2012 Golf Oklahoma October / November Issue

ay ! i d de ol nsi lH I i a de ec ui Sp ft G i

G

www.golfoklahoma.org October - November 2012

Roy Oxford: OGA loses friend, mentor

Willie Wood

Happy days are here again

www.golfoklahoma.org Official publication of the Oklahoma Golf Association

•••••• 1

NUMBER 18

When it comes to championship public golf, there’s no better destination than Alabama, where we’re proud to claim three of America’s 50 Toughest Courses as selected by Golf Digest. For starters, there are the 468 holes along the world-renowned Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Stretching from the mountains in the north to the Gulf Coast in the south, these 26 courses will test your golfing skills as well as your intestinal fortitude. Then there are the many other impressive courses scattered across the state, designed by the likes of Arnold Palmer and Jerry Pate. Each with its own set of challenges, each with its own set of rewards. And each along an epic road trip to the state of Alabama.

Note: Please park responsibly. And not on our golf courses.

To start your Alabama Road Trip, scan this code with your smartphone.

2 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

TOP 5 PLACES YOU CAN PLAY IN OK. –GOLFWEEK

One of the most stunning golf courses around now has one of the most stunning prices. Our off-season rate for Star Rewards members is only $30 and it’s good any day of the week, now through March 31, 2013. It includes: -

18-hole greens fee 1/2 cart fee Pre-round range Taxes

For details or to reserve tee times, call 918.384.7600 or toll free 800.760.6700.

I-44 EXIT 240, TULSA, OK Copyright © 2012 Cherokee Nation Entertainment, LLC. Rates subject to change at the discretion of management.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 3

Eat. SlEEp.

Swing.

lake Murray

lake Murray

oklahoma State Parks golf course packages offer everything you need for that perfect day on the greens.

Roman nose

Roman nose

travelok.com Sequoyah

CLASSIC

SUPREME

One night lodging in a regular lodge room, 18 holes golf w/cart.

One night lodging in a regular lodge room, breakfast, 3 complimentary golf balls, 36 Holes w/cart.

$50.00 - Lake Murray, Sequoyah $60.00 - Roman Nose or Lakeview Lodge/Cedar Creek at Beavers Bend

$85.00 - Lake Murray, Sequoyah $95.00 - Roman Nose or Lakeview Lodge/ Cedar Creek at Beavers Bend

Sequoyah

EXTREME

Dinner on night of arrival, one night lodging in a regular lodge room, breakfast on morning of departure, 3 complimentary golf balls/pkg of tees, unlimited rounds of golf w/cart on day of arrival/departure.

$115.00 - Lake Murray, Sequoyah $125.00 - Roman Nose or Lakeview Lodge/Cedar Creek at Beavers Bend lake Murray lodge, ardmore

Roman nose lodge, watonga

Sequoyah lodge, wagoner

lakeview lodge/Cedar Creek at Beavers Bend, Broken Bow

800.257.0322

800.892.8690

800.368.1486

800.435.5514

Package prices valid from September 16, 2012 through April 15, 2013. Prices per person, double occupancy required, taxes & gratuities not included. “Supreme” package includes (2) breakfast coupons valued up to $9.00 each. “Extreme” package includes (2) breakfast coupons valued up to $9.00 each and (2) dinner coupons valued up to $20.00 each. Guest receives meal coupons at check-in. Meal coupons have no cash value and can only be redeemed for food. Packages not valid on major holidays, for large groups or tournaments. Cannot be combined with other discounts or offers.

Cedar Creek

lakeview

6 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Contents What next for OU, OSU

28 40

Horseshoe Bay Features

18

What your golfer needs this holiday season

32

Departments

18

Wood goes wild: Edmond golfer wins twice in erasing long victory drought

Tom Randall: Pros find comfort in rug35 ged minister.

32

8 Remembering Roy Oxford 10 OGA 13 WOGA 14 Chip Shots 18 The goods 26 Equipment 28 Where we play 50 Pro Profile 51 Amateur Profile 52 Celebrity Profile 55 Instruction 56 Fitness 57 Architect’s Notebook 58 Super’s Perspective 60 Schedules & Results

37

Doug Brecht, LPGA rules official, battles effects of West Nile Virus

35

On the cover: Willie Wood. Photo by FL Morris, Honolulu Star-Advertiser

37

Support junior golf by contributing to the OGA Foundation Call 405-848-0042 for more information www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 7

Remembering Roy Oxford by gene mortenson oga rules director

T

terest in the Rules of he Oklahoma Golf because that is golfing commua critical part of connity lost a dear friend ducting tournaments, with the passing of but was somehow Roy Oxford on Aug. lacking at the OGA. 31, at the age of 88.

Roy attended several Roy was a vital part workshops and beof the Oklahoma came the Rules Guru.

Golf Association for I joined Barrett’s Boys more than 25 years in 1993 and vividly and, in that capacity, recall Barrett getperformed services ting on the radio to that were of indirect ask, “Ox, there is benefit to every parthis player who did ticipant in the game. thus . . . what do I Tom Brokaw tell him?” Roy had wrote a book, The the correct answer.

Greatest Generation, Roy and Florence Oxford.

As Barrett recruited about the young men more Boys, Roy beand women who had the spirit of patriotism and unselfishly went came their mentor and always took care to off to win World War II. He was writing see that the Rules Crew handled situations about Roy, a proud member of that group in a prompt and efficient manner. He was on who joined the Navy in February 1943. Roy the course when the first group hit tee shots received numerous commendations, two and didn’t leave until the last player’s scoreBronze Stars, and received an honorable dis- card was returned. He was highly respected by everyone who played in those events. I charge in February 1946.

Upon his return home he enrolled at would add that another benefit to having Oklahoma A&M (now OSU). He graduated Roy at each event was that when Barrett in December 1950. During his last year in needed a volunteer for whatever project, college Roy achieved his greatest accom- Florence was usually available to assist.

Roy became involved in all aspects of the plishment in that he convinced Florence to marry him and they started their loving OGA including course ratings. In that capacity he trained the new guys and, again, took companionship on Aug. 3, 1950.

Following graduation Roy served his whatever time was necessary to teach the country in a different capacity when he proper procedures so that each rating was became an agent of the Federal Bureau of accurate. During his years with the OGA Investigation in February 1951. He was as- he probably rated every course in the state signed to field offices on the East Coast until at least once. He also served on the board January 1960, when he opened an office in of directors and cheerfully performed every Enid. He was involved in the investigation other duty that was asked of him.

Roy served as a volunteer for the United of several high- profile cases including Gene Leroy Hart, a suspect in the murder of three States Golf Association as a member of the Oklahoma girls, and D. B. Johnson, the first Senior Amateur Committee from 1999-2011 plane hijacker. He retired from the FBI in and, in that capacity, officiated at its National Championships. Because of his expertise, 1974.

Roy served as vice president of Central he also served as a Rules official at NCAA National Bank from 1975 to 1981. He then Championships and numerous college and was the head of security for Champlin Pe- high-school events.

If you are “lucky” in life you will come troleum from 1981 to1987.

It was during his time with Champlin that into contact with an individual who is sinhe was persuaded to become one of “Bar- cere, very dependable and who has a wonrett’s Boys” as a volunteer with the OGA. At derful sense of humor. They are the ones the time the OGA was a one-man operation with whom you can form strong friendin that Bill Barrett did it all. It was good for- ships. Those who spent time with Roy tune for the association that Roy had an in- were, indeed, lucky.

8 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Golf Oklahoma Volume 2, Number 5 Golf Oklahoma Offices Southern Hills Plaza 6218 S. Lewis Ave., Ste. 200 Tulsa, OK 74136 918-280-0787 Oklahoma City Office 405-640-9996 Publisher Ken MacLeod ken@golfoklahoma.org COO/Marketing Director A.G. Meyers agm@golfoklahoma.org Art & Technology Director Derek Hillman derek@golfoklahoma.org Subscriptions to Golf Oklahoma are $15 for one year (five issues) or $25 for two years (10 issues). Call 918-280-0787 or go to www.golfoklahoma.org.

Contributing photographers Rip Stell, Mike Klemme Golf Oklahoma PGA Instructional Staff Jim Woodward Teaching Professional, Oak Tree National jwoodwardgolf@sbcglobal.net, 405-348-2004 E.J. Pfister Teaching Professional, Oak Tree National ejgolf@me.com Pat McTigue Owner, GolfTec Tulsa and Oklahoma City pmctigue@golftec.com Steve Ball Owner, Ball Golf Center, Oklahoma City www.ballgolf.com, 405-842-2626 Pat Bates Director of Instruction, Gaillardia Country Club pbates@gaillardia.com, 405-509-3611 Tracy Phillips Director of Instruction, Buddy Phillips Learning Center at Cedar Ridge vt4u@yahoo.com, 918-352-1089 Jerry Cozby PGA Professional jerrycozby@aol.com, 918-914-1784 Michael Boyd, PGA Professional Indian Springs Country Club 918-455-9515 Oklahoma Golf Association 2800 Coltrane Place, Suite 2 Edmond, OK 73034 405-848-0042 Executive Director Mark Felder mfelder@okgolf.org Director of Handicapping and Course Rating Jay Doudican jdoudican@okgolf.org Director of Junior Golf Morri Rose morose@okgolf.org Copyright 2012 by Golf Oklahoma Magazine. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from Golf Oklahoma. Golf Oklahoma is published

by South Central Golf, Inc.

ROCK SOLID WARRANTIES ARE WHY BLUE HAVEN IS OKLAHOMA’S BEST AND MOST TRUSTED POOL BUILDER

Landscaping Outdoor Kitchens Firepits and Arbors

BlueHavenOKC.com Winner of 8 Straight Oklahoman Reader’s Choice Awards

405.844.7500 VISIT OUR EDMOND DESIGN CENTER 200 NE 150TH STREET

OKLAHOMA GOLF ASSOCIATION

OGA juniors impressive The Oklahoma Golf Association wrapped up another excellent season of competition in the state with three events in August and September.

Oklahoma State star Talor Gooch went wild at the OGA Stroke Play Championship at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course.

Gooch set the course record twice in the event, starting with a first-round 63 and finishing with a stunning 62 for a 20-under-par 193. Hunter Sparks, the defending champion, was 12 shots behind in second place.

