to get within one of the lead, as Woods missed a short birdie putt on the hole. But Mickelson also bogeyed the 16th and Woods wrapped up his second Masters title when he birdied the 18th for a 68 with six birdies to finish two ahead of Duval (67, eight birdies) and three in front of Mickelson (70, six birdies).

The next year had none of the final round fireworks. Woods began Sunday tied with Retief Goosen, with Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Mickelson and Olazabal all in contention. None of them shot lower than 71 and Woods went unchallenged, with the most memorable occurrences that day a triple bogey by Els on the 12th and a 9 on the 15th by Singh.

Mickelson placed third for a third straight year in 2003, shooting a final round 68 to finish two shots out of the Mike Weir-Len Mattiace playoff. Going for a three-peat, Woods was over par in three rounds and barely made the cut before shooting 66 Saturday.

Going to the fourth round in 2004, Mickelson shared the lead with Chris DiMarco, but was overtaken by Els, who eagled the 13th to move three ahead.

Mickelson proceeded to birdie five of the last seven holes, edging Els by a shot when he barely slipped his birdie try at the 18th into the hole. Woods shot a pair of 75s and was again no factor.

Woods collected his third Masters title in five years in ‘05, with DiMarco again a major part of the Sunday drama. He was in control of the tournament until Woods ran off seven birdies in a row in the third round, part of a 30-hole stretch MARCH 2015

over after 20 years of riveting highlights in which he was 15-under. With DiMarco shooting 41 on the back nine early Sunday morning to compete the third round, Woods was three ahead with 18 holes to play, but was fortunate to make it into a playoff after being decisively outplayed by DiMarco in the final round.

Leading by two with two holes to play after his Verne Lundquist-immortalized chip-in birdie at the 16th, Woods hacked his way to bogeys on the final two holes before three perfect shots on the 18th produced a playoff birdie and his fourth (and likely final) green jacket.

Mickelson won for the second time in three years in ‘06 in decidedly un-Phillike fashion. After trailing by four shots after 36 holes, he took the 54-hole lead after a 70 in tough weather conditions, and closed with a mistake-free final round 69, with his only bogey of the day at the 18th reducing his victory margin from three to two.

The 2007 Masters is remembered for being played under the most difficult conditions in Augusta in decades, with Zach Johnson winning with a 1-over 289 total. Mickelson was no factor and tied for 24th, but Woods let an excellent chance for a fifth green jacket get away.

He was handed the lead early in the final round, but apart from an eagle on 13 did nothing all day and lost by two to Johnson, who shot 69 with six birdies, four on par 5s after layups up on all four.

Woods again finished second in ‘08, but was never within striking distance, as Trevor Immelman was in complete control the final two days and won by three. Mickelson contended for 36 holes before a 75 on Saturday and tied for 5th.

Although Mickelson and Woods finished 5th and 6th in ‘09, what they did on Sunday is remembered as vividly by those who witnessed the final round as the events that led to a three-way playoff between Angel Cabrera, Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.

Mickelson and Woods began the final round seven shots off the lead and were paired together about an hour in front of the leaders. Mickelson birdied six of the first eight holes to close within one shot of the lead, but his hopes ended when he double-bogeyed the 12th. He tried to rally with birdies at 13 and 15, but missed a short eagle putt at the 15th and 2015 MARCH

Phil Mickelson

another for birdie at the 17th, and ended his day with a bogey, turning a possible 62 into a 67 and a fifth place finish, three out of the playoff.

Woods overpowered the par 5s with three birdies and an eagle, and after a birdie at the 16th was within striking distance of the leaders. But he closed with consecutive bogeys and wound up four shots back in a tie for 6th.

Just two months before his 40th birthday, Mickelson had one more burst of Augusta heroics left in him in 2010.

He outdueled Lee Westwood on the back nine Sunday, carding four birdies on the final seven holes for a final round 67 and a 3-stroke victory. He also provided one of the greatest stretches of golf in tournament history on Saturday, when he eagled the 13th, holed out for eagle on the 14th and lipped out his eagle pitch after having to lay up on the 15th.

Woods hung close to the lead from start to finish, but 10 bogeys Saturday and Sunday offset 17 birdies and four eagles, one coming on the 7th hole Sunday, and he tied for 4th, five behind Mickelson.

The 2011 Masters featured one of the

wilder final round shootouts in Augusta, and Woods was one of the main participants. But after a sizzling 31 on the opening nine, including a birdie-birdieeagle stretch on 6, 7 and 8, his charge fizzled and he settled for even par with just one birdie on the back nine and tied for 4th, four behind Charl Schwartzel, who closed with four consecutive birdies.

Mickelson made a meek defense of his title and tied for 27th.

It was Woods’ turn to struggle in 2012, and he finished 40th, his worst showing as a pro in Augusta, while Mickelson made what may have been a last-gasp effort to match Tiger with four green jackets.

Two disastrous triple bogeys, one on the 10th hole Thursday the other on the 6th Sunday, marred an otherwise superb tournament for Mickelson, who made just two bogeys over his final 54 holes and shot 68-66 Friday and Saturday with a 30 on the back nine in the third round to close within one of the lead. He tried to rally after the triple on Sunday, playing the final 14 holes in 3-under without a bogey, but settled for a tie for 3rd, two shots out of the playoff.

Woods took himself out of contention with a triple of his own in 2013. An 8 on the 15th Friday led to a 40 on the back nine and a 73 after a strong showing to that point. He never got back into serious contention, finishing 4th, four out of the Adam Scott-Cabrera playoff after a mild Sunday surge.

Mickelson has had two of his three worst Masters showings the last two years, missing the cut in 2014, with Woods sitting out with one of his many recent injuries.

Although their overall Masters records are nearly identical, there are a few distinctions between the two during their careers in Augusta.

Woods has never pulled off a comefrom-behind win in the Masters, nor has he managed any late heroics to pull out a victory, with his playoff victory necessitated by two ugly bogeys that cost him a 2-shot lead with two holes to play.

Two of Mickelson’s three Masters victories featured spectacular Sunday back nines to take down two of the game’s best players, beginning with his 72nd hole birdie to break a tie with Els. Both have had several opportunities to add to their victory totals, but can count only one Masters each they probably should have won but didn’t.

Whether either gets another serious chance to take home another green jacket is not looking promising at this time, but Mickelson almost won the last major played after a forgettable 2014 season. As for Tiger, his last major championship was the 2008 U.S. Open when he was 32, younger than when Mickelson won his first major.

Visit ForeGeorgia.com in April for a late Masters preview and a complete report on the tournament.

FOREGEORGIA.COM

13

Georgians in Masters [ Continued from page 10 ]

Georgia in 2007.

Matt Kuchar Kirk’s highest profile victory came last year in Boston in a Playoffs event, and he finished the season second on the points list after tying for fourth at East Lake, one of five top-4 finishes in the 2013-14 season. A tie for fourth in the 2014 McGladrey Classic is his best finish so far this season.

Reed has emerged as one of the best of the PGA Tour’s sizeable group of star players in their early and mid20s, winning four times since his rookie season in 2013. His victories include the WGC event at Doral last year and the Tournament of Champions this season.

The 24-year-old Reed started his college career at UGA, but encountered various problems on and off the course, and transferred to Augusta State after between him and his freshman season. He led the Jaguars his teammates at both schools. to NCAA titles in 2010 and ‘11, scoring In his brief pro career, Reed has already the clinching victory in the title match competed in all four majors, with a tie for against the Bulldogs in 2011.

35th in last year’s U.S. Open his best Reed’s exceptional college career has finish. He missed the cut in the 2014 been overshadowed by recent revelations Masters, shooting 79 on Friday after of his conduct in both Athens and opening with a 73.

Augusta, and the strained relations Henley will be playing in his third straight Masters, making his Augusta debut in 2013 after winning his first start as a PGA Tour member earlier that year in the Hawaiian Open. Henley added a second victory last year in the Honda Classic, winning a four-man playoff that included Rory McIlroy. He finished the season 19th on the FedExCup points list to earn a spot in the Home of the Tour Championship field as well as a third Masters invite.

Callaway Club Fitting Studio After closing out the 2014 season with Featuring the Swing Model a tie for second behind Kirk in the Playoffs event in Boston, Henley already LEARNING AND FITTING WITH THE NEWEST has finishes of fourth in the McGladrey AND BEST IN TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY Classic and third in the Tournament of Champions on the 2014-15 schedule.

Now Open to All Golfers Henley, who will turn 26 on Masters Sunday, is a Macon native and won the (Beginners, Juniors, Women, Men and Professionals) Georgia Amateur in consecutive years For more information come by or call Tim Crandall Or while he was a member of the Georgia golf team. During his outstanding career Michael Parrott at 770.992.9230 to schedule an appointment. with the Bulldogs, Henley also won the Web.com Tour Stadion Classic at UGA as an amateur, and captured a pair of Web.com titles as a pro rookie to quickly move up to the PGA Tour.

After missing the cut in his first Masters in 2013, Henley tied for 31st last year, falling back on the weekend after being 1-under after 36 holes.

Watson did not have a college career 770.402.0011 | B Brookfieldcountryclub.com rookfieldcountryclub c .com in Athens comparable to that of Kirk, 100 W Willow illow Run Run Road, Road, Rosw Roswell, Roswell, GA 30075 30075 Todd, Henley and English, but has done

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STEVE DINBERG

sional debut in the 2009 U.S. Open shortly after graduating from Georgia Tech.

In his first seven starts of the 2014-15 season, Tringale had three top-30 finishes and three missed cuts, but teamed up with Jason Day to win the unofficial Shark Shootout in December.

Kirk and Reed return to Augusta after their 2014 debuts. Kirk tied for 20th last year, closing with three straight rounds of par or better, and tied for 19th later in the year in his first appearance in the British Open.

It took Kirk a few years to make it to the PGA Tour after a stellar college career in Athens. He enjoyed an exceptional season in his third year on the Web.com Tour in 2010, and placed between 34th and 49th on the FedExCup points list in his first three seasons on the PGA Tour, winning as a rookie in Mississippi in 2011.