Gooch was 7-under on his final nine holes with an eagle and five birdies. For those who know that Jimmie Austin is no pushover, that makes his scores all the more remarkable.

Matt VanCleave of Gilbert, Ariz., was the winner in a three-hole playoff of the 2012 Oklahoma Open held at Oak Tree Country Club East Course. He defeated Chris Thompson of Lawrence, Kan., after both players finished 54 holes at 8-under 202.

The OGA Mid-Amateur was held at Forest Ridge Golf Course and Don Clark of

10 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Quade Cummins has been on a tear.

Shawnee, Okla., managed the only round of even-par or better in the tournament with a first-round 72, propelling him to a one-shot victory over Brad Christiansen of Jenks.

Speaking of incredible scoring, our juniors have been putting up some mind-bending numbers on the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour fall series.

Quade Cummins, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound sophomore at Weatherford High School, shot 63-68 to win the Norman Pediatrics Associates Kickingbird Fall Classic, then shot 68-65 to win the John Conrad Labor Day Classic. In one stretch he shot six consecu-

tive tournament rounds in the 60s.

Cummins gave up his position as center on the football team to concentrate on golf this year and is playing Mark Felder some incredible golf.

OGA Executive He drives it close to 300 Director yards, hits solid iron shots and his Ping Anser has been providing the answers on the greens.

Cummins is just one of many talented Oklahoma youngsters putting up tremendous numbers this fall. You can follow all their exploits at www.okgolf.org and at the magazine site www.golfoklahoma.org.

Next year promises to be another great year for golf in the state. Our State Amateur Championship will be held July 22-24 at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, the Perry Maxwell layout which this year celebrated its centennial. Check the website for the rest of the schedule.

Please be sure to read the accompanying story by Gene Mortensen about long-time OGA volunteer Roy Oxford. Ox was a rock for the OGA and will be dearly missed.

View from inside the storm

Despite loss, Verplank says Ryder Cup unmatched Americans faltered in almost every match event. It was pretty phenomenal. It’s a great event. It’s ridiculous how great the event is.

Team USA owned a 10-4 lead late Satur- on the final two holes.

In a key swing of momentum after it ap- There’s nothing like it.” day afternoon at the 39th Ryder Cup when The heartache Verplank felt primarily was Ian Poulter was in the middle of burying five peared Team USA had stabilized itself, Europe’s Justin Rose birdied No. 17 and No. 18 for Team USA captain Davis Love III, a longstraight birdies for the European team.

That’s when the American’s apparent tap- to go from 1-down to 1-up in a victory over time friend who selected the ever-competitive Verplank as an assistant in large part bein to recapture the Ryder Cup suddenly be- Phil Mickelson.

“If Justin Rose doesn’t make that 50-foot- cause of his 4-1-0 career record in two Ryder gan to grow outside gimme range.

Although Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson er on 17 against Mickelson, we win. Pretty Cups appearances.

“I know for me – and I’m pretty sure it countered with three birdies of their own simple,” Verplank said. “Amazing as it was on the final five holes of four-ball competi- – and it should have never come down to also was this way for the (American) playtion, Poulter single-handedly was able to that – stuff like that happens all the time in ers – the biggest disappointment was for Davis,” Verplank said. “Davis was flip a 1-down deficit into a 1-up awesome. He did everything right, victory. That was preceded by did everything possible to make it a methodical 1-up victory from an awesome experience for everyLuke Donald and Sergio Garcia body.” against the unfathomably winAs is always the case no matter less tandem of Tiger Woods and who wins the Ryder Cup, plenty Steve Stricker. of criticism was heaped on the losAs night fell, Team USA’s 10-4 ing captain. lead had dwindled to 10-6 and the Critics claimed Love should not following day would end with a have sat the team of Mickelson colossal collapse as a 14.5-13.5 and Keenan Bradley during Saturvictory allowed the Europeans to day’s four-ball competition after retain the Ryder Cup for the 10th the tandem had posted a 3-0 retime in the last 14 events. cord to that point. Nor should Love U.S. assistant captain Scott have kept the Woods-Stricker duo Verplank happened to be astogether after going 0-2 on opening signed to watch the four-ball day and sitting them on Saturday match where Poulter caught fire morning. and got bug-eyed with incessant “They have no clue,” Verplank celebrations after each birdie. said of Love’s critics. “I thought we Though Verplank still believed had a great plan. We kept people the Americans would win the together who wanted to play toCup the next day, he also realgether. If you split up Stricker and ized the challenge had stiffened Woods what are you going to do, considerably because the Eurosit down Tiger again and have him peans trailed by four matches, not play at all on Saturday? Dayet somehow had captured the vis did not want to split up teams momentum. The Euros tied the that were mentally and physically largest comeback victory in Ryready to play together. der Cup history, matching when “As for sitting Phil and Keenthe Americans overcame a 10-6 an, how come Ian Poulter didn’t deficit in 1999 at The Country Scott Verplank congratulates Keegan Bradley. play Friday afternoon when he Club in Brookline, Mass.

Photo Coutesy of the PGA of America. ended up winning every match “It’s kind of like that line in ‘Dumb & Dumber’ when the guy finds sports. It’s what separates the wins from the he played? Anything they criticized, you out there’s a one-in-a-million chance of go- losses. It was one of those deals where they could pick the opposite side and have just ing out with Lauren Holly and he says, ‘So had nothing to lose, so they all played loose as strong an argument. That doesn’t make it the wrong decision. There’s a lot more you’re saying there’s a chance,’ “ Verplank and free and they won.”

Despite the gut-wrenching outcome, stuff going on behind the scenes than any of said with a chuckle. “That’s kind of what that Poulter match was like and I think that Verplank still marveled at the event, which those critics know about.

“That’s what makes it such a great event, drew the largest television audience since kept them alive.” though.”

Team USA lost the first four singles 1999.

“The thing is so evenly matched, that’s matches on Sunday and suddenly there was John Rohde is a writer for The Oklahoman and a 10-10 deadlock at Medinah Country Club what makes it so great,” Verplank said. outside Chicago. Down the stretch, the “That’s why so many people watch the NewsOK.com.

by john rohde

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 11

OKLAHOMA GOLF ASSOCIATION

Knowing options helpful I visited my local pro recently about issues I was having not getting out of bunkers. His advice was not to hit my ball into the bunkers. I suppose that same advice also holds for water hazards. In spite of that morsel of wisdom, I cannot always avoid the bunkers or water hazards. Unlike a bunker, Rule 26 provides for several ways to get the ball out of a water hazard.

There are both water hazards and lateral water hazards. Water hazards are marked with yellow stakes and/or yellow lines and lateral water hazards are marked with red stakes and/or red lines. While not always the case, water hazards typically run across the play of a hole like a pond or a stream while lateral water hazards typically run parallel to the play of a hole like a stream, creek, river or even an ocean.

In order to use Rule 26, the player must know or have virtual certainty that his ball is within the margin of the water hazard. The point where the ball “last” crossed the margin of the hazard is also required. The player shouldn’t have trouble knowing where the

12 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

ball crossed if there is certainty the ball is in the hazard. If the ball rattled around in the trees and the water hazard is surrounded by high grass, the player cannot “assume” the ball is in the hazard and Rule 26 does not apply. That is a lost ball and the player must play it as such.

For a ball known to be in either a water hazard or a lateral water hazard, the rule provides the player has several options.

First, the player may choose to play the ball from the hazard. A second option is to drop a ball keeping the point where his ball “last” crossed the margin of the hazard between the drop spot and the flagstick. There is no restriction on how far back the player drops so long as that line is maintained. Then yet as another option, the player may play a ball from a spot as nearly as possible from where the original ball was last played. The second and third options require adding one stroke.

Lateral water hazards provide two additional options. Again, for one penalty stroke, the player may drop a ball within two club lengths (not nearer the hole) of where the

ball “last” crossed the margin of the lateral hazard, OR the player can use a point on the opposite side of the lateral hazard equidistant to where the ball “last” David Thompson crossed the lateral waPresident ter hazard.

Oklahoma Golf I have emphasized Association the point where the ball “last” crossed. The relief options may be very different playing across a pond, for example, if a ball struck over the pond landed beyond the hazard, but bounced back into the hazard. Unless the hazard is marked as a lateral water hazard (red markings), all relief options remain on the side of the pond from where the shot was struck, but the line of relief keeps the “last” point on the opposite side between the drop point and the flagstick. Remember, there is no such thing as “line of flight” for relief.

If you have any questions or comments on the Rules of Golf, email them to Rules@ golfoklahoma.org. We will answer each of them on a new rules section at www.golfoklahoma.org.

WOGA NEWS AND NOTES

ONLINE: Get local, national, equipment, and travel stories online at golfoklahoma.org

WOGA Year in Review 2012 was a banner year for the members of the Women’s Oklahoma Golf Association. Membership goals were met, the Fore State Championship was won in recordsetting fashion and new champions were crowned in virtually every event.

The 2012 season started with the 94th Annual State Amateur Championship at Gaillardia Country Club in Oklahoma City.

This was Gaillardia’s first year to host the event. Whitney McAteer came into this year’s tournament as the two-time defending champion and was biding for her third title, but 2007 Amateur Champion Amber Hensley captured her second State Amateur title after defeating Mustang’s June Tigert 5 and 3 in the final match.

The 62nd Annual Girl’s Junior Championship hosted by Willow Creek Country Club in Oklahoma City followed the State Am. This year’s champion was Caroline Goodin of Deer Creek. Goodin shot a final-round 71 to claim a three-stroke victory and match the best round of the event. Four-time state champion Megan Blonien and Maci Ar-

rington of Hinton tied for second.

California native and former University of Colorado golfer Alex Smith welcomed herself to WOGA at the Stroke Play Championship at The Oaks Country Club in Tulsa.

Alex poured in 10 birdies over the course of 36 holes to win the title by six shots over Aly Seng from the University of Central Oklahoma and State Amateur Champion Amber Hensely. The 2012 Mid-Am Championship was held simultaneously and was won by Janet Miller after she defeated Christy Carter by one stroke.

In July, 10 lucky ladies were named to the WOGA Fore-State Team and traveled to Hutchinson, Kan., to represent Oklahoma against some of the best golfers from Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. Members of the 2012 Fore-State Team were June Tigert, Kendra Mann, Caroline Goodin, Alex Stewart, Amber Hensely, Janet Miller, Jill Johnson, Lauren Michael, Charter Lawson and Aly Seng. The team was led by Captain Sheila Dills. The ladies were victorious and claimed a record, eighth Fore-State Champi-

WOGA Senior champ Teresa Delarzelere.

onship. Arkansas finished second. This was the first year the Girl’s Junior Champion was given an exemption to the event and Dills said it was a very positive experience.

The 2012 Senior Championship was held at Meadowbrook Country Club in Tulsa.

More records were set as Teresa Delarzelere of Indian Springs recorded her fifth straight Senior crown. Teresa defeated Mid-Am Champion Janet Miller on the first hole of a sudden-victory play off to claim the title.

To cap off the year, WOGA President Cherie Rich was awarded the Jarita Askins Service Award from the Women’s Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame at the Senior Championship.

TESTED FOR A HOME IN DUBAI. TRUSTED FOR HOMES IN OKLAHOMA.

• Lifetime Warranties* • Great Financing Rates (WAC) • Free “No Pressure” Estimates *See our website or call for details

It’s Hard To Stop A Trane. ™

It’s Hard To Top A Hill. ™

TAKE OFF YOUR SCORE! From the Price of A New System Sandbaggers Allowed. Limit $150. EXP 2/28/2013. Not Valid with other offers.

TopAHill.com www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 13

Chip shots

News from around the state

Dr. Leon Combs with friend and playing partner Jon Flowers.

Shooting age part of daily routine Best estimate is more than 2,500 times for 91-year-old by ken macleod

Shooting your age in golf for the first time is a thrilling moment. Dr. Leon Combs remembers the first time he did it, more than two decades ago.

The problem is keeping track of all the times it’s happened since. For Combs, now 91 and still playing almost daily at Shawnee Country Club, shooting his age is about as momentous as changing socks.

Combs plays about 250 rounds per year and shoots his age or better in nearly all of 14 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

them. In early September he shot a 73 with five birdies, beating his age by 18 shots, which probably hasn’t happened very often though there are no reliable records on this.

The best guess on the number of times he’s shot his age is somewhere north of 2,500.

“We play all year except for when the weather is really bad,” Combs said. “I have a group of young guys (60s to late 80s) that play around noon every day. My wife passed away in 2000, and I eventually sold my house in town and moved out here close to the club. I stopped playing tennis a while

back. So, I play a lot of golf.”

Combs graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School in 1944 and was immediately called to active duty in the U.S. Navy. He was to be part of the bloody battles in the Japanese Home Islands, but the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed that.

“Fortunately for me and a lot of other people, they dropped The Bomb while I was on my way to Pearl Harbor. That saved millions of lives, including possibly mine. All orders were changed and I ended up on Guam for

ONLINE: Get the latest news on Oklahoma golf at

golfoklahoma.org

four months, then a battalion surgeon in China.”

Combs had two brothers who were also in the war, one of whom fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was eventually injured and sent home.

After the war, he set up a family practice in Shawnee and took up golf for the first time at age 31. He is an excellent tour guide if you want to know the history of Shawnee Country Club, which opened as a nine-hole course in 1929 and expanded to 18 in 1998.

Combs will tell you not only about each hole but fascinating tidbits about the surrounding houses and the families that live or have lived there.

He’s been a low-handicap golfer for decades. He competes regularly in the World Super Seniors event at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, N.C., winning his age group numerous times.

“You have to be 70 to compete and they have a division for 80 and over,” Combs said. “I won that the first three or four times I played. Now all those young 81-year-olds

are winning it.”

Although he stays active, Combs attributes his longevity to genetics. His father lived to be 90, his mother 97 and grandfather and grandmother on his father’s side lived to 93 and 95, respectively.

Combs has made five aces in his golfing career and enjoyed the game at fine courses around the country.

“He’s remarkable,” said Jon Flowers, one of his playing partners and the president of the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers. “He’s out here this summer in that awful heat looking out for me. He plays great and he’s great to play with.”

Titleist Counts

Titleist has long been a leader among the club professionals when choosing their own balls, gloves and clubs, so it was no surprise when the company dominated the equipment count in every category at the South Central PGA Professional Championship at Forest Ridge Golf Club this summer.

The numbers are provided by Titleist rep-

resentative Patrick Moriarty, who has been assiduously taking counts at various regional events for years.

This year Titleist had a commanding edge in balls (72 percent, up from 65 percent in 2011), drivers (57 percent), irons (59 percent), fairways woods (45 percent to Taylormade’s 27 percent) and wedges (57 percent).

Perhaps more impressive for the company was Titleist’s dominance at The Oklahoma Open, which is filled mainly by unaffiliated mini-tour players who are not selling clubs for a living.

Of the 150 players surveyed at the 2012 Open, 119 were hitting Titleist golf balls compared to 13 for next highest TaylorMade. The driver count was close with 44 for Titleist to 40 for Taylormade and 25 for Ping. Fairway metals were 51 for Titleist, 39 for TaylorMade and 26 for Ping.

There were 55 golfers playing Titleist irons to 25 for Ping, 17 for Taylormade, 16 for Nike and 10 each for Mizuo and Callaway. In putters, Titleist had 55 to 34 for Odyssey, 22 for Ping and 16 for Taylormade.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 15

Chip shots

Patriotic getaway

New cottages offer respite Three plush cottages have opened at The Patriot Golf Club in Owasso, perfect retreats for out-of-town members but also open to prospective members and groups in town to play golf on The Patriot Rounds program.

Each of the three Patriot Cottages has been named after an Oklahoma Medal of Honor recipient: Tulsa’s Albert Earnest Schwab, private first class, Marines; Pawnee’s Ernest Edwins Evans, commander, Navy; and Broken Arrow’s Ernest Childers, second lieutenant, Army. The cottages are individually owned by Sanjay and Julie Meshri, Jack and Nancy Adkisson and Paul Seismore.

“The Patriot Golf Club is a special place, and these cottages and their namesakes are a perfect fit for the mission and mystique of The Patriot,” Sanjay Meshri said.

Each cottage features four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, a full kitchen, a great room, pool table, bar, and large covered patio overlooking the ninth hole. Each is available for rent to both Patriot membership and the community.

Bill Butts of Pinnacle Properties began 16 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

construction on the $1.5 million project in December 2011.

“The cottages serve several purposes for our membership and the community,” business director Holly Dierenzo said.

“They help us reach out to Inside and outside, the Patriot Cottages are plush. the Tulsa-area community for executive retreats and events. Our club is far private course” and the “best new overall enough away from downtown Tulsa to be course” by Golfweek magazine in 2011.

For information about The Patriot Cottaga destination point for groups who need an upscale location for strategic planning, a spe- es, call Dierenzo at 918-272-1260 or email cial occasion or an important meeting. Addi- cottages@patriotgolfclub.com. tionally, the Patriot Cottages help us draw national members to join and patronize the The Medal of Honor club. Finally, the Patriot Cottages provide The Medal of Honor is the highest milian opportunity for our local membership to tary decoration awarded by the U.S. govbring guests in for a golfing weekend so they ernment. It is bestowed by the President in can stay on site.” the name of Congress, and is conferred only The Patriot Cottages are another com- upon members of the armed forces who displeted component of the master plan of tinguish themselves through “conspicuous The Patriot. The first stage of the plan was gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or completed in 2010: the clubhouse and 18- her life above and beyond the call of duty hole course designed by Robert Trent Jones while engaged in an action against an enemy Jr. The golf course was voted the “best new of the United States.”

Indian Springs makeover

The sound of hammers pounding and drills buzzing is a welcome cacophony at Indian Springs Country Club in Broken Arrow, where new owners Ryker Young and Paul Coffman have embarked on a much-needed updating of the 36-hole facility they recently purchased.

Workers are busy rebuilding a patio grill area including a new roof on the entryway.

Major sprucing up is either underway or about to get started in the grill, locker rooms, fitness facility and restaurant.

Superintendent David Jones has embarked on a major face lift of the course, thanks in part to about $300,000 in new equipment that has given him the tools to reinvigorate the two courses, including the River Course which has been the site of numerous important men’s and women’s championships since it was built in 1967.

The improvements are not just physical.

New general manager Mark Barrett, formerly of The Oaks Country Club, has revamped a whole range of member services and brought a new spirit, unity and direction to a service staff that was floundering.

“The facilities were tired,” Ryker said.

Indian Springs Country Club.

“One of the first things we wanted to address was the curb appeal and then throughout the facility. The workout room, for instance, was not just tired, it was dead.”

The two owners and general manager inherited not just an aging facility, but a predominantly older membership, many of whom have been dedicated members for decades. The club, with its shorter Windmill course, pools and huge tennis facilities, is ideally suited to appeal to young families and those will be among the targets of the new marketing campaign once renovations are complete.

Already 36 new members have joined

since the sale went through in late August.

Many of those were previous members who had lapsed. There are plenty more of those to recruit since the club’s peak of about 975 members in 2006. Indian Springs was closing in on 600 members including social and tennis at press time.

The two owners are also part owners of Muskogee Country Club and both run other successful businesses – Coffman in road and building construction and Ryker a variety including high-end real estate developments, some of which involve prestigious golf courses. Their investment in Muskogee CC is a labor of love for their hometown course, at Indian Springs it’s a business venture. In both cases, they realize success comes from making the club a relevant and integral part of the member’s lives.

“The days of daddy’s club that he disappeared to on Saturday and came home on Sunday night are long gone,” Barrett said.

“Everything is geared around the family.

We’re competing with soccer and all those other activities. And with our tennis, pool and golf facilities and what we’re going to do here, we feel good about what we have to offer.”

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 17

Golf Oklahoma’s Holid W

elcome to Golf Oklahoma’s first annual Holiday Gift Guide. Greg Horton, who compiles The Goods section each issue, has pulled together this guide that doesn’t tell you specifically what

to buy, but offers some thoughts and suggestions you may not have considered. Be sure to share this with that special person, you know, the one who controls the pursestrings. And Merry Christmas!

The Gift: Golf Equipment The Scoop: Where else would you start a gift guide for golfers? No golfer has ever uttered the words, “I have enough equipment.” From shoes to bags to balls to clubs, it is almost impossible to go wrong with golf equipment or a gift card for golf equipment.