Kirk, who turns 30 a month after the Masters, collected his second victory in the 2013 McGladrey Classic at Sea Island Golf Club, shortly after returning to the Atlanta area to live after residing on St. Simons Island since graduating from

pretty well for himself as a professional, winning seven tournaments since 2010 after four winless seasons to start his PGA Tour career.

Two of his victories have come in the 2012 and ‘14 Masters, and he also has a tie for fifth in the 2007 U.S. Open and a playoff loss in the 2010 PGA Championship. Overall, however, his major championship record is spotty, with Watson closing the 2011 and ‘13 Masters with final rounds of 78 and 77 to drop well down the leader board.

After winning a WGC event in China to close out 2014, Watson has played a light 2015 schedule, tying for 10th in the Tournament of Champions and for second in last month’s Phoenix Open, finishing one shot out of a playoff after a final round 65.

Johnson won the 2007 Masters in difficult conditions, but has not placed better than 20th in Augusta since, missing the cut three times since ‘09, including last year. Johnson, who moved to St. Simons after his Masters victory, has 11 career PGA Tour titles since winning the BellSouth Classic as a rookie in 2004, and has qualified for the Tour Championship six of eight times since the FedExCup Playoffs began in 2008.

In his four starts of 2015, Johnson recorded top-10 finishes in the Tournament of Champions and Phoenix Open.

Mize remains competitive in the Masters in the his mid-50s, making the cut last year for the first time since 2009 after three near misses the previous four years. Mize, an Augusta native and long time Columbus resident, is two years away from celebrating the 30th anniversary of his memorable 1987 playoff victory over Greg Norman.

Kuchar will be among the favorites in the Masters after placing fifth, eighth and third at Augusta National the last three years. His best chance of winning came in 2012, when he played holes 12 through 15 in 4-under on Sunday, but bogeyed the 16th and wound up two shots out of the playoff won by Watson.

Since 2010, Kuchar has been arguably the most consistently successful player on the PGA Tour, placing in the top 10 of the FedExCup standings four times and 18th the other year. He has five of his seven PGA Tour wins during that span and has averaged just under 10 top-10 finishes per season. Kuchar played his college golf at Georgia Tech and is part of the large contingent of PGA Tour players living on St. Simons Island.

MARCH 2015

Love to return in 2016 as Ryder Cup captain

By Mike Blum

F

or much of its history, the Ryder Cup was a low-profile event dominated by the American team. From 1935-83, the U.S. won 20 of 21 matches and at that point led 22-3 in the competition, which began in 1927.

Adding Europe to the GBI team in 1979 had little impact initially, as the U.S. went 3-0 after the addition of Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer to the event.

Europe won the next three Ryder Cups and has dominated the competition over the past three decades, winning 11 of the last 15 and eight of the last 10.

After a particularly difficult loss on home turf in 2012, the PGA of America altered its approach to selecting captains and brought back Tom Watson, the only American captain to win in Europe since 1981.

Watson was the captain of the 1993 team that won at the Belfry, and the hope was some of the magic from his five British Open victories and Ryder Cup success in the U.K. would rub off on his players. It did not and the result of the 2014 Ryder Cup was not pretty, with Watson proving in retrospect to be an out-of-touch captain whose decision making was left wide open for second guessing.

The U.S. lost decisively and the postmatch press conference centered around a critique of the entire American Ryder Cup process, led by Phil Mickelson.

The PGA created a seemingly unwieldy task force to attempt to remedy the situation, and the result was the selection of the person who served as captain immediately prior to Watson’s return.

St. Simons Island resident Davis Love, the captain of the 2012 loss at Medinah, will return for the 2016 matches at Hazeltine, with a slightly revised process for determining the 12 players who will make up the American team.

Love will be only the second American captain to get a second chance after losing in his first stint as captain. Jack Burke, Jr., who captained the only U.S. defeat in an almost 50-year span in 1957, was given a mulligan in 1973 and was able to even his record.

The PGA hopes Love can match 2015 MARCH

Burke’s effort, and his selection recently was greeted positively by every potential player and former captain who spoke about it publicly.

Love was given excellent marks for his work as captain in 2012, with the U.S. building a 10-4 lead late in the team matches before the Euros staged a Saturday afternoon rally to close within 10-6 before trouncing the Americans in singles Sunday.

After the fact, Love drew a little heat for his decision to allow Mickelson and partner Keegan Bradley to sit out the Saturday afternoon matches after the pair went 3-0 to that point, needing only 12 holes to dispatch Lee Westwood and Luke Donald in alternate shot in the morning session.

sound and produced a sizeable lead and his players were effusive in their praise for him.

Those same players accepted the blame for the 2012 loss and in the aftermath of his selection for 2016, have expressed a strong desire to avenge it for Love, seemingly making him the perfect choice as the next American captain.

But at the end of the day, the question has to be asked: How important, really, are Ryder Cup captains, and how much impact do they have on the matches outside the two obvious areas – captain’s picks and determining who is going to play?

Bad decisions, such as those made last year by Watson regarding Mickelson and Bradley, and by Hal Sutton clumsily

Davis Love

As a result, the team of Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson, unofficially designated as one of two alternate shot-only “platoon” teams, went out in four-ball that afternoon and lost to the furious comeback mounted by Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker also were unable to preserve a late lead in their match and lost, and what seemed an insurmountable U.S. lead was no longer a sure thing.

Love took some hits as a losing captain, but there was no real fault with anything he did. His captain’s picks (veterans Stricker and Jim Furyk, youngsters Dustin Johnson and Brandt Snedeker) were all reasonable selections, his strategy during the team matches was

attempting to pair Mickelson and Woods, have obvious repercussions.

When Watson decided to sit Mickelson and Bradley in the Saturday morning four-ball matches, he wound up having to play one of his teams he planned to use only in alternate shot – Hunter Mahan and Furyk. Coming into last year’s matches, Furyk was 1-8-1 in Ryder Cup four-ball, but Mahan carried the team to a 4&3 victory, temporarily keeping the matches close before a U.S. collapse in the afternoon with Mickelson and Bradley still sitting.

Paul Azinger, who captained the U.S. to its last win in 2008, has been widely praised for his method of pairing players, but there was no discernible difference in

the way he and Love approached things.

Like many U.S. captains, he made the decision that certain players were going to stick to alternate shot and others would strictly play in the best ball format, and kept partners together as much as possible.

Azinger’s “pods” approach worked largely because he had players whose likely partners were fairly obvious and did not have to make any accommodations for an injured and absent Woods.

Prior to Watson’s selection for 2014, the PGA had followed a predictable method of picking captains, who have typically been major champions/former Ryder Cup team members in their late 40s/early 50s.

With far more potential captains than slots available, some prominent players have been skipped over as their windows of opportunity opened. Marietta’s Larry Nelson may be the most prominent snub, but the list also includes Hale Irwin, Mark O’Meara, Jay Haas, Scott Simpson and Fred Couples, with David Toms, Stricker, Mickelson and Furyk in the pipeline for upcoming years.

In recent years, the Ryder Cup has taken on a more prominent corporate identity and that aspect cannot be dismissed after the last two captains’ selections. The number of corporate events connected to the Ryder Cup has greatly expanded, and that fact alone may be the most telling reason Couples was passed over for 2016 and may never get the gig.

With a smaller group of serious candidates and no organization with a political agenda or financial stake in the matter, the Europeans have had a simpler path to selecting its captains, with three individuals (John Jacobs, Tony Jacklin, Bernard Gallacher) serving multiple times from 1979-95. Since, Europe has joined the “one and done” American philosophy, but with considerably more success.

Several of the European captains (Mark James, Sam Torrance, Paul McGinley) lacked the playing credentials of their American counterparts, and arguably the best player among them (Nick Faldo) was the least successful as captain, losing to Azinger at Valhalla.

Unlike actual team sports, the captain of a Ryder Cup team does not have to deal with serious strategic decisions [ See Ryder Cup, page 19 ] FOREGEORGIA.COM

15

Public Golf in Augusta: Bartram Trail a daily fee standout

By Mike Blum

F

or one week each year in early April, the entire golf world revolves around Augusta.

The other 51 weeks, Augusta is a fairly typical mid-size Southern city, with golf an important part of the area’s recreation activities.

Just not nearly as important as golf in Augusta in early April.

Even without considering Augusta National, the most private of private clubs, Augusta is known more for its private clubs than its daily fee facilities, although the public courses outnumber the private clubs 7-4.

Over the past few decades, golf in Augusta has shifted west into suburban Columbia County, with West Lake and Champions Retreat joining venerable Augusta Country Club to give the city three prominent private facilities that

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don’t annually host one of golf’s four major championships.

That also applies to daily fee golf in the area, with the two major additions being Jones Creek and Bartram Trail, also Columbia County courses. Jones Creek spent a stint as a private club, but has settled in as a semi-private facility.

Bartram Trail is the newest of the Augusta area public courses, opening in 2005. The club has earned high marks for its visual appeal and playability, with course designer Rick Robbins working a number of wetlands areas into his design without making it overly demanding.

Length is not a serious concern, with Bartram Trail measuring just over 6,700 yards from the tips, 6,228 from the Blues and a very friendly 5,545 from the senior tees. The yardage is a bit deceptive, as the layout consists of five par 5s and five par 3s, with the course rating and slope numbers relatively high from the two

Bartram Trail

longest tees, largely due to the amount of hazards in play.

With mostly generous fairways and gentle greens complexes, Bartram Trail provides plenty of scoring opportunities, but the occasional presence of wetlands areas throughout the course will require some solid ball striking to avoid trouble.

As a group, the par 4s are mostly on the tame side, with none longer than 417 yards and several in the short-to-medium category, most notably holes 7 and 17, which can cause some concern despite their absence of length. Some of the par 4s feature rolling terrain which can hide the landing area from view from the tee.