Golf Oklahoma says: A gift card is always better than buying clubs for someone else, as they will need to get custom fit. Buy from your local PGA professional. Golf Galaxy and Edwin Watts are also great choices.

The Gift: Golf Lessons The Scoop: Every golfer knows there is room for improvement. Why not help yourself or your favorite golfer with a few lessons to work on the swing, short game or putting.

Golf Oklahoma says: See one of the experts who contribute instruction articles each month in Golf Oklahoma.

Your home course PGA professional and Golftec are great options.

The Gift: Golf Discount Card The Scoop: Many golfers love to explore courses throughout the state.

Golf Oklahoma says: We have two

good local options available, the Partner’s Club Card from the South Central Section of the PGA and the Passport based in Oklahoma City.

The Gift: Golf Cart The Scoop: Many courses still allow you to bring and store your own cart.

Golf Oklahoma says: Justice Golf Car, with huge stores in Oklahoma City

The Gift: A Resort Weekend The Scoop: You don’t have to leave Oklahoma to enjoy a weekend escape to a beautiful, high quality resort.

Choose an overnighter or an entire weekend. Golf, swim, hike, gamble, and relax.

Golf Oklahoma says: Oklahoma has some great stay-and-play options.

From north to south, there is Downstream Casino with Eagle Creek Golf 18 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

and Tulsa, has everything the individual needs, from a bargain to a luxury ride that will make your partners green with envy.

Course near Joplin, the rebuilt Shangri-La and Patricia Island on Grand Lake, Cherokee Hills Golf Course and the Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa and WinStar Golf Course and Chickasaw Pointe near Lake Texoma. The State Parks offer cabins and lodges near all of their seven courses, many of which are in unique geographical settings.

Explore Oklahoma!

day

Gift Guide

The Gift: Jet Charter The Scoop: A jet charter allows you to take your crew on a golf junket and skip the hassles and delays of commercial travel.

The Gift: Custom Boots

The Scoop: Custom-made boots allow you to express your unique personality, and they look great under the Christmas tree.

Golf Oklahoma says: American Jet Charter knows the business and knows golf. They have eleven aircraft available to handle nearly any size party.

Golf Oklahoma says: Loveless Boots has been making custom footwear for 28 years. This family owned business has an amazing assortment of exotic skins, styles, and colors, and they can replicate any design.

The Gift: Hot Tub The Scoop: After a day on the course, why not lounge in your own pool or spa? Custom pools and spas bring the 19th hole poolside at your house.

Golf Oklahoma says: Blue Haven Pools will work with you from concept to completion, and they carry the beautiful Gunite Spas.

The Gift: Pool or Game Table The Scoop: For days when you can’t golf, you can still get friends together for a game of pool, Texas Hold’em, blackjack, or shuffleboard.

Golf Oklahoma says: Amini’s Galleria, a family-owned business, has been selling quality gaming tables since 1975. See their amazing selection of pool and casino tables.

The Gift: Fine Dining Gift Card The Scoop: It is impossible to go wrong with a gift card for a dinner at one of Oklahoma’s many prime steakhouses. Steak, seafood, wine, cocktails, and a night out. Easy to purchase and always appreciated.

The Gift: Wine

The Scoop: Christmas is the time to splurge on that classic bottle of wine that makes every day feel like a holiday.

Golf Oklahoma says: Don’t skimp on this one. Pick up the Joseph Phelps

The Gift: Scotch

The Scoop: Very few spirits can justify price tags over $100, but Scotch lovers agree that their beloved spirit is worth every dime. It’s not for everyone, but for those who have the palate for it, there is no substitute.

Golf Oklahoma says: Mahogany Prime Steakhouse offers prime steaks, delicious seafood, including shelled king crab legs, and a remarkable wine list.

Locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa make it a convenient choice.

Insignia. This massive Napa Valley blend might be the classic Napa wine.

Bruce Upthegrove, a wine representative for Republic National Distributing, said, “If there was a world championship of wine, I’d send Insignia to represent the U.S.”

Golf Oklahoma says: Highland Park has been distilling Scotch whisky since 1798 at their Orkney facility. The Highland Park 18 is a lovely balance of sweet oak and peat, with toffee, caramel, and citrus peel notes. www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 19

Golf Oklahoma’s Holiday Gift Guide The Gift: Cigars The Scoop: On the course, in the lounge, or at the house, it’s hard to top a good cigar as an excellent complement to a day of golf.

Golf Oklahoma says: ZT Cigars carries an excellent assortment of the world’s finest cigars. Pick up the w Series, or for the more adventurous, try Tatuaje Reserva.

The Gift: Oklahoma City Thunder Tickets The Scoop: We probably don’t even need to explain this one. Tickets to see the NBA finalists, featuring NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant, makes for one of the best nights out in Oklahoma.

Golf Oklahoma says: Single game tickets went on sale October 2. The home opener is November 2 against the Portland Trailblazers. Buy early to get the best available.

The Gift: Fresh Meat Delivered The Scoop: A gift package from a local meat processor gives you access to the freshest meats and seafood delivered to your door.

20 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Golf Oklahoma says: Cusack Meats has been processing meat in Oklahoma City since 1933. This Oklahoma icon has packages that include Angus beef, lamb, pork, turkey, and delicious seafood, including lobster tails.

The Gift: Barbecue Grills and Outdoor Kitchens The Scoop: For the grillmaster or outdoor chef, consider a new grill, smoker, or fully equipped outdoor kitchen.

Golf Oklahoma says: Everything Barbecue can outfit your entire backyard or outdoor kitchen with top of the line equipment and custom designed outdoor kitchens.

The Gift: An Ergonomic Chair The Scoop: After a hard day at the links, golfers need a comfortable and relaxing place to watch the action.

Golf Oklahoma says: Relax The Back specializes in zero-gravity chairs that are the ideal place to watch Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy duel. Convenient locations in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

The Gift: Exercise Equipment

Golf Oklahoma says: Push, Pedal and Pull has everything the golfer needs to get in shape, again with locations in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

w e ar e n ot a s ha m e d o f o u r h i g h sco r e s .

10 WINES RATED 90 POINTS OR HIGHER IN FIVE VINTAGES* * 9 0+

v i n ta g e s :

20 05 -20 09

Item #248 ©2012 Columbia Crest Winery, Paterson, WA 99345

The Scoop: Every golfer knows he must maintain core strength and flexibility to play their best.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 21

The goods leanings show with a NoBama Brew.)

But it’s his versatility that has prevented him from canning his beers. “It’s mainly a storage problem; if you had six different beers you’d need six truckloads of cans.

Contrast that with one truckload of bottles by tom bedell with six different labels.”

The Mustang Brewing Company gets While normally reviewing golf books in our offerings about five years ago and it just this space, I’ve turned to my second favorite didn’t work then. But the fad is definitely around the storage problem by actually consumable for this issue, one I have a fair picking up now. People want to try different brewing most of its beer out of state, after amount of experience with. But then, what beers and drink local. We had an outing not developing recipes at the pilot brewery in few golfers don’t enjoy a beer at the nine- long ago where we had a specific request to Oklahoma City.

Although the first pilot brewery was a teenth hole? Or, it must be admitted, those stock different beers for the players to try.”

There’s no better place to start broaden- five-gallon turkey cooker in Tim and Carwho find that it helps to have a little swing ing one’s drinking horizons than with local men Schoelen’s garage. But once they decidoil during the round?

Personally, I’m not much of a drink and brews. That gives Oklahoma golfers four ed to take the plunge into the beer business, drive man, preferring to reach the clubhouse choices in cans at the moment. More will the couple served up their first pints of Mustang Golden Ale in July of 2009 at at the end of the round for a glass James E. McNellie’s Public House. of beer that often seems like a The Golden Ale is one of the reward (especially if I won the two brews in cans, Washita Wheat match and the other guy is paythe other. Seasonals and big beer ing). specialties from brewmaster Gary But, as a certified beer snob I Shellman (the “Saddlebag Series”) seldom found anything to rouse are produced at the pilot plant. my interest when the beverage But the canned beers are made at cart rolled around. Most of the the Stevens Point Brewery in Wisflavorful craft beers were bottled, consin. and bottles weren’t usually al“The Golden Ale is a 5.3% ABV lowed out on the course. [alcohol by volume] beer,” said Times change: just as the tides Eric Pennell, marketing director of beer increasingly flow toward for the company. “The Washita offerings with more taste and Wheat comes in at 5.6%, and it’s character, so too has the prejuour number one seller. We sell the dice given way about putting small batch Saddleback Series just good beer in cans. in Oklahoma, but the other beers When California’s Sierra Ne- Washita Wheat and Golden Ale from Mustang Brewing Co. are in Kansas, Arkansas, and Misvada Brewing announced last year it would begin putting its near-iconic surely be on the way, though the state has souri in a few months. Tennessee and GeorPale Ale into cans, the battle was pretty not exactly been a pioneer in the micro- gia are in the works.”

Mustang will probably produce 5,500 much over. And it now leaves little excuse brewery movement--or any brewing movefor golf course beverage managers: it’s time ment. The latest statistics from the Brewers barrels of beer in 2012, still a micro by any to step up your game and offer players a Association put Oklahoma’s nine breweries definition.

The Golden Ale pours out hazy, apricot wider and better choice than the usual bel- 41st in the U.S. for per capita breweries. But still ahead of Texas and Arkansas! in color, with a bit of tinned pineapple in lywash. the nose, a vague suggestion of strawberry Numerous Oklahoma courses are on the Twizzlers, and a hint of caramel. For a sturbandwagon. Jared Keith, the head bartender To Can or Not to Can at the Rose Creek Golf Club, said, “We’ve The Huebert Brewing Company opened dy 5.3% ABV beer, it seemed a little thin in carried Washita Wheat and Golden Ale from its doors in Oklahoma City in 2003, mak- flavor and light on the palate.

I much preferred the Washita Wheat— the Mustang Brewing Company on the bev- ing it the oldest official microbrewery in the erage carts since last summer, as well as state, notwithstanding the long presence of made with Oklahoma red wheat, but actually lighter in color in the glass than the their Session 33,” a lower alcohol brew. The Choc Beer from Krebs. beers are also on tap at the club’s Trellis Bar, Owner Rick Huebert was instrumental in Golden Ale, more peach than apricot. Also and Keith said they are easily the best sellers helping to change the prohibition era laws hazy in the glass, it has fruity, lemon grass over other brews. that inhibited small scale brewing in Okla- aromas, and a more pronounced malt sweetChris Watkins, clubhouse manager, said homa, and he’s not shy about experiment- ness coming through on the palate. But the the Gaillardia Country Club has brews from ing, turning out about 19 different styles of overall impression is of a refreshing lemony both Mustang and COOP Ale Works on the beer, including such regulars as Wild Pony tang; there’s no clove character at all, as one beverage carts and on tap. “Craft beers are Wheat, Deep Deuce Porter and Tucker Pale would expect in a Bavarian weissbier--this is starting to move here. We added some to Ale. (During the election season he let his an American wheat beer all the way, clean

Can-tastic!

Local brewers take it to the course

22 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

and refreshing, and well-suited to cutting a golf round-induced thirst.

Approach Shots

Neither of the Mustang canned beers are world-beaters in the flavor arena, though as Jared Keith noted, either can give the mass market suds a run for their money, “because they’re very approachable beers,” and light on hop bittering.

That’s not to say the COOP Ale Works beers aren’t approachable; but they are just a bit more complex, up a rung on the craft brew stylistic ladder, with hefty ABV levels as well, particular the Belgian-style golden ale that finishes at a whopping 10% ABV, and appropriately named DNR. “We’re located 51 blocks north of downtown Oklahoma City,” said JD Merryweather,” a co-founder of the brewery.

“We’re selling only in Oklahoma, working in a seven-barrel brewhouse, producing about 2,000 barrels last year. But we’re doubling our capacity, getting ready to expand to a 30-barrel system.”

The company launched in January of 2009 after about five years of research. It’s F5 IPA

Two offerings from COOP Ale Works.

on the palate, with a nice mouth feel and a bracing hop bite at the finish, with a hint of chalk in the aftertaste.

The COOP beer also rates a mention in “The World Atlas of Beer” (had to get a book in here somewhere), newly out from Sterling Publishing. The only Oklahoma brew mentioned by authors Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont, the Horny Toad is dubbed, “A satisfying quaff for the Southern heat.”

On aroma alone, the Native Amber (6.3% ABV) gets my winning vote of the four beers. But then I’m a hophead, and the perfumy Cascade and Cluster hop bouquet of the beer is downright seductive. There’s a deep caramel aroma at play as well, which complements the mahogany appearance.

At 6.3% ABV, this is a fairly big beer, with a firm caramel malt attack and a balancing, almost tannic hop finish that lingers on quite nicely. I’m not sure Native Amber would improve my stroke out on the course, but it would easily be my first pick when contemplating the choices in the clubhouse.

is the best-selling of six year-round beers, although available only on draft.

The two canned beers are the Horny Toad Cerveza and Native Amber. The former, though made with pilsner malts, is really a top-fermented ale, hence some of the fruity esters in the nose, along with a biscuity Tom Bedell is a certified beer judge and was a sweetness. Pouring a clear, light gold in the glass, Horny Toad is a 5.3% ABV brew, crisp contributing editor to “The Encyclopedia of Beer.”

Oklahoma City (405) 634-0571 Tulsa (918) 663-0571 Toll Free (800) 276-0571

justicegolf.com www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 23

The goods What a cigar guy wants Travel humidor is great gift by todd naifeh and j.l. fletcher

Golfers, as a whole, enjoy their time outside. Be it four hours at their favorite course, some quality time on a boat with a fishing rod, or hiding in a duck blind waiting for the next flock, outside time is important. It is in this time we can also enjoy a fine cigar.

These outdoor events require special accessories for the cigar smoker. XIKAR makes many of these products. From windproof lighters to stainless steel cutters and Ashtray Cans to Xtreme travel humidors, XIKAR makes it all.

As a Kansas City based company, XIKAR is familiar with Midwest weather. Knowing the elements is important when transporting or smoking cigars. A cigar guy always wants his sticks to arrive in perfect condition. This is where the Xtreme travel humidor comes in handy. The humidor comes in several sizes ranging from 5 to 50+ count with many in between. It can also handle the rigors of an outdoor man.

These humidors are made of thick plas-

tic which is extremely durable and also maintains humidity easily. The boxes are also made airtight and watertight with the use of the silicon seal. These features are perfect for any element an outdoorsman may throw at it. Be it throwing it in the back of a cart, the floor of a boat, or in the mud of a duck blind, these humidors can take it and keep your cigars perfect.

XIKAR thinks so much of their products that they all carry a lifetime warranty. All things being treated equal, these travel humidors are an absolute must for any man who enjoys his outdoor time.

XIKAR Stratosphere

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get your cigar lit while outdoors. Matches are useless even in light wind, and trying to duck down behind the

golf cart to get out of the wind is an exercise in futility. Luckily the folks at XIKAR took a new approach to this problem with the Stratosphere high-altitude lighter.

The Stratosphere is rubber armored on the outside, with a rubber sealed protective cap, yet is thin enough that it rides comfortably in the pocket. The lid release and the trigger are on the same side so it can easily be operated with one thumb. There is a window so you can make sure it has plenty of fuel before you leave the house. The supplied lanyard allows you to hook it to your golf bag, hunting vest, or anywhere else you can imagine it would be handy. Once opened, you will realize the flame is what makes this lighter unique. It is one of the few truly wind resistant torches on the market.

Available in black, blue, clear, and hunter green, the Stratosphere is a great addition to a golf bag, tackle box, or hunting kit. It will get your cigar lit in a hurry or get a campfire started in a pinch.

HC Series Habano²

Proudly serving Oklahoma with a fine selection of cigars and related products.

Stop on by our current location and share a smoke with us!

www.ztcigars.com 2726 W Britton Rd (800) 340-3007 Oklahoma City, OK 73120 24 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

The new HC Series Habano² box pressed cigars were blended by Kurt Van Keppel and Scott Almsberger, the founders of XIKAR and this release is spot on. This cigar features a Habano2000 Cuban seed wrapper which is known for its complex taste and even color. It also has a binder and filler consistent of Sumatran, Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos.

The overall construction is very solid and the pre-light draw was easy. Once lit the initial notes of black pepper and cedar develop into sweet buttery notes. About an inch into the smoke, the spice fades into some slight salty notes which is a characteristic of traditional Cuban cigars. A little over halfway through, the strength fades and some white pepper notes fade to a final mild sweetness.

The burn is very even and the draw is easy throughout, requiring no touch ups thus producing a solid light gray ash.

This cigar retails for $7.50 in the Robusto to $9 in the Grande making the Havana² a very reasonably priced cigar for its uniqueness and quality.

Vance Auto Group has the prices and great selection you want. You’ll find one of Oklahoma’s best and most friendly service departments too. Come in for a FREE test drive and see why so many truck owners are driving the Ram 1500.

JUST A SHOR T DRIVE AWAY

Exit 153 I-35 • Guthrie • 405-282-2113 • 800-375-4471

www.vanceautogroup.com www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 25

EQUIPMENT

Manufacturers forge ahead Merging forgiveness with feel by ed travis

Tour Edge Exotics Xtreme CB

Mizuno MP-59

26 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

The conventional wisdom is forged irons are only for pros and really good amateurs.

Being made from carbon steel gives them a great feel, softer than that of cast stainless steel irons. But (and there’s always a ‘but’) they also have much smaller sweet spots, making them harder to hit, less forgiving unless you can make a near-perfect swing every time. However, there’s an undeniable cachet being able to say one plays with forged irons, but if the recreational player can’t hit them effectively scoring is sure to suffer.

Well, here’s another instance of conventional wisdom being wrong. Over the past three years almost every club manufacturer has added one or more forged-iron models to their lineup specifically designed for the less-accomplished golfer.

This raised the question in our mind of why. Has there been a breakthrough in design or manufacturing so forgings can now be made much easier to hit? Or is the appearance of forged irons aimed at the weekend golfer just a marketing strategy to attract additional sales?

Should the average player contemplate buying a set of forged irons to take advantage of the feel and workability? Certainly the acceptance of hybrids as substitutes for 2-, 3- and 4-irons (which even in ‘super game improvement’ models are hard to hit) has removed part of the reason for staying away.

Plus the advent of cavity-back, perimeterweighted designed forgings has brought a large measure of forgiveness to them.

To find the answer we asked several of the major club companies to comment. This is what they said.

According to Jay Hubbard, vice president of marketing for Tour Edge Golf and makers of the Exotics Xtreme Forged CB irons, “In general forged carbon steel is typically softer than the same cast steel. The real difference in feel is the result of the head design. The smaller forged muscle-back blade will produce more feel and feedback as compared to a slightly larger perimeter-weighted cast club that is geared to produce more forgiving shots even on mis-hits. These designs aren’t attributable to manufacturing innovation. It is more about segmenting the market to deliver products at various playing levels

that deliver the look and feel a golfer needs to improve his game.”

So the design of forged irons has shifted to that of a cavity back from the traditional muscle back. According to Nike Golf Product Line Manager Tony Dabbs, “My assumption is that the question is more geared toward cavity back versus blade product. The general performance difference would be higher trajectory, faster ball speed, and more forgiveness. This is not a forged versus cast differentiation; forged versus cast is merely a material and manufacturing method difference. The innovation centers around the consumer need for speed and feel. We are able to garner very high ball speeds with the new face designs and materials, which with modern-day laser-welding techniques can attach these faces to great feeling 1025 carbon steel bodies. It’s like driver technology in a forged iron.” Nike sells the Nike VR S Forged irons.

Tom Preece, vice president of club R&D for Cobra Golf (Cobra AMP Forged) echoed Dabbs, “The difference between these products (forged vs. cast) is really due to the design more so than the manufacturing process. The casting process enables more intricate designs since we’re using molten metal to flow into different parts of a mold.

This enables complex internal geometries that help designers maximize moment of inertia (MOI) and locate the center of gravity (CG) strategically for each individual iron.

The forging process involves stamping or pounding the material under high heat and pressure into shapes that are less intricate.

The MOI of forged irons tends to be lower, but better players like this since it means the irons are more “workable” Over at Callaway Golf, Evan Gibbs, Manager of Performance Analysis & Club Configuration told us, “Forged irons offer several advantages/differences over cast irons.