Four of the five par 3s require modest carries over hazards, with the 16th the longest and toughest test of the group, with bunkers guarding a shallow target.

The five par 5s provide Bartram Trail with much of its character, with risk/reward elements for short and long hitters alike. A scrub area that must be carried on the second shot makes the ninth the most demanding of the interesting group.

With modest greens fees, a rural, nondeveloped setting, quality conditions and a friendly atmosphere, Bartram Trail has been a welcome part of the Augusta golf scene for the past decade.

Jones Creek is the strongest of the Augusta daily fee courses, but the excellent Rees Jones layout has been softened a bit over the years, and has become more playable, both off the tee and the greens complexes. The course still has some

bite, with relatively narrow tree lines, meandering creeks and still testy greens complexes, and provides some insight into Jones’ early design style.

Forest Hills has undergone a number of renovations over the years, with little left of the original Donald Ross design from the 1920s. The course has been operated by Augusta State since the 1970s, with the tour-length back tees installed for its college team. The layout still retains some of its old charm, but now sports a much more modern feel, with some strikingly different holes appearing over the years.

Augusta Golf Course, known locally as the “Cabbage Patch” has had its up and downs, and reportedly is back in business after being out of commission for a while. The short, compact layout with hard, tiny greens has been an Augusta staple for decades, but has had some difficulties since losing its status as a municipal facility.

Goshen Plantation and Pointe South are located on Augusta’s south side, with Goshen designed by Ellis Maples, who also created the layout at West Lake. Like Forest Hills, Goshen has added back tees that give it ample length, but there are other friendlier, well-spaced options for the quality parkland-style layout.

Pointe South is considerably shorter from the back the tees, but also features tight tree lines, sharp doglegs and modest elevation changes, although it remains one of Augusta’s most playerfriendly layouts.

Augusta also features a highlyregarded military course that accepts daily fee play. Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed the original 18 holes at Gordon Lakes, which added a new nine in the early 2000s.

The closest course to downtown Augusta is not even in Georgia. The River Club is located just over the 13th St. Bridge across the Savannah River from downtown Augusta, with the city’s modest skyline visible from the course, which is unlike anything else in the area.

The course, built on former swampland and designed by Jim Fazio, is flat with plenty of water but not many trees, and is more like a course you’d expect to play in Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head.

MARCH 2015

2015 MARCH

FOREGEORGIA.COM

17

Georgia has long history with Champions Tour 11 players from state have captured tour titles

By Mike Blum

Allen Doyle

S

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Larry Nelson

Dunlap, Sauers and Andrade all quickly established themselves as highly competitive Champions Tour players, but Love had made just three starts among the 50-and-over set since he became eligible.

Nelson, Mize, Sauers, Dunlap and Andrade will all be in the field when the Champions Tour returns to Atlanta for the Greater Gwinnett Championship April 17-19, but it may be a while before spectators at the tournament get an upclose-and-personal look at Love.

The tournament is played the same week as the PGA Tour’s Heritage Classic on Hilton Head Island, where Love is a 5-time champion and has a strong attachment to that event. Despite his likely absence from the Champions Tour event at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, the tournament will not lack for a strong Georgia presence, beginning with threetime major champion Nelson, who has won 19 times since turning 50, 20 if you include an unofficial tour match play event.

Three of Nelson’s 10 PGA Tour titles came in Atlanta, including two on his home course at Atlanta Country Club in 1980 and ‘88, and the second of his three major championship victories – the 1981 PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Nelson had a chance to win the final Champions Tour event at Golf Club of Georgia in 2000, but it was 13 years before the tour returned to Atlanta, by which time Nelson was 65. Nelson cap-

tured 19 Champions Tour titles between 1998 and 2004, finishing third, fourth, first and fourth on the money list during his first four full seasons on the tour.

Doyle, who was forced to leave the Champions Tour due to health issues, won 11 events from 1999-2006, including four senior majors – the’99 Senior PGA, 2001 Senior Players and 2005 and ‘06 U.S. Senior Open. He led the tour in earnings in ‘01 and in his first eight seasons was among the top 10 money winners five times and no lower than 17th during that span.

During his professional career, which did not begin until he was 46, Doyle also won in his adopted home state, taking the 1995 Nike (now Web.com) Tour Championship at Settindown Creek in Roswell. One of his last pro starts came in the inaugural Greater Gwinnett Championship in 2013.

Although Mize’s only Champions Tour win came outside the U.S., he did manage one victory of note in his home state during his PGA Tour career. His playoff victory in the 1987 Masters is among the most memorable in tournament history, earning him a lifetime spot in his hometown major championship.

Mize has enjoyed a respectable Champions Tour career since turning 50, placing in the top 20 on the money list in his first two full

Scott Dunlap

AL KOOISTRA

ince the Champions Tour became a full-season operation about 30 years ago, Georgia has been an integral part of the tour.

The state has hosted a number of different events ranging from the North Atlanta suburbs to Columbus and Savannah. Georgia has also been well represented on the tour’s player roster over the past three decades, with three players from the state winning 10-plus Champions Tour events during their careers, three others claiming between three and five career titles, and five others having at least one champion’s trophy from the tour.

The three most successful Georgians on the Champions have either retired (Augusta native Jim Dent and lone-time LaGrange resident Allen Doyle) or is nearing that status (Marietta’s Larry Nelson).

But as one group of Georgians on the Champions Tour steps away, a new crop of players from the state step in, although the most prominent tour player to celebrate his 50th birthday in the past few years is a not quite yet ready to bid farewell to the PGA Tour.

Augusta native and Columbus resident Larry Mize is the veteran among the full-time contingent of Georgians on the Champions Tour, with the 67-year-old Nelson transitioning to a part-time player last year.

Nelson and Doyle (66), who last played on the Champions Tour in 2013, won 30 tour events between them from 1998-2006, with Mize’s victory in Montreal in 2010 the only one by a Georgian in an 8-year stretch since Doyle won the second of back-to-back U.S. Senior Open titles in ‘06.

Duluth resident Scott Dunlap collected his first Champions Tour win as a “rookie” last year, and the current crop of Georgians in their early 50s are likely to join the list of the tour winners from the state, especially when St. Simons’ Davis Love decides to leave the PGA Tour as a full-time player.

Savannah’s Gene Sauers joined the Champions Tour in late 2012 and was joined the next year by Dunlap. Longtime Atlanta resident Billy Andrade turned 50 early in 2014, with Love following several months later.

seasons on the tour. His 15th place finish in the Greater Gwinnett Championship last year was one of his two best showings in 2014.

Sauers, a Savannah native and resident, has enjoyed a successful return to golf on the Champions Tour after a nearfatal skin condition kept him off the PGA Tour for more than six years. Sauers was able to return to golf in late 2011, and joined the Champions Tour the following year.

In his first two full seasons, Sauers placed 19th and 14th on the money list and is 10th at an early stage of the 2015 season, placing second in the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Fla., in his first start of the year.

Over the past two seasons and three weeks, Sauers has placed second four times, third three times and fourth twice, with his runner-up finishes including the 2014 U.S. Senior Open, where he lost a playoff to Colin Montgomerie, and the final Legends of Golf played in 2013 his home town of Savannah.

MARCH 2015

Sauers won three times during his PGA Tour career and was one of the tour’s steadiest players from the mid1980s to mid-’90s before ending a lengthy stretch of spotty play with his third victory in 2002.

Andrade won four times during his 20-plus years as a consistently successful PGA Tour member, taking a break from the tour in his late 40s to work as a golf broadcaster. He returned to the course just before turning 50, and joined the Champions Tour last year.

In his fourth start as a senior, Andrade placed second in the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, and recorded another runner-up finish later last year in Canada, losing in a playoff to Fred Couples after a spectacular final round shootout in which Andrade shot 62 and Couples 61. He ended a solid rookie season 23rd on the money list after being largely inactive as a player for five years.

Dunlap played his first Champions Tour event late in 2013 after a career in which he played and won in Canada, South America and South Africa before qualifying for the 1996 PGA Tour. He played on the tour for six of the next seven years, but lost his exempt status after the 2002 season, and did not return until 2012 at the age of 48.

During his decade away from the PGA Tour, Dunlap played what is now the Web.com Tour, winning twice during that span. He spent a total 13 years on that tour, beginning with its first year as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990.

Dunlap qualified for the Champions Tour in his first attempt, earning his spot in a playoff, and enjoyed the best season of his career as a senior “rookie,” placing 10th on the money list last year. Dunlap scored his first Champions Tour victory in Seattle in a playoff and nearly won twice more in the span of a month, placing second in Quebec and losing a playoff in the next tournament in Hawaii. He shot 64 and 65 in the final rounds in his two runner-up finishes.

After three tournaments in 2015, Dunlap was 11th on the money list following a fourth place finish in Naples, Fla., and will be among the players to beat in the Greater Gwinnett Championship at TPC Sugarloaf, where he almost won in 2005 after playing his way into the tournament in a Monday qualifier.

With his win last year in Seattle, Dunlap became the 11th player with close ties to Georgia to win on the Champions Tour.

MARCH 2015

ED C. THOMPSON PHOT OGRAPHY

Gene Sauers

Larry Mowry, a PGA Tour journeyman who lived in the Atlanta area for a number of years and served as the general manager at Metropolitan Golf Club, scored the first of his five Champions Tour victories as a Monday qualifier in 1987. He won again three weeks later at Horseshoe Bend in Roswell, which hosted the first tour event in the state from 1986-88.

Augusta native Jim Dent collected 12 Champions Tour wins from 1989-98, and ranks second to Nelson among Georgians in career senior titles.

Long-time Georgia resident DeWitt Weaver scored his only Champions Tour victory in Lexington, Ky., in 1991, with Jim Ferree, the head pro at the Savannah Sheraton Resort (now Wilmington Island Club) after playing the PGA Tour, also scoring his lone Champions Tour win that year.