Although it’s difficult to quantify, improved feel is typically one of the things that golfers associate with a forged carbon steel iron. Another advantage of a forging is the precision control of groove geometry, which allows us to design a higher-performing groove than we can in a cast stainless steel iron. And lastly, depending on the type of forged iron

construction, we can utilize higher-strength face materials, which allow us to thin the face for increased ball speed and move more discretionary weight into the perimeter for increased forgiveness.”

Continuing citing the company’s Callaway Razr X Forged irons, “Typically, many of the cast iron (cavity back) designs from Callaway have been built for mid- to highhandicap players. In the case of the RAZR XF iron this year and the Diablo Forged irons a couple of years ago, we were able to offer the feel of a forged iron and the forgiveness of a cavity-back iron. The way we chose to forge these irons allowed us to utilize a lightweight, high-strength face that delivers great ball speed. The weight saved in the face can be re-positioned in the perimeter of the clubhead for increased forgiveness.”

Chuck Couch, Mizuno Golf director of marketing (Mizuno MP-59): “It was not long ago that the word forged meant ‘Better Player’ and ‘Not Forgiving.’ In contrast, cast meant ‘Higher Handicap Player’ and ‘Very Forgiving.’ These walls have been torn down a lot recently. The first thing is that for the players that appreciate and demand the ‘feel’ of forged, they have options from the historic muscle back to large cavity backs.

Furthermore, we as club designers are doing

a ton of work to utilize multi-materials in our forged irons (MP-59 with Titanium) as well as other exotic construction techniques like Milled Pocket Cavities (MP-53) and Hollow Technology (MP FLI-HI). These were once only for cast-game improvement clubs, but not anymore. Bottom line, if feel is paramount to you, we can give you added forgiveness with the above new technologies.”

Some of the design advancements have been applied to cast clubs as well, according to Couch, “The same thought process can be said for the perception of cast golf clubs.

We as golf-club creators are utilizing new badge technologies (JPX-800) and weight placement (JPX-800 HD Toe/Heel) to deliver a more solid feel at contact, but with even more wonderful forgiveness on mis-hits.

Bottom line, if forgiveness and distance are your goals, we have irons that deliver a very acceptable feel but now hit the ball farther and play more forgiving.”

Gary Gallagher, TaylorMade Golf Product Manager for Irons and makers of the TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC and CB forged irons, told us the cost of forging is a factor, “The most common reason that players cite for playing forged irons is that they feel very soft and responsive. For this reason you can say that this is a benefit for all golfers, not

just low-handicappers. The forging process is very expensive, so in the U.S. most of the players that buy this type of iron tend to be lower handicappers. As a trend, lower handicaps tend to spend more on their irons.

The forged market is approximately 10–12 percent of dollar sales in the U.S., 20 percent in the UK and almost 40 percent in Japan.”

Corey Consuegra of Bridgestone Golf (Bridgestone J40 Dual Pocket Cavity) reiterated previous comments but added there are some manufacturing factors as well. “The biggest difference is in feel. The compressed material of a forged iron will feel significantly softer when struck on the sweet spot than a cast iron. For those players who like to work the ball, feel is extremely important because it provides direct feedback on how well the shot was struck. Performance on things like velocity, launch angle and spin will be similar between forged and cast irons. The differences in feel result more from the characteristics of the materials used rather than the process itself.”

So are forged irons just the ticket for weekend warriors? Probably not for every one of them, but the consensus is forged clubs have performance advantages over cast irons and they can provide help to players looking to improve their games.

Where Tulsa plays golf!

Follow us on Facebook!

South Lakes 9253 S. Elwood Jenks, America

5501 S. Yale Ave., Tulsa, Okla.

www.SouthLakesGolf.com

www.LaFortuneParkGolf.com

918-746-3760

918-496-6200

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 27

Where we play

Versatile Cherokee Hills

Course offers something for everyone by ken macleod Combining a stay at the Hard Rock Casino with a few rounds at Cherokee Hills makes for an ideal weekend.

R

esort course. Destination for buddy trips and golf groups. Amenity for casino high rollers. Solid membership base. Upscale daily-fee with strong local following. Popular among seniors.

Most courses fit at most one or two of those labels. They all apply at Cherokee Hills, which is coming into its own just as the neighboring Hard Rock Casino continues to expand its world-class resort amenities with a gleaming new 100-room nonsmoking tower.

Versatility is the name of the game at Cherokee Hills, and it would seem no one is better suited to meet the needs of the varying clienteles than Jeff Jarrett, general manager of golf operations, whose background includes everything from mowing greens at dawn and closing the shop at dark-thirty on his own small-town public course to working at exclusive private clubs and popular resorts.

Jarrett has seemingly been training for this job since the days he and brother Chris, now the director of golf at The Patriot in Owasso, used to mow fairway strips and rough greens into their yard as boys in the small southeast Kansas town of Edna.

Since starting in the bag room at ShangriLa Resort, Jarrett has worked at Gowanie Golf Club near Detroit, Topeka CC, back to Shangri-La and then to The Golf Club of Oklahoma. He ended up in a lease partner28 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

ship at the former Buffalo Ridge Golf Club in Vinita where a Walmart now sits.

Jarrett brought his extensive and varied background to Indian Hills in 2002 just as the course was preparing for a massive redesign by architect Tripp Davis of Norman, transforming a tired and storm-damaged layout that still retained some of original architect Perry Maxwell’s handiwork into a much more scenic and challenging venue that retained some classic Maxwell holes while adding new holes on rolling, wooded property to the west. The course reopened in June 2004 as Cherokee Hills Golf Club.

Out of the gate, Davis’ new greens were fast and offered some dramatic contouring, leaving some golfers put out. One group was complaining on the par-5 sixth hole that their putts were “impossible” on a day Davis showed up to see how everything was growing in.

“Impossible? Davis said, dropping a ball on the front of the green with the pin near the back more than 80 feet away. He rolled the putt out to the left and watched it wind its way with a slow break before gently dropping into the hole. “Not quite.”

No, the greens are not impossible. Yes, they require a bit of touch. (Davis is one of the state’s top amateur players).

“The first two years the greens were pretty hard and fast,” Jarrett said. “They’re more receptive now and we keep them run-

Photos by Rip Stell.

ning about a nine, which is perfect for public play. I might be a tad biased but do believe we have the best superintendent in the state, John Carothers.”

Golfers have learned that bold and aggressive works on some holes but not on others.

The par-5 sixth hole is a good example. Just 478 yards from the back tees, it is still wiser to position your second shot down the left cut of fairway for a wedge in rather than attacking the green perched on a hillside and guarded by large native boulders. The green also cants left and pitch shots from just off the green can be difficult at best.

Since the renovation, the best round shot in an official competition is an even-par 70

by PGA professional Tracy Phillips. Par from the back two tee boxes, with planned yardage extensions in the next year plays to 70 while par from the white and red tees is 72.

The differences are on hole 3, a 456-yard hole that plays as a par-5 for the white and red tees, and on hole 17, a 467-yard par-4 from the back tees but a 427-yard par-5 from the forward tees.

Carothers has turned down several highprofile jobs to remain at Cherokee Hills since the renovation and has done a remarkable job. Each year the course seems to improve.

This year it completed an in-house renovation of every bunker, using advanced new technology in the liners and bringing in the same sand you’ll find at courses like South-

With the opening of the new non-smoking tower, including a new sports bar that promises to be out of this world, Jarrett expects a recent trend to continue, that of more and more of his play coming from corporate events or groups from the Hard Rock.

Previously play had been predominantly from the Tulsa market. Now he is seeing a rise in corporate events from companies or associations having meetings at the convention center as well as a rise in groups coming in for a weekend of golf and gambling.

Play is up considerably in 2012, exceeding the course’s previous high total in rounds View from behind the ninth green at Cherokee Hills. played. With the addition of ace instructor When golfers come to stay at the Hard Brian Montgomery (a two-time Masters parern Hills, Jarrett said.

“The liners are made of recycled Coke Rock, they’ll experience a green course year- ticipant) to the staff that also includes longbottles which is nailed in” Jarrett said. “They round. Instead of an expensive rye grass time head professional Matt Harris, Jarrett drain very quickly with very minimal wash- overseed program, Cherokee Hills last year sees everything going in a positive direction.

“We have a great staff, very well rounded,” went with a dye on the fairways that exing after any significant rainfall.”

Jarrett said. “The goal for everyone here is to Up next are several new tee boxes, includ- ceeded expectations.

“The product we use worked out great,” have a course that is enjoyable and challenging a dual one that will serve as a back tee for both the par-3 13th and par-3 16th holes. Jarrett said. “We got a lot of comments about ing for all of the great cross section of golfers The course has expanded its ponds from how great the course looked and found out we serve. We invite those that have played which it irrigates the course and there is po- that many of our players would rather hit us to play more or to join the club, and those tential for additional water features in the off dormant Bermuda than wet and tall rye that have not ventured out… they are in for a real treat.” grass.” near future.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 29

Where we play

Unique in Oklahoma

Terrain boosts Fairfax appeal by ken macleod

Dense woods and stately homes alternately line the fairways at Fairfax Golf Course in Edmond.

Photos by Rip Stell.

A

lthough stately homes now line several of the fairways at Fairfax Golf Course, golfers are seldom more than an errant 5-iron from the wilderness from which the Edmond course emerged.

Fairfax has always been a bit of an anomaly for a golf course in a bustling city. A few feet off many fairways is dense underbrush under large trees, home to many critters.

Deer, wild turkeys, coyotes and more issue forth to drink from the water that is on 14 of the 18 holes.

The land rises and falls in larger-thanexpected swales, creating angles and sight lines that are both pleasing to the eye and not always easy to play.

You could find a course like Fairfax in many parts of the U.S. Central Oklahoma is not one of the first places you would look.

“It’s very scenic,” said Director of Golf Jeff Tucker. “I don’t think there’s anything I’ve seen in the state of Oklahoma that’s quite like it. Usually the only hole you see on this course is the one you’re on, except for the stretch of 2-3-4 around the lake.”

30 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Fairfax is not long, measuring 6,568 yards from the back tees – 654 of that on the par5 ninth hole – but it requires accuracy and imagination to consistently play well.

“It can be a difficult course for the average player,” Tucker said. “That’s why we’re clearing out some trees and widening some areas to make it a little more playable. We’ve got water on 14 of the 18 holes and that’s trouble enough.”

Superintendent John Burright has nursed the course through the last two blistering summers and has it in prime shape this fall.

The hybrid Bermuda fairways are among the best in the state.

“The owners (J.W. Ralph and Rodney Armstrong) and myself ask for pristine conditions and John does a great job,” Tucker said.

Fairfax has a spacious clubhouse and Tucker, who trained under Alsie Hyden at Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City, offers the complete golf experience, from lessons to club fitting to juniors, ladies and senior programs. There are plans to update the driving range and practice facilities. The club has about 60 members but everyone

who comes in is treated as such.

“Each year we continue to try to make the golf course better and better,” Tucker said.

“The Armstrongs have been very committed to that.”

Fairfax opened in 1998 and Tucker came on board in 2003. Although just 6,610 yarsds from the back tees, the woods, slopes and ever-present water make it a good test of golf for any level player. It has a course rating of 73.6 and plays to a par of 70.

“We realize it can be difficult for the average golfer,” Tucker said. “We’ve been working on a clearing program to open it up somewhat. It can be tight and then you have the water.”

Fairfax has carved out a niche for itself in the competitive Edmond market which also includes Kickingbird and Coffee Creek on the public side and Oak Tree National and Oak Tree Country Club on the private side.

Play has held its own despite two consecutive years of some of the warmest temperatures on record in Oklahoma.

For tee times or various green fee rates, call 405-359-8333.

Fairfax

Membership Packages

Golf

Corporate Outings & Events

Club

Semi-Private Course

Daily Green Fees

Join now, pay 10 months get two months free!* $2,900 family, $2,250 individual *Prices include green fees, carts and range balls

For more info, Contact Jeff Tucker, PGA Pro (405)359-8600

Just off 1-35 at 2905 N. Sooner Rd. Edmond, OK 73034 www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 31

When it rains . . .

Wood ends victory drought with style by john rohde When you haven’t won a golf tournament in 16 years, 29 days and 309 starts on three different pro tours, you find out who your friends are.

Longtime Edmond resident Willie Wood always knew where he stood, however, because those friends never disappeared. So when the former Oklahoma State standout ended his title drought and won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on the Champions Tour on Aug. 19, reaction was swift and substantial.

There were 190 text messages on Wood’s cell phone when he returned to his locker at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y. “They just kept coming,” Wood said. “I was retrieving them and they kept coming.”

After catching a 5:40 a.m. flight to the tour’s next stop at the Boeing Classic, 40 more messages greeted Wood when he touched down in Seattle. Many texts came from longtime friends, while others remain 32 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

unknown because well-wishers forgot to identify themselves. Other congratulations came via e-mail, which Wood tried to answer. Members at his home course of Oak Tree National couldn’t stop smiling. Cheers echoed through the clubhouse as they watched Wood claim victory on television.

“The response was overwhelming – literally, the true sense of overwhelming,” said Wood, who turned 52 on Oct. 1. “When you’re 50 years old, chances are you’ve gone through some bad times in your life. I’m not alone in having struggles, not only in golf but in my personal life, too. I have a lot of friends who have called, and I’ve called them. When things happen to friends, you call them. You try to help them, even if it’s just listening to them. I’ve had a lot of nice, close friends do that for me.”

Although longtime friend and OSU teammate Bob Tway tied for 54th and finished 15 strokes back in the same event, he was

among the many who reveled in Wood’s triumph.

“It’s one of the most popular victories I can ever recall in my years on tour,” Tway said.

At the next stop after Wood’s victory, Tway crossed paths with Michael Allen, the man Wood beat on the first playoff hole to claim the title.

“I looked at him (Allen) and he smiled and said, ‘It’s OK. I’m happy for him, too,’ “ Tway said with a chuckle.

With his head still spinning from his victory, Wood nearly won three straight Champions events. He finished third the following week at the Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie, Wash. After draining a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 17 in the final round, Wood admitted: “I was smiling and got to thinking, ‘I’m about to do it (win) again.’ That really would have been something.” Wood needed an eagle on the final hole to get into another playoff, but

settled for birdie to finish one shot back.

The Champions Tour then went on a two-week hiatus, but Wood stayed hot and captured the inaugural Pacific Links Hawaii Championship on Sept. 17, edging former Oral Roberts All-American and Stillwater resident Bill Glasson. Wood entered the final round trailing by five strokes, birdied the last two holes and completed the 54-hole tournament at Kapolei Golf Course without a bogey.

“I had a great back nine,” Wood said after the final round. “I just hung in there and the putts kept continuing to fall, and I got a little bit lucky with the way Bill finished. ... I knew Bill would have to help us out some. I know how Bill feels. We all go through that.

This week feels a little different than the one in New York because I’d won (before Hawaii) and there wasn’t nearly the pressure.

I felt much more comfortable and it just fell into place.”

Wood closed with a 66 while Glasson limped home with an even-par 72. “The last six or seven holes were a roller coaster,” said Glasson, a seven-time PGA Tour winner who has yet to win on the senior circuit. “It got a little but iffy between clubs out there, but you have to give Woody credit.”

Wood earned $270,000 for each victory and another $144,000 for the third-place finish at Boeing. He entered October ranked first on the Champions Tour in scrambling (par or better on missed greens) and sandsave percentage, was fourth in putts-perround and seventh in scoring average.

In a span of three stops, Wood jumped from 58th on the season money list to 14th with $854,817 in total earnings, but he has yet to gain entry into the 2014 U.S. Senior Open, which will be held at Oak Tree National in Edmond. There are multiple avenues for Wood to qualify for the 2014 U.S. Senior Open, but even if he fails to gain entry, a special exemption from the USGA seems likely given Wood’s impressive junior history with the organization, his comeback story and the fact the tournament will be played on his home course.

Wood’s appeal can be found in his personality and determination. “Willie’s been Willie a long time,” said Tway, who shared the same back yard with Wood at Oak Tree Country Club shortly after college.

At 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds, Wood is the same size he was in college, an attribute that figures to serve him well on the senior tour.

“He looks just about the same,” said OSU athletic director Mike Holder, who directed the Cowboys to eight NCAA championships as the men’s golf coach (1973-2005). “He still has a passion for the game, so I think he’ll do very well. I think he’ll build on this.”

Fellow Oak Tree National touring pro Scott Verplank was a freshman at OSU when Wood was a senior and they have remained close ever since.

“I was totally thrilled for him, but it was really exciting as far as golf goes,” Verplank

Above, Willie Wood with son Hayden after Hayden won the OGA Junior, below after Willie won the Pacific LInks in Hawaii.

Hawaii Photos Courtesy FL Morris / Honolulu Star-Advertiser

said of Wood’s first senior victory. “If you knew all that was going on and you knew Willie and all the guys who had a chance to win that tournament, it was pretty amazing.

I thought it was great television.”

Gaining exempt status onto the Champions Tour is the most difficult quest in pro

golf. Tournament fields consist of just 81 players. There are fewer events, creating a natural flow for more rest and fewer available spots because exempt players rarely choose not to compete. Only the elite in career earnings gain full exempt status onto the Champions Tour.

Because Wood’s career earnings of roughly $3 million on the PGA and Web.com (formerly Nationwide) tour were not enough to gain an exemption onto the Champions Tour, he often had to gain entry via open qualifying held earlier in the week. This season, Wood went through nine Monday (or Tuesday) qualifiers and survived four times.

“That’s a very, very difficult thing to do,” Tway said of open qualifiers, “and he was having a great deal of success doing it.”

Wood had to qualify for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open and became only the 12th open qualifier in Champions Tour history to win. “People have no idea how well guys on the Champions Tour can still play,” said the 53-year-old Tway, who is still looking for his first Champions victory.

Wood’s triumph means he no longer will have to endure open qualifiers. He earned immediate exempt status for one calendar year. By finishing in the Top 30 on this year’s final money list, he has earned exempt status for the entire 2013 season.

“I told (longtime friend and fellow tour player) Jeff Sluman a while back, ‘I don’t expect a golden parachute. I don’t feel like I had a good enough career, didn’t make enough career money, to deserve that. I’ve got to earn my spot out here and I plan on keeping it for a long time, but I don’t feel like I was deserving of anything,’ “ Wood said.

Many PGA Tour players project immediate success when joining the 50-and-older tour, but often find the quest more challenging than envisioned. Wood was not so presumptuous.

“I always thought, ‘If I can’t beat them now (on the PGA Tour), how am I going to just jump out there and beat them when I’m 50? So I’ve got to do something different right now so I can do something different when I’m 50,’ “ Wood said. “I have learned to drive the ball better, which has been the main thing. My distance is adequate on the Champions Tour. It wasn’t adequate against 22-year-olds. I just drive the ball straighter.”

Wood has long overwhelmed opponents from 150 yards in, where his wedge and putter became sabers – weaponry that remain as sharp as ever. Trouble was, as his career crept forward, Wood no longer was 150 yards out on his second shot. He was considerably farther away, often hitting out of longer grass. www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 33

As PGA Tour courses became longer and the fairways got narrower, Wood’s chances for sustained success diminished at the tee box. His drives were short and crooked. His entire life, Wood had drawn the ball rightto-left. He now plays tee shots left to right and is finding tighter lies.

Wood endured a depressing run of circumstances that would have sent lesser men into a career change – the death of his first wife, Holly, to bone cancer in 1989; two divorces; shoulder surgery on a torn labrum the same year he became eligible for the 50-and-older circuit.

“Willie definitely has perseverance,” said Verplank, who knows a bit himself, having overcome diabetes and multiple surgeries throughout his career to still win more than $27.4 million on the PGA Tour. “He has spent years, consecutive years, just practicing at Oak Tree. Looking back, to me, that says a lot about him. He’s obviously a little tougher on the inside than most people thought. Perseverance would be way up high on the list of his qualities.

“I wondered if he would work his way through it. I’m sure he wondered. There’s a lot of intestinal fortitude to keep going at it and try to give yourself a chance. Everybody thinks golf is awesome all the time. Well, to

Q

a couple guys it is, I guess, but not everybody. Willie was able to grind it out all those years without really being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you don’t know where you’re going to play next, it’s pretty damn hard to have your sight set on something.”

A wunderkind named Willie West Wood managed just one PGA Tour title.

“I had a really good junior career, a really good college career,” Wood said. “I’ve had a really mediocre, at best, professional career and it would be really nice to have a fantastic Champions career, to have nice bookends there. There’s nothing I can do about my PGA career now. It’s over.”