Former Masters champion Tommy Aaron of Gainesville won a Champions Tour event in Hawaii in 1992, a season in which he also lost twice in playoffs and tied for second in a third event, one shot behind the winner.

The most surprising Champions tour winner from the state was central Georgia native Walter Morgan, a career military man who did not turn pro until he retired from the military and served as a club professional for a decade before turning 50. He won three times in 1995 and ‘96 and played on the tour for more than a decade, finishing as high on the money list as 10th in ‘96.

Long-time Atlanta resident Joe Inman was also a three-time winner on the Champions Tour, winning three consecutive times at Wilshire CC in Los Angeles from 1998-2000, his first three years on the tour. After leaving the tour, Inman became the head golf coach at Georgia State, and is in his seventh year with the Panthers.

Ryder Cup [ Continued from page 15 ]

except who to pick to fill out his team and who to play in what order, something almost any knowledgeable golf fan can do, even if he can’t break 90.

In order to put together the strongest team before the captain make his picks, the PGA has again tweaked the system for determining the automatic qualifiers, which returns to eight after being nine for 2014.

The only events that count this year are the majors, the Players and the four WGC events. None of the 2015 tournaments on the 2015-16 schedule will count, with points from the majors, Players and WGCs doubling next year and PGA Tour events also factoring in, beginning with the 2016 Tournament of Champions.

The cutoff for earning points is the Barclays, the first Playoffs event. The process previously ended after the PGA Championship. Love will announce his first three captain’s picks after the third

Playoffs event (BMW Championship), with his final pick coming after the Tour Championship, the last tournament before the 2016 Ryder Cup. The later dates for qualification and captain’s picks were determined in order to allow players who get hot in the FedExCup Playoffs (Billy Horschel, 2014) to be added to the team.

In terms of winning and losing, none of this is going to make the slightest difference if the U.S. team doesn’t play any better than it has for most of the past two decades. Altering the points system, changing qualification dates and creating a task force to spout corporate gibberish before picking the same captain selected four years earlier through a far less detailed process is nothing next to a birdie made at the right time of a close match.

That will get the Ryder Cup back in American hands much quicker than any task force.

FOREGEORGIA.COM

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Georgia PGA schedule features familiar sites Events set for Pinetree, Peachtree, UGA course

By Mike Blum

T

he 2015 Georgia PGA schedule includes several familiar sites, but is losing an event at one of the most popular tournament hosts in the state.

The Georgia Open is returning to Pinetree Country Club for a second straight year, while historic Peachtree Golf Club will again host the semifinals and finals of the Georgia Match Play Championship.

The Yamaha Atlanta Open is back at White Columns for the first time since 2000 and is scheduled for June 15-16.

The Section Championship again is being played at Sea Island Golf Club, with the Plantation course the site for the third time since 2007.

GEORGIA PGA

Preview

The Rivermont Championship, which was played for the first time in 2014, will take the Chicopee Woods’ mid-May dates, moving from early April, with the Championship at Berkeley Hills again being played in early July.

The Georgia PGA’s two most prominent senior events will also be played on courses well known to the Section’s veteran players. The UGA course in Athens will host the Georgia Senior Open for a second straight year, with the PGA Senior Championship also playing at the same site as last year – Ansley Golf Club’s Settindown Creek.

The Match Play Championship opens the 2015 schedule, but takes more than five months to complete. The 64-man field begins play on March 15, with players having approximately one month to play each of their first four matches.

The field is divided into eight brackets, six for players from the Section’s North chapter and one each for East and Central

Pinetree Country Club

Dunwoody Country Club, the site of the 2006 Atlanta Open, will host the Section’s Professional National Championship, the qualifier for the national club professional championship.

The number of points events for Georgia PGA members has been reduced from eight to seven, as the Chicopee Woods Players Championship has dropped off the schedule after being played the last seven years.

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chapter members. The four quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals at Peachtree Golf Club on August 24, with the finals being played that afternoon.

Fox Creek instructor Brian Dixon, whose only previous Georgia PGA victory was the 1997 Match Play Championship, defeated Greg Lee of Chicopee Woods 2&1 in the finals after knocking off top-seeded Craig Stevens on the 20th hole in the semifinals.

Stevens, an instructor at Brookstone CC, will be looking for his fourth Georgia Senior Open title in five years when the event returns to the UGA course April 27-28. The UGA course, which hosted the Web.com Tour for four years, gave the state’s top seniors a battle last year, with Stevens winning with a 2under 140 total for 36 holes.

Tying for second at 143 were longtime Champions Tour member James Mason and amateurs Bob Royak and Rusty Strawn, with Royak leading Stevens and Strawn by five after an opening 65, the only sub-70 score in the tournament.

The Rivermont Championship will be played May 18-19, with Georgia Golf Center assistant Chris Nicol winning the inaugural event in a playoff over Travis Nance of Coosa Country Club.

The two players tied at 6-under 136, with Nicol winning on the second extra hole.

Sonny Skinner, who went on to win his second Player of the Year title, tied for third at 137 with seventime Player of the Year Tim Weinhart, who had the lead at the turn in the final round. Weinhart placed second in the 2014 Player of the Year standings.

Mason was fifth at 138 after a final round 65.

The win was one of eight for Nicol in Georgia PGA events last year, including four individual victories in Assistants’ tournaments and three team titles. He also tied for third in the Atlanta Open and was fifth overall and the low club pro in the Georgia Open.

Hank Smith, the head pro at Frederica Club on St. Simons, played in only three individual events in 2014, but won two, both of them majors. He won the Atlanta Open at Atlanta National, and will defend his title this year on a nearby north Fulton course. Smith won by three shots with a 6-under 138 total, three ahead of Cateechee Director of Golf Jeff Gotham.

The Championship at Berkeley Hills has had amateur winners the last two

years, with Chatsworth’s Tyler Mitchell scoring a surprise victory in 2014.

Mitchell, who played his college golf for Dalton State’s fledgling program, won by one shot with a 6-under 138 total over fellow amateur Matt Luckett, a Berkeley Hills member.

Nance and Kyle Owen of Dunwoody Country Club tied for third at 140 to share low pro honors, with Owen winning the event at Chicopee Woods earlier in the season. Nicol, who won the first Championship at Berkeley Hills in 2010, briefly held a share of the lead in the final round in his attempt for a second win in a Section event last year. This year’s tournament will be played July 6-7.

The Kilted Tilt Georgia Open is scheduled for August 6-9 at Pinetree, which hosted the event for the first time last year. Mini-tour player Jay McLuen scored his second runaway victory in the tournament, winning by seven strokes with a 19-under 269 total.

Kennesaw State golfer Jimmy Beck, who won the Georgia Amateur at Pinetree in 2013, was second at 276, with teammate Kelby Burton and recent Kennesaw State golfer Matt Nagy third at 280. Nicol was the low club professional, tying for fifth at 281 with mini-tour player Eddie Lee. McLuen also won the Georgia Open at Barnsley Gardens in 2011 by an identical margin, and continued the run of success in the tournament by tour players.

Former Georgia PGA member Jeff Hull (now in the Carolinas Section) and Weinhart are the only two Section members to win the tournament since Stephen Keppler won back-to-back titles in 1994 and ‘95 at Lake Oconee courses. Weinhart won in 2004 and Hull in ‘07.

The Section Championship will again be played at Sea Island GC, with the Plantation course hosting the event August 31-Sept. 2. Smith, a former assistant at Sea Island GC, won by a whopping 10 shots in the 54-hole event on the Seaside course last year with a 9under 201 total. No other player broke par for the tournament.

Tying for second were Weinhart, Stevens, Mason, Owen, Keppler and John Wade, who joined the staff at Sea Island GC last year. It was the ninth straight year Keppler has finished no lower than third in the tournament.

MARCH 2015

Hank Smith

Skinner won the last time Plantation hosted the event in 2012, finishing one shot in front of Keppler. Plantation will join Seaside this year as a host course for the PGA Tour McGladrey Classic.

The final Georgia PGA individual event of 2015 will be the PGA PNC qualifier Sept. 28-29 at Dunwoody CC. The top finishers will qualify for the 2016 PGA PNC. Ansley GC Director of Golf Phil Taylor won last year’s PNC qualifier at the Legends at Chateau Elan, and will lead seven Georgia PGA members into this year’s PNC, which will be played June 28-July 1 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Other qualifiers for the PNC are Smith, Brian Puterbaugh, Gary Miller, Skinner, Owen and Clark Spratlin. Taylor won with a 2-over 146 total, one ahead of Puterbaugh, with Spratlin taking a 4-way playoff for the final spot.

The Georgia PGA Championship and Senior PNC qualifier is scheduled for Sept. 14-15 at Ansley Golf Club’s Settindown Creek, which also hosted last year’s tournament. Keppler won the qualifier by four shots with a 6-under 138 total to lead the Georgia PGA contingent at nationals last November in south Florida.

2015 MARCH

Keppler, Skinner and Mason all qualified for the 2015 Senior PGA Championship May 21-24 at French Lick, Ind., with Mason tying for second in last year’s Senior PNC. The 2015 Senior PNC will be played Oct. 15-18 in Seaside, Cal. The first of three Georgia PGA team events will be the Pro-Pro Scramble, scheduled for March 17 at Alpharetta Athletic Club’s East course. The ProAssistant will be played May 26 at Athens Country Club, with the Pro-Pro Championship wrapping up the year Dec. 7-8 at Sea Island GC. The Georgia Women’s Open will be played for the third straight year at Brookfield CC, with the 2015 tournament set for July 13-14. Karen Paolozzi, an assistant professional at Druid Hills GC, won in her first appearance in the tournament last year with a 4-under 140 total, one shot ahead of Augusta State golfer Jessica Haigwood, who played her high school golf at Brookfield as a member of the Roswell golf team.

Haigwood has been the tournament runner-up the last two years, taking second in 2013 behind Margaret Shirley, the 2014 USGA Mid-Amateur champion.

FOREGEORGIA.COM

21

Private Golf IN AUGUSTA

Augusta Country Club has history of its own

By Mike Blum

B

efore Augusta National was constructed in the early 1930s, the city of Augusta already had a private country club of note.

Augusta Country Club predates Augusta National by more than a quarter century, and has a storied history itself.

The course was renovated by famed architect Donald Ross in the late 1920s, and hosted the Titleholders, the LPGA version of the Masters, for several decades.

Working off original Donald Ross design plans, golf course architect Brian Silva extensively renovated Augusta Country Club’s layout more than a decade ago, and his efforts have drawn near unanimous praise.

In addition to the renovation of the course, Augusta Country Club has done a considerable amount of work in recent years upgrading the entire facility, and the result is one of the most impressive clubhouses anywhere in the state, with the overall look and feel of the club matching the most high profile clubs in metro Atlanta.

Augusta Country Club shares similar topography with Augusta National, since the two courses adjoin each other near Rae’s Creek, with the ninth hole at ACC just behind the 12th green at ANGC. Rae’s Creek also runs through the Augusta Country Club property, meandering along the right side of the par-5 eighth hole.

Like Augusta National, Augusta Country Club’s layout prominently features mature pine trees and various pine straw cutouts within the tree lines, frequently taking the place of rough off the fairway. Also like Augusta National, the Country Club is reasonably open off the tee, although the pines will intrude in various spots, as will some well-positioned fairway bunkers.

Much of Silva’s renovation work involved Augusta Country Club’s greens complexes, with many of the putting surfaces adding contour and others taking on alterations around the edges to produce some straight lines. A number of the greens now feature all sorts of movement, most notably the 16th, which

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features one of the wilder putting surfaces you’ll encounter.

Like Augusta National, Augusta Country Club includes a sizeable group of holes with considerable natural beauty, with the over-water, par-3 sixth at the top of the list.

Augusta Country Club can play as long as 7,125 yards from the back tees, and is rated at 73.4 with a surprisingly modest slope of 132. The course has tees listed at 6,600, 6,215, 5,484 and 5,124 yards, with three combo sets available and an “original” course of 6,584 yards.

The club has a long history of sporting a strong junior golf program, with its list of prominent players including PGA Tour veteran Charles Howell. Augusta Country Club hosted the GSGA Junior Championship three times between 2004 and ’11, and has also served as host of the Georgia Amateur six times, the last in 1991.

Augusta Country Club is not the only Augusta club that hosts state championships. West Lake, which opened in the late 1960s, has also hosted the Georgia Amateur (1980 and 2000), with Champions Retreat, the newest of Augusta’s three outstanding private clubs, the site of the 2007 Georgia Open, as well as another major Georgia PGA event and the 2014 Peters Cup, which matches the state’s top amateurs and club professionals in a Ryder Cup style match.

West Lake is a traditional Ellis Maples design that is shorter and narrower than its sister courses in the area. The greens are also smaller, but no less undulating, with the course also featuring some risk/reward par 5s and a short but pesky over-water par 3.

Champions Retreat, which opened about a decade ago, consists of three nines designed by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Each of the nines has a distinct personality, with the Palmer nine sporting more of a coastal feel, the Player nine the more open of the three , although several holes were built along some wetlands, and the Nicklaus nine featuring the most dramatic terrain along with some of the most demanding greens complexes.

MARCH 2015

Georgia Amateur set for Sea Island’s Retreat course

T

he 2015 Georgia State Golf Association schedule includes a return to the Georgia coast for its premier event, as Sea Island Golf Club will host the GSGA’s championship event.

The Georgia Amateur was last played at a Sea Island facility in 1998 when Ocean Forest hosted. The Seaside course was the tournament site in 1989, with this year’s championship set for July 9-12 at the Retreat course, located across the street from Seaside and Plantation, the two courses that will share host duties for this year’s PGA Tour McGladrey Classic.

College golfers from Columbus have won the last two Georgia Amateurs, with Columbus State golfer Robert Mize taking the 2014 title at Idle Hour and Kennesaw State’s Jimmy Beck winning in 2013 at Pinetree Country Club, the Owls’ home course.

Mize is the son of 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize, with 2010 and ‘12 Georgia Amateur champion Lee Knox the son of Jeff Knox, who lost the ‘98

MARCH 2015

Georgia Amateur at Ocean Forest in a playoff.

This will be the fourth time one of Sea Island Golf Club’s resort facilities has hosted the GSGA Championship, with members of the Yates family winning the first three. Brothers Charlie and Dan Yates won in 1931 and ‘39 respectively, and Danny Yates (Dan’s son) was the 1989 champion.

GSGA The Mid-Amateur Championship is scheduled for May 15-17 at Marietta Country Club, with defending champion David Noll of Dalton shooting for his third victory in four years and fourth overall. Noll, the 2003 and 2011 Georgia Amateur champion, is one of three players with multiple Mid-Am titles since 2006.

Mark Strickland won in 2006 and 2011, and Jeff Knox was a back-to-back champion in 2008 and ‘09. Noll won last year at Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee.

Atlanta’s Chris Waters will attempt to join Cameron Hooper and Billy Mitchell as recent back-to-back winners

of the Public Links Championship.

Waters won last year at Nob North, and will shoot for a second straight title Sept. 12-13 at Chateau Elan.

Mitchell won in 2010 and ‘11, and Hooper was the tournament champion in 2012 and ‘13.

The Atlanta Amateur Match Play Championship returns to Atlanta National this year and will be played Sept. 24-27. Atlanta National hosted the event from 1992-98 and again in 2007.

Lee Knox won last year at Druid Hills GC, with Noll capturing the title four times between 2005 and ‘12. Among the recent champions are current college golfers Zach Healy (UGA) and Anders Albertson (Georgia Tech), who were still in high school when they won the tournament.

Savannah’s Doug Hanzel will try to win the Senior Championship for the third time in four years when the tournament is played at the Brickyard in Macon Aug. 26-28. Hanzel won in 2012 and last year at Doublegate in Albany.

GSGA Preview Marietta’s Chris Hall goes for a third straight title in the Senior Match Play at Forest Heights in Statesboro May 5-8.

The Super Senior Championship is one of the early events on the GSGA schedule, set for March 30-31 at Indian Hills. Bill Leonard of Dallas won last year at Barnsley Gardens.

The Georgia Women’s Amateur, which is conducted by the Georgia Women’s Golf Association, will be played July 27-29 at Eagle’s Landing, formerly the host of an LPGA event.

Marietta’s Brenda Pictor, the state’s top senior female player in recent years, won in 2014 at Callaway Gardens. Augusta’s Laura Coble, who joined the senior ranks last year, has won the GWGA title six times.

Coble has won the GSGA Women’s [ See GSGA Preview, page 28 ]

FOREGEORGIA.COM

23

Tech opens 2015 season ranked in top 10 Other state teams seek repeat of ‘14 success

By Mike Blum

A

USGA

fter strong showings in the 2013-14 season by most of Georgia’s Division 1 golf programs, the 2014-15 Fall season produced mixed results.

The state’s seven D1 programs enter their Spring schedules with varying degrees of optimism, with Georgia Tech at the top of the list among the seven in the national rankings.

The Yellow Jackets enter the Spring ranked 8th by Golfstat and 10th by Golfweek. Georgia Tech is led by Powder Springs senior Ollie Schniederjans, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world and No. 2 in the college rankings after a Fall showing which included a win in the Carpet Capital Invitational at The Farm, a pair of ties for second, a third and a somewhat disappointing tie for sixth in his final appearance in the U.S. Collegiate Championship at Golf Club of Georgia.

Schniederjans has already made a trip this year to the Middle East to compete in a European Tour event in Abu Dhabi, and will play in the PGA Tour event in Tampa in March, resulting in his absence from Tech’s lineup in a tournament that weekend in Tallahassee.

After solid showings as a freshman and

a tie for fourth in Hawaii.

The Yellow Jackets will need a strong finish to his college career by Albertson, along with contributions from a lineup that had six players competing for the other three spots in the lineup during the Fall.

Senior Drew Czuchry, who has played sparingly at Tech, made four Fall starts, as did sophomore Michael Hines of Acworth, who redshirted last season.

Freshmen James Clark of Columbus and Jacob Joiner of Leesburg made

Ollie Schniederjans

COLLEGE Preview sophomore, Schniederjans emerged as a dominant player last season, winning five times, losing in a playoff in the NCAA Championship and placing fourth or better in nine of his 13 starts.

Georgia Tech advanced to match play at nationals for the fourth time in five years, but lost its opening match. The Yellow Jackets graduated three senior starters who were part of a 2013-14 team that won six tournaments, including its NCAA Regional.

Returning along with Schniederjans is fellow senior Anders Albertson of Woodstock, who made a big splash as a freshman but is coming off an inconsistent junior season that included four top-4 finishes along with four outside the top 50. Albertson continued that inconsistent play in the Fall, but finished with 24

FOREGEORGIA.COM

made only one other start in the Fall.

Sophomore Terramoana Beaucousin of Tahiti, one of the Owls’ four international players, played well with two finishes of sixth or better and Swedish freshman Fredrik Nilehn closed out the Fall with three straight top 10s, including an individual title in the Pinetree Intercollegiate.

Freshman Wyatt Larkin of Morganton made four Fall starts, and is part of a deep squad that will produce plenty of competition for spots in the lineup this Spring.

After a trip to California to start its Spring schedule, Kennesaw will play in Aiken, S.C., March 9-10 and the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation March 21-22 before competing in the Atlantic Sun Championship at the Legends at Chateau Elan April 19-21.

Georgia State opened its Fall schedule with a second place finish behind Kennesaw at the Ocean Course, but its highest showing after that was a seventh in the rain-shortened event hosted by the Panthers at Berkeley Hills.

The Panthers placed second in an NCAA Regional at San Antonio behind Georgia last season to qualify for nationals and return four starters from the team that won the Sun Belt championship.

KENNESAW STATE

three starts each, along with sophomore Vincent Whaley, one of only two non-Georgians on the 9-man roster. The other out-of-stater is Chris Petefish, one of three freshmen to make at least two starts.

Czuchry and Hines were the only two of the six to post top-10 finishes, but all six played respectably with the Jackets needing significant contributions from the entire roster if they are going to return to match play at the NCAAs. Georgia opened its Fall schedule with a win in the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach and closed with a third place finish in Hawaii, but struggled in two events in which the Bulldogs were without their No. 1 player – Clarkesville junior Lee McCoy, who enters the Spring as the No. 3-ranked player in the country.

McCoy was second, first and fifth in his three Fall starts after a sophmore season in which he had five top 5s, including a win and a runner-up finish in

the Bulldogs’ NCAA Regional victory in San Antonio.

The Bulldogs have a deep lineup behind McCoy, but no other Georgia golfer had a finish better than eighth in the Fall. Seniors Mookie DeMoss of Duluth and Nicholas Reach had the only other top 10s, with Augusta sophomore Greyson Sigg twice placing 11th among three top-15 finishes.

Reach and junior Sepp Straka of Valdosta both played consistently in their three starts, with freshman Zach Healy of Peachtree Corners playing his way into four of the Bulldogs’ five Fall tournaments.

After playing its first two events in Puerto Rico and Las Vegas, the Bulldogs will not leave the state again until the Regionals in mid-May. Georgia hosts a one-day event with Georgia State and Augusta State on March 16, plays in the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation March 21-22, visits Augusta for the 3M Invitational April 4-5 and competes in the SEC Championship at Sea Island GC April 17-19.

The Bulldogs begin the Spring ranked around 40th in the country after winning four times last season and finishing 11th in the 2014 NCAA Championship.

Georgia has qualified for the NCAAs 16 times in the last 18 years and won two national titles under coach Chris Haack.

Kennesaw State was ranked in the top 25 coming into its Spring schedule, winning twice and finishing third or fourth in its other three starts, including the Carpet Capital Collegiate. The Owls placed second in the Auburn Regional last year to qualify for the NCAA Championship for the first time and tied for 19th at nationals.

The Owls returned a veteran squad led by senior Jimmy Beck of Columbus, ranked among the top 15 players in the country. Beck placed in the top 10 in all four of his Fall starts, taking second in Kennesaw’s home course win in the Pinetree Intercollegiate and tying for eighth against a strong field in the Carpet Capital.

Senior Austin Vick of Evans had two top-5 finishes and two other top 25s, but fellow Evans senior Kelby Burton struggled after a T10 in the Carpet Capital. Sophomore Chris Guglielmo of Cumming tied for fifth in the team’s win on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, but

Jimmy Beck

Davin White, a senior from Griffin, had a difficult Fall, as did senior Damon Stephenson after a decent showing in the season opener at the Ocean Course.

Junior J.J. Grey played consistently, but did not have a finish better than 14th.

Sophomore Nathan Mallonee of Lexington was a team best 8th at the MARCH 2015

2015 MARCH

GEORGIA SOUTHERN

Ocean Course, but had only one other Fall finish better than 35th.

Duluth’s Gus Wagoner, a senior transfer from Armstrong Atlantic, started in just two of the team’s four tournaments, as freshman brothers Alexander and Max Herrmann of Germany moved into the lineup after some promising results. Playing as individuals, Alexander was fourth and Max 11th at Berkeley Hills, and Max was the low scorer in the Fall finale in Greensboro, N.C., again playing as an individual.

The Panthers have a busy Spring schedule, playing in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, along with an early trip to California. They play a one-day event March 16 against Georgia and Augusta State in Athens and will compete in the Linger Longer Invitational March 21-22 at Reynolds Plantation.

Georgia Southern enjoyed a solid Fall showing with finishes of second, third, fourth and sixth, with the two top results occurring on two different courses on Kiawah Island. The Eagles won the Southern Conference last year in their farewell appearance, and have joined Georgia State in the Sun Belt.

The Eagles field a veteran squad including three seniors and a junior, all from Georgia. Leading the way is St. Simons senior Scott Wolfes, ranked 25th

by Golfweek going into the Spring.

Wolfes scored his fourth career title in the team’s second Kiawah tournament and was third earlier in the Fall on the Ocean Course. His win at Turtle Point was highlighted by a final round 63.

Seniors Matt Mierzejewski of Cumming and Charlie Martin of LaGrange both had up-and-down Fall seasons, as did Griffin junior Henry Mabbett. Freshman Archer Price tied for fifth in the second Kiawah tournament, the only finish above 14th by any Georgia Southern player other than Wolfes.

The Eagles, who ended the Fall ranked around 50th, don’t venture outside the Southeast this Spring, with tournaments in Florida, Hilton Head, Aiken, S.C., and Nashville, along with the annual Schenkel Invitational, hosted March 2022 by Georgia Southern.

Like Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Georgia Southern, Mercer won its conference championship last year, taking the Atlantic Sun title at the Legends at Chateau Elan. The Bears graduated two of their top players and struggled in their Fall opener, but came back with finishes

Scott Wolfes

between third and sixth in their next four tournaments.

Mercer went with the same starters throughout the Fall, with Augusta sophomore Emanuel Kountakis recording four straight top-10 finishes and entering the Spring ranked 61st nationally by Golfweek. Trey Rule, a senior from Eatonton and the Bears’ top returning player, added three top 10s, but the team’s three other starters managed just three top-30 finishes between them.

The Bears’ Spring schedule is highlighted by the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation March 21-22, with the team also playing in events hosted by Florida, Auburn, Florida State and Vanderbilt. Mercer entered the Spring ranked 58th in the country.

Augusta State has struggled since the Jaguars won back to back NCAA titles in 2011 and ‘11, but turned in a respectable showing in the Fall, with finishes of third, fourth, fifth and sixth in four of the team’s five tournaments.

The Jaguars got consistent showings from Maverick Antcliff, Jake Marriott, Robin Petersson and Jackson Stroup, but went through several players in search of a fifth starter, with Marietta freshman John Yi getting one start.

Evans senior Cody Shafer, who played extensively the two previous seasons, did not make a Fall start.

Other than a tournament at Purdue, the Jaguars will not venture outside Georgia and South Carolina this Spring.

The Jaguars will host the 3M Augusta Invitational at Forest Hills April 4-5, and will play in nearby Aiken, S.C., in the Palmetto Intercollegiate in their Spring opener March 9-10.

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Valdosta event drops off Web.com Tour schedule

By Mike Blum

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or the first time in a decade, the Web.com Tour will not make be making a stop in Georgia.

The South Georgia Classic, which has been played at Valdosta’s Kinderlou Forest since 2007, dropped off the schedule after eight years as a Nationwide/Web.com Tour stop. The Stadion Classic at UGA also lasted eight years from 2006-13, playing four years each at Jennings Mill and the UGA course in Athens.

Georgia has been part of the Ben Hogan/Nike/Buy.com/Nationwide/Web. com Tour since it began as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990. Macon’s River North (now Healy Point) was part of the tour in its first season and lasted until 1995.

Roswell’s Settindown Creek was the site of the Nike Tour Championship in 1995 and ‘96, but it was a decade before the tour returned to Georgia with the Athens Regional Foundation Classic in 2006.

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The South Georgia Classic is the only Web.com tournament to drop off the 25event 2014 schedule. The lone addition to the tour is a second tournament in Colombia.

The Web.com Tour began its 2015 schedule in Panama, one of five stops in Central and South America to open the season. The first American tournament is the Louisiana Open in late March.

A number of tour events will be played in neighboring states, including the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville, S.C. (May 14-17), the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C. (May 28-31), the News-Sentinel Open in Knoxville, Tenn.

(August 20-23), and two of the four Finals series of tournaments that will determine 25 of the 50 players who earn PGA Tour cards for 2015-16.

The second of the four events is the Chiquita Classic in Charlotte (Sept. 1720), with the season-ending Tour Championship scheduled for Oct. 1-4 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The top 25 players on the money list at the conclusion of the Portland Open

Aug. 30 qualify for the 2015-16 PGA Tour, along with the top 25 players from the four Finals events, which will consist of the top 75 Web.com money winners along with PGA Tour players who finish between 126 and 200 on the regular season FedExCup points list.

Among those with Georgia ties who will be competing on the Web.com Tour this year are players with PGA Tour experience, including former PGA Vaughn Taylor Tour winners Vaughn Taylor, Troy Matteson and Ryuji Imada.

Taylor, an Augusta native who played tied for his college golf in his hometown, placed 20th in Mississippi early in the 2014-15 15th and 12th in the first two Web.com schedule and contended recently at tournaments of 2015, and is also off to a Pebble Beach, tying for 10th. He constrong start on the PGA Tour, where he has limited status as a past champion. He [ See Web.com, page 28 ]

MARCH 2015

Fashion Fore You

Fashion on the Fairways LAKE FINLAY IMAGE GROU P

By Mary Beth Lacy

A

Caption

ultra-light fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort. New additions to this category are 100% polyester fabrics that feel and look like cotton: Garments feel like cozy cotton, but handle perspiration like poly. These new fabrics open up a whole new world to golfers, who can have the comfort of their favorite tee while maintaining the ease of poly’s wear and wicking power.

The Spring 2015 Men’s Golf Collection includes 11 new shirt styles, plus an assortment of pullovers, jackets, shorts, vest and hats. “Antigua’s Men’s Performance 72 Collection Spring 2015 reflects the inspiration of defined and refined lines and angles both symmetric and asymmetric,” says Sean Gregg,

Antigua’s Director of Product Development and Marketing Support. “Each piece offers this distinction from our newly introduced style Soul with its high-low horizontal multi-wale double knit stripe in solid colors to style Vantage with its contrasting elastic taping details that highlight the styles linear raglan form.”

The Spring 2015 Women’s Collection is inspired by the concept of mixing comfort and trend. It features a blend of neon colors with black and white -- in fresh new fashion-forward styles. Like the men’s line, it’s all made using proprietary Desert Dry™ and Desert Dry XtraLite™ technologies that keep golfers dry and comfortable. While having the technology is great, apparel all has to boil down to style and fashion for women.

“There’s so much lifestyle apparel out in the marketplace right now,” says Danielle Dellios, Antigua Women’s Head Designer. “Many customers are looking for something to wear on the course but also to social events, out running errands, etc. With that in mind, I combined a professional-yet-relaxed look for this line. Women want new necklines, collar treatments and styles -- which led me to play with the idea of a non-conventional polo silhouette.”

The Spring 2015 Women’s Collection combines trim details and flirty necklines ED C. THOMPSON PHOTOGRAPHY

nd you thought only clubs and balls were loaded with technology. Well, this year, men’s and women’s golf clothes are, as well.

The distinguished Antigua brand -- on the world’s fairways since 1979 -- has introduced its Spring 2015 Men’s and Women’s Golf Collections. “We’re very excited about our Spring 2015 Men’s and Women’s Golf Collections,” says Ron McPherson, President and CEO of Antigua. “Response to the bright colors and fantastic new styling has been outstanding. But it’s the advanced moisture-wicking technology that promises to make these our best-selling men’s and women’s collections to date.”

The men’s collection includes Antigua’s exclusive Desert Dry™ technology that absorbs and wicks moisture quickly and evenly, achieving the mostefficient evaporation possible to keep golfers comfortable and dry. In fact, the company’s incorporated Desert Dry™ moisture management into constructed fabrics made of fine cotton fibers that are blended with synthetic filaments.

The result: Desert Dry™ Performance Cotton. “Customers have been requesting a more casual fabric, without compromising the wicking capabilities of the poly fabrics,” says McPherson.

Meanwhile, Desert Dry™ Xtra-Lite combines the Desert Dry™ moisturewicking feature with specially constructed

2015 MARCH

with soft and stretchy fabrics, in multiple textures and contents that give a fresh feel to the product. This includes nontraditional polo styles, such as Envy with its soccer-style collar and neckline and sporty color-blocked silhouette; and Zoom, a sleeveless mini-stripe polo that blends polyester/cotton/spandex jersey plus a cut-out at the placket that reveals some skin without being inappropriate.

“Geometric shapes and details are trending, and by adding small details like a triangle cut-out on the placket, the once-mundane silhouette now offers something fun and unique,” says Dellios.

Neon colors continue running strong with women, and there’s a wider acceptance of this somewhat retro-color palette.

Dellios believes consumers are drawn to brights after so many years of wearing washed-out pastels and neutrals. The new Clever style uses a three-color braided trim that mixes bright shades into the garment without being overpowering, while Excite blends a white ground stripe with multiple pop colors, allowing customers to choose multiple bottom colors while mixing and matching.

All of this styling and high-tech material may not help golfers hit the ball any further or lower their scores. But it will keep them more comfortable and confident out on the course. That ultimately helps relaxation, which translates to taking an easier swing. And in the long run, that may be more advantageous than trying to hammer away with the latest clubs and balls.

FOREGEORGIA.COM

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Bulldogs open 2015 with win in Puerto Rico

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Mallonee T30 at 223.

Georgia Southern tied for 2nd at

Lee McCoy

USGA

he Georgia Bulldogs got their 2015 season off to a winning start, taking the title in the annual Puerto Rico Classic.

The Bulldogs led wire-to-wire, finishing with a 12-under 852 total, seven shots in front of runner-up Georgia Tech.

Georgia shot 8-under 280 the first day to lead by five over Alabama, and was five ahead of Tech after 36 holes after shooting 281 the next day. The Bulldogs settled for a 3-over 291 the final round, but increased their lead as Tech shot 293 following a tournament best 274 in the second round.

The Bulldogs were led by Lee McCoy and Sepp Straka, who tied for 4th at 5under 211. McCoy shot 71-68-72, while Straka carded scores of 69-70-72.

Greyson Sigg was T14 at 215, opening with scores of 71-69, while Nicholas Reach shot 69-74 the first two rounds before struggling the final day. Mookie DeMoss shot 72 the final day to match the team’s low score.

For Georgia Tech, Ollie Schniederjans and Anders Albertson tied for 11th at 214. Schniederjans matched the tournament’s low score with a 67 in the second round and Albertson closed with back-to-back 70s. Vince Whaley also shot 67 the second day, but his next best score was 76. Freshmen Michael Pisciotta and Tyler Joiner were both under par after 36 holes, with Pisciotta tying for 22nd at 218 after a final round 75.

Sharing medalist honors was St. Simons’ Dru Love of Alabama, who shot 71-69-69—209. Alpharetta’s Billy Kennerly of Clemson shot three consecutive 70s and placed 3rd at 210.

Kennesaw State placed 2nd in its 2015 opener in southern California, 16 shots behind USC after carding an 866 total. Terramoana Beaucousin led after 36 holes for the Owls, shooting 6669—135, but closed with a 74 and placed 3rd at 209, one behind the comedalists.

Jimmy Beck closed with a 69 to place 14th at 217, with Fredrik Nilehn struggling the final day after being T8 after 36 holes with scores of 73-69—142.

Georgia State also competed in the Jones Invitational in Valencia, Calif., finishing in 12th place with an 896 total.

Alex Herrmann tied for 27th at 222, with Damone Stephenson and Nathan

GSGA Preview [ Continued from page 23 ]

Match Play nine times, but juniors Ashlan Ramsey and Janet Mao have

taken the last two titles, with Johns Creek’s Mao winning last year at Canongate-on-White Oak. Piedmont Driving Club hosts this year’s tournament, set for June 8-11.

The GSGA Top 60 Women’s Classic moves to the northeast Georgia mountains, with Sky Valley hosting the tournament June 29-30. Villa Rica’s Sydney Needham won last year at Rivermont.

Coble will attempt to defend her title in the Senior Women’s Championship at Reynolds Plantation’s National course Aug. 24-25. Coble won last year at Big Canoe, snapping a five-year string of victories by Pictor.

The Senior Women’s Match Play returns to Sunset Hills in Carrollton May 4-6, with Pictor winning the event the first three times it was played. Both the Senior Championship and Match Play will add Super Senior divisions for the first time this year.

Both GSGA Junior Championships will be played June 22-24, with the boys playing at West Lake in Augusta and the girls at Coosa in Rome.

GSGA team events for 2015 include

Hilton Head Island’s Wexford Plantation, finishing seven shots behind Wofford with a 593 total. Tying for 3rd at 144 for the Eagles were Scott Wolfes and Kim Koivu, who finished two behind the medalist. Wolfes shared the lead after an opening 69, but followed with a 75 in the event, which was reduced from 54 to 36 holes by weather.

The Eagles had to count scores of 78 in both rounds.

Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Mercer all opened their 2015 schedules in the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Fla. Georgia Southern had the best finish among the three, placing 5th with an 867 total. Charlie Martin tied for 15th for the Eagles at 214 after a final round 68 and Wolfes closed with a 70 to tie for 23rd at 217.

Georgia State tied for 8th at 877, with JJ Grey and Stephenson low for the Panthers at 220. Mercer placed last in the 14-team field. the 4-Ball Tournament at Valdosta Country Club and Kinderlou Forest March 27-29; the 4-Ball Championship, April 24-26 at the Standard Club; the Women’s Team Championship, Sept. 2122 at Sea Palms; the Team Championship, Oct. 31-No. 1 at the Georgia Club and the Senior 4-Ball, Nov. 11-13 at Wilmington Island and Savannah Quarters. The GWGA 4-Ball is April 21-22 at Jekyll Island GC. The GSGA will also conduct the USGA qualifiers in the state, beginning with U.S. Open local qualifiers at the Legends at Chateau Elan May 11 and Golf Club of Georgia May 12. The sectional qualifier is June 8 at Hawks Ridge.

Other USGA qualifiers in Georgia this year include: Women’s Open, May 18, Druid Hills GC; Senior Open, June 1, Cherokee T&CC; U.S. Girls, June 15, Cartersville CC; U.S. Junior, June 29, UGA GC; U.S. Amateur, July 14-15, Capital City Crabapple and July 21-22, Horseshoe Bend; Women’s Amateur, July 20, Laurel Springs; Senior Amateur, Aug. 31, Berkeley Hills; Mid-Amateur, Sept. 9, Cobblestone; Women’s Mid-Am, Sept. 10, Rivermont; 4-Ball, Sept. 22, Rivermont.

A number of players from state colleges competed in an individual tournament hosted at Savannah Quarters.

Kelby Burton of Kennesaw State won the event with a 6-under 210 total, posting scores of 66-73-71.

Georgia State’s Max Herrmann was 4th at 214, Henry Mabbett of Georgia Southern tied for 13th at 221 and Georgia State’s Gus Wagoner was 15th at 222.

Web.com [ Continued from page 26 ]

tended again the next week in Los Angeles, but a triple bogey on the 10th hole Sunday at Riviera CC dropped him to a tie for 22nd.

Roberto Castro and Will Wilcox have limited PGA Tour status after placing in the top 150 on the FedExCup points list last year, and are exempt on the Web.com Tour along with 2014 Louisiana Open winner Kris Blanks.

Also exempt for 2015 are Matt Weibring, Henrik Norlander, Aron Price, Casey Wittenberg, Mark Silvers, Patton Kizzire, Bryden Macpherson, Michael Hebert and Richy Werenski.

Wilcox, who played his college golf at Clayton State, already has a pair of top20 finishes on the PGA Tour this season.

Norlander, a member of Augusta State’s back-to-back NCAA championship teams in 2010 and ‘11, began his season with a tie for 5th in Panama.

Blanks, Weibring, Norlander, Price and Wittenberg all have PGA Tour experience, as do several other Georgians who have status, including Justin Bolli, Luke List, Paul Haley and Paul Claxton. The 47-year-old Claxton has been a full-time member of either the Web.com or PGA Tour every year since 1995, but is unlikely to get into more than a handful of tournaments this season.

Other players with Georgia ties on the 2015 Web.com Tour include Scott Parel, Josh Broadaway, Brent Witcher, Kyle Scott, James White, Taylor Floyd and Tim O’Neal. Augusta native Parel, who turns 50 in May, was the only one with sufficient status to earn entry into the first two tournaments of the season.

MARCH 2015

Golf FORE Juniors

Andrew Chong

GPGA Junior Tour begins ‘15 season The 2015 Georgia PGA Junior Tour begins this month, with the tour making a slight change to an event that has been a staple on the early-season schedule.

After holding its season opening event March 7-8 at Country Club of Columbus, the tour returns to Achasta in Dahlonega, which has hosted a high school tournament conducted by the Georgia PGA for a number of years. The Achasta stop this year (March 28-29) will be a standard Junior Tour event, with the North Georgia High School Classic moving to Chateau Elan April 17-18.

The Georgia PGA Junior Tour also visits Oak Mountain GC April 25-26, Legacy on Lanier May 27-28 and Cateechee GC June 1-2 before Pinetree hosts the Georgia PGA Junior Championship June 8-9. The Junior Championship is a separate event from the GPGA Junior Tour.

The Georgia PGA Junior Tour also visits Stone Mountain GC (June 30-July 1), UGA GC (July 7-8), Doublegate GC (July 20-21), Callaway Gardens (Aug. 15-16), Sea Island GC (Sept. 12-13), the new Georgia Southern course (Oct. 10-11), Chattahoochee GC ((Oct. 31-Nov. 1) and Coosa CC (Nov. 21-22), with the Tour Championship at an Atlanta area course in December.

One-day Summer Series events are set for TPC Sugarloaf (July 16) and East Lake (July 28).

The 2014 Georgia PGA Junior Tour concluded last December with its Tour Championship at Sea Island GC’s Plantation course.

Grovetown’s Andrew Chong was the boys overall and 14-15 age group winner, shooting 71-75—146. Jake Haggerty of Woodstock shot 74-73—147 to win the 16-18 division and take 2nd overall. Adam Morris of Acworth and Mark Alford tied for 2nd in 1618 at 151, with Brock Nixon of Kennesaw 2nd in 14-15 at 152. Baily Smith of Madison was the 12-13 winner at 74-77—151, with Trent Leggett of Kennesaw 2nd at 153 and Blake Parkman of Cumming 3rd at 154.

Woo Wade of Dunwoody was the overall girls winner at 157, with Kelly Strickland of Alpharetta 2nd at 159. Alejandra Ayala of Alpharetta won the 15-18 division at 175 2015 MARCH

Woo Wade

with Tarah-Anne Abrigo of Warner Robins 2nd at 177.

Lightfritz captures SJGT title at Retreat The Southeastern Junior Golf Tour opened its 2015 schedule at Sea Island GC’s Retreat course in January.

Lauren Lightfritz of Suwanee won the girls division with a 228 total, two shots ahead of the runner-up and 10 in front of third place. Wade was 2nd in the 12-14 age group at 249.

Hunter Fry of Dacula shot 220 to tie for first in the boys division, but lost a playoff.

Austin Daniel of St. Simons Island shot 221 and was 3rd in the 16-19 age group. Logan Perkins of Locust Grove won the 14-15 division in a playoff after shooting 224, with Braden Jones of Atlanta 3rd at 227. Jason Quinlan of Cumming shot 229 to take 1st in the 12-13 age group, with Sam Barrett of Thomasville 2nd at 235.

At Baytowne GC in Destin, Fla., Jacob Bayer of Lawrenceville shot 147 to win boys 14-15 by six shots.

The SJGT also has 2015 stops at Brunswick CC (March 21-22), Kinderlou Forest (April 18-19), UGA GC (May 9-10), Orchard Hills (May 27-28), Georgia Club (June 1-2), Idle Hour (June 22-23), Harbor Club (July 20-21), Druid Hills GC (July 27-28) and Atlanta Athletic Club (August 3-4), which will host the Tour Championship.

In a 54-hole event at the Brickyard, Macon’s Zach Zediker won boys 15-18 at 223, 12 ahead of Calhoun’s Gunter Jordan. Wilson Andress of Macon was the 13-14 winner at 239, three ahead of Suwanee’s Brandon Cho. Carol Pyon of Macon shot 250 to win girls 15-18 by nine over Thompson, with Newnan’s Ashley Shim taking the 11-14 age group by 16 strokes at 271.

Sloan Lanier of Blackshear shot 167 to win girls 11-14 at Kinderlou Forest by six.

Logan Perkins was 2nd in boys 15-18 with a 157 total, and Sam Barrett shot 151 and was 2nd in the 13-14 division, losing in a playoffs.

In Hurricane Junior Tour events played out of state: Nicholas Scott of Braselton shot 144 to win by one in boys 15-18 at Farm Links in Sylacauga, Ala. Ty Hutson of Metter won boys 13-14 at Bluffton, S.C., by four at 154.

2 Georgians in Drive, Chip and Putt finals Two Georgia Juniors qualified for the 2015

Drive, Chip Putt and finals, which will be held April 5 at Augusta National. The two are Jake Peacock of Alpharetta (boys 10-11) and Connery Meyer of Marietta (boys 12-13).

Peacock and Meyer won their divisions last September at TPC Sugarloaf and will be among 80 juniors competing in next month’s event.

Here are the results of Peacock and Meyer and other Georgians who placed in last year’s Regional Final at Sugarloaf: Girls 7-9: Kailiani Deedon, Marietta, 2nd; Rachel Hoang, Lawrenceville, 7th; 10-11: Sara Im, Duluth, 7th; Emma Chen, Augusta, 10th; 12-13: Madison Harwell, Augusta, 4th; Jayla Cornelius, Atlanta, T9; 14-15: Lizzie Reedy, Marietta, 2nd; Kelly Strickland, Alpharetta, 5th; Skylar Thompson, Buford, 10th.

Boys 7-9: Derek Quinlan, Cumming, 4th; Robert Stephens, Alpharetta, 5th; John David Culbreath, Thomson, 8th; 10-11: Jake Peacock, Alpharetta, 1st; Dino Sposato, Bishop, 4th; 12-13: Connery Meyer, Marietta, 1st; Tucker Windham, Fort Oglethorpe, 10th; 14-15: Stephen Foernsler, Cumming, 3rd; Grant Sutliff, Suwanee, 7th.

Hurricane Jr. Tour makes Georgia stops The Hurricane Junior Tour made several early-season stops in Georgia, playing at Callaway Gardens, Macon’s Brickyard and Kinderlou Forest in January and February.

Jae Hoon Chung of Cumming shot 7575—150 to edge Seong Lee of Leesburg by one in boys 15-18 at Callaway Gardens, with Spencer Yi of Johns Creek 3rd at 153. Andy Mao of Johns Creek was the 13-14 winner at 153, six ahead of Braselton’s J.T. Smith. In the girls division, Buford’s Keegan Dunn won the 11-14 division by 14 shots with a 161 total, while Skylar Thompson, also of Buford, was 2nd in 15-18 at 162.

FOREGEORGIA.COM

29

Crossword Fore Your Masters Mind Bubba Watson

Larry Mize

Across

30

Down

1. He played the lowest final round

29. He won the Masters by the

to win the Masters 5. Oldest Masters champion 10. Line up a shot, say 11. Golfing great who boycotted the Masters 3 times, first name 12. 103 year old golfer who hit a hole in one at that age, ___ Andreone 14. Month before the Masters, abbr.

15. This golfer was second in the Masters the most times without ever winning, ___ Weiskopf 16. Jim Nantz has been the TV ___ for the Masters at CBS since 1989 17. Winner’s take 18. “Big Break semifinalist, ___ Sanchez 20. Country Club figure 21. See 9 down 23. One of 8 golfers who won major tournaments in three different decades 26. Exercise class, abbreviation 27. Golf shot 28. First name of the golfing great who won the Masters 5 times

most shots 32. Exists 33. Initials of a US golfing great: she has won 16 LPGA tournaments 34. Trajectory of many golf shots 36. In 2005, he made his debut in the Masters and tied for third place, ___ Donald 37. Longtime Aniston co-star 39. ___ leg, sharp bend in a course 40. The only player ever to hit a hole in one at the Masters No.4 hole, Jeff ____ 42. Part of a driver, e.g.

44. Has the ability 46. Water area 47. Iron used by 40 across for his Masters hole in one 48. First name of the TV host who recently had a 3 year old golf prodigy with one-arm making tee shots on her show

FOREGEORGIA.COM

Tommy Aaron

*Not all clues relate to the Masters

1. Golfer who played in 50 consecutive Masters tournaments 2. Position of the ball 3. Nickname for the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National (2 words) 4. Gene Sarazen’s Masters double ___ was “the shot heard ‘round the world” 6. Last player to win the Masters with a final round over par 7. LPGA great and World Golf Hall of Famer, ____ Webb 8. The only Masters champion who started the final round outside the top 10, in 1959 (2 words) 9. Winner of the Masters Par-3 tournament first held in 1960 (goes with 21 across) 13. A links course is usually near this State where Pebble Beach is 21. Relaxation area 22. Colts ___, NJ the Trump National Golf Club 23. They’re swollen on some superstars

24. Turf 25. Slang for golf clubs 28. First name of the 20 year old

who almost won the Masters in 2014 29. Golf phenom Michelle 30. Number of the Masters’ hole which is the home of many hole in ones 31. Name of the cabin used as a TV studio for the Masters broadcast 35. Pro’s opposite 37. First name of the 2011 Masters winner who hit birdies on each of the last 4 holes 38. Frequent reaction to a “Fore!’ call 41. Actress West 43. Insect that might be a distraction to a player 45. First name of the golfer who scored a Masters tournament low with a round of 64 in 2012

Answers at: www.foregeorgia.com/puzzle MARCH 2015

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MARCH 2015