This wasn’t how golf was supposed to go for Wood, who assembled one of the most successful junior golf careers ever that included winning the 1977 U.S. Junior Amateur and being named 1978 AJGA Player of the Year.

“He was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods,” said Holder, who lured Wood to Stillwater from Tucson, Ariz. “He won just about every junior tournament you could win. There wasn’t any bigger name in junior golf. Until Tiger Woods came along, there probably wasn’t anyone who approached what Willie had done as a junior player.”

Wood’s prominence continued at OSU, where he won the 1982 Fred Haskins Award as national player of the year during his junior season, was Big Eight medalist and won a school record four events. Wood was a two-time, first-team All-American and a member of the 1983 Walker Cup team.

“You like to see something good happen to a nice guy like Willie,” Holder said. “A lot of people would have given up and done something else. He’s been scrambling. You never want to get a day older, but in his case turning 50 has been a good thing for him, kind of a fresh start.”

After 16 years of heartache and frustration on the PGA and Web.com tours, Wood posted his first victory in just his 16th start on the Champions Tour and revealed what makes his success story so special.

“What’s really nice is my youngest son, Hayden (a 16-year-old junior at Edmond North High School), finally has gotten to see me play well,” Wood said. “My other two boys (William and Kelby) have seen me play, but it’s not quite as meaningful to them because they’re not golfers. But Hayden seeing it, finally … it means a lot to me.”

John Rohde is a writer for The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com.

C

UAIL REEK has consistently provided the ultimate in recreational club facilities including golf, tennis, swimming, fitness, a variety of social activities, as well as, casual and formal dining!

Quail Creek Is Proud to Support the Oklahoma Golf Association

Q

U A

34 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

3501 Quail Creek Road, Oklahoma City, 73120

(405) 751-0811

I

L

C R

E

E

K

G

C

C

.

C

O

M

Tom Randall, center, is surrounded by his Champions Tour friends, left to right, Tom Purtzer, Bruce Leitzke, Larry Nelson, Doug Tewell, Bob Gilder and Gil Morgan.

"Lean on me" Tom Randall is a pillar of strength for veteran golfers by ken macleod

His Friday night sermons on the Champions Tour have been called “the most peaceful hour of my life” by high-profile attendees such as Jay Sigel. Yet spreading the faith has seldom been a tranquil experience for Tom Randall. More like a demolition derby.

Randall, 59, makes his way to more than 20 Champions Tour events each year. His Friday night talks are frequented by up to 120 players, wives and tour folks, including “some who haven’t darkened the doorway of a church in 30 years.”

They come to hear the gospel of Christ from a big, strong physical guy who has lived a life much larger than most.

As a senior forward at Judson College in Elgin, Ill., the 6-foot-4 Randall poured in 31 points a game, leading the nation in scoring. He also lettered in soccer, cross country and golf. In basketball, he was nearly good enough for the NBA, Randall spent years playing on various pro team and spreading the word, mostly in Asia and Australia. He played with or against Julius Erving, Bobby Jones and many other NBA superstars in ex-

hibitions and summer tours.

The tumultuous Philippines is where he and wife Karen established orphanages, schools and camps funded by their World Harvest Ministries, and he spent much of his time living there for 20 years. Basketball was always a way in. He could find a court, juggle, ride a unicycle and have the crowds eating out of his hand.

Every day in Manila traffic is a death-defying experience, but add institutionalized political corruption and persecution to the hazards already in place and about 13 years ago Randall began looking for a different outlet for his talents.

He had just had his first artificial hip put in, which was about the 20th of his 23 operations thus far, when Larry Nelson called and asked him if he would mind speaking to a few of the guys on the Champions Tour, who had just lost their regular minister.

Randall had battled typhoid fever, dengue fever and now was routinely being hassled, prosecuted and even jailed by people want- The 6-4 Randall had to guard this Chinese ing him to funnel a share of ministry funds behemoth. www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 35

Gil Morgan, right, and his wife were responsible for the Randalls move to Edmond.

their way.

“It was a case where they build up a false case against you to put you in jail then want bribes to stay out of jail,” Randall said. “We were scared for a while. It’s still a scary situation over there. We have to have bodyguards and move around. I love the kids and love the ministry but it was time to live somewhere else.”

That somewhere else turned out to be Edmond. Gil Morgan and his wife Jeanine were impressed immediately with the Randalls and invited them to spend a weekend in Edmond. When Tom and Karen arrived, they were surprised that the Morgans had scoped out about 35 potential houses and had a few to recommend.

“They recruited us and they’ve taken care of us,” Randall said. “They are just good as 36 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

gold. One time we were driving across Louisiana between tournaments and got in an accident, a 14-car pileup. They figured out the rental car for us and kept in touch with us all the way home. Then they had a car waiting for us in our garage and had put all kinds of our favorite foods in the house.

“One time when I was gone for a while my neighbor asked me if I knew Gil Morgan, the famous professional golfer. I said ‘of course,’ and he said good, because he was just over here working in your yard.”

After taking Nelson up on his offer, Randall quickly became a trusted figure on the Champions Tour, being invited to speak at weddings and funerals and other important life moments. His life became intertwined with the players and he now counts many of them among his best friends. In late Septem-

ber, just three weeks after receiving a second artificial hip, he flew to New York to speak at the memorial service of Maria Floyd, wife of star golfer Raymond Floyd.

While there he chatted with Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne, met Phil and Amy Mickelson and many other golf personages. Randall never met a stranger, at least not for long. He has become fast friends and traveled to amazing places with many players, including Dave Stockton, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Lietzke, Morris Hatalsky, Doug Tewell, Fred Funk, Loren Roberts, Sigel and others. His handicap has gone from about a 15 when he started playing in earnest to a 4, thanks in part to all the instruction he receives from the pros.

There is no financial arrangement with the PGA Tour but certain players and the tour both support him with opportunities for speaking and other means. Plus he has managed a ride to several places we would all like to visit.

“The perks are you get to play in the most wonderful places in the world,” Randall said. “Pebble Beach, Bethpage, Pine Valley with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Sometimes we have a few days before a tournament and these guys take me to the best courses in that area.”

Randall didn’t lose his taste for the physically demanding when he switched his focus from basketball to golf. He went off on a 2,500-mile bike ride in 2008 to raise funds for his ministry, suffering cracked ribs early in the trip when he was hit by a car door in Baker City, Ore. He finished that trip in intense pain.

Neither that, nor the looming hip operation, deterred him from a 420-mile bike ride across Ohio this summer. Once he’s more comfortable with his new hip, there will be other trips.

“Tom is very competitive,” Morgan said.

“We play at Oak Tree a lot and everything he does is a challenge. He’s an excellent speaker and has so many wonderful stories.

Some of the players have been with him to the Philippines. He’s taken Bibles into the heart of China.”

Randall was on the first USA team to play in China after President Richard Nixon cracked the door open. He played against the father of future NBA center Yao Ming as well as a center that he said was 7-foot-8 and 400 pounds.

These days he doesn’t have to move mountains with his hips but with his words.

As they gather for fellowship and inspiration, the Friday night crew on the Champions Tour wouldn’t have it any other way.

Doug Brecht discusses a ruling with Cristie Kerr.

Photos courtesy The LPGA Tour.

Doug Brecht's battle

LPGA misses West Nile Virus victim by lisa d. mickey

The LPGA Tour has been rocked recently by the sudden and severe illness of Oklahoman Doug Brecht, who contracted the West Nile virus in August. Brecht was working as the LPGA’s advance official for a tournament in Toledo, Ohio when he became ill.

Serving as the LPGA’s Director of Rules and Competition, Brecht was still in serious condition at Select Specialty Hospital in Oklahoma City at press time. He remained in a Toledo hospital for two weeks before being airlifted with medical personnel back home to Norman, where he could be closer to family.

“This virus is a big question mark,” said his wife, Stephanie Brecht. “Right now, Doug is a bit like a stroke victim. We don’t know how much he’ll get back and there a lot of things the doctors don’t know. It’s just a matter of time as he recovers.”

Brecht did not remember being bitten by

a mosquito carrying the virus, but on Aug, 6, his 62nd birthday, he complained of feeling lethargic. Stephanie Brecht spoke to her husband on the telephone and was surprised that he was “really emotional, crying on the phone.”

The reason for his concern was Brecht was worried that there was a problem with his kidney. He had received a kidney transplant from his sister, Kay Dunaway, back in August 2000, and his recovery has been successful. But suddenly experiencing inexplicable symptoms with a compromised immune system, Brecht was far from home, feeling sick and scared once again.

Robert O. Smith, also of Norman, who has known and worked with Brecht for 40 years, spoke to a mutual friend in Toledo who had seen Brecht on Sunday, the day before the LPGA tournament week was to begin. Smith was told that Brecht “looked

terrible” and had been seen wearing a coat and shivering in the LPGA staff’s mobile office with the air conditioners turned off.

As the rest of the LPGA staff arrived at the course for the start of tournament week, they soon realized that Brecht was not himself and that something was very wrong.

“We grew more and more concerned as time passed,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, senior vice president of tour operations for the LPGA. “It was a very upsetting and scary time for the staff because it happened so suddenly. Doug is an integral part of the staff and has been a fixture on the tour for years. We are all still worried about him.”

Brecht went for lab work at a Toledo hospital on Monday (August 6) of tournament week and was told that he had a virus. The diagnosis that it was a virus and not his kidney “satisfied him, but he still did not feel well,” said his wife. www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 37

By Tuesday morning, Brecht was feeling worse. He was confused, had cold chills and was lethargic. An LPGA colleague took him back to the hospital.

When Brecht accepted a wheelchair in patient admissions, his colleagues knew the “hard-headed Oklahoman” finally acknowledged that he was very ill.

The hospital called his wife on Wednesday morning and informed her that Brecht was “more confused and more lethargic.” An hour later, the hospital called again and informed Stephanie that her husband had been sedated and placed on a ventilator. According to Stephanie, “he was sedated for five days to allow his body to devote all of its energy to fighting the virus.” Three or four days into his hospital stay, test results revealed that his illness was, indeed, the West Nile virus.

“The doctors had to take him off his Doug Brecht. anti-organ rejection medications and women’s golf coach from 1982-1986. they put him on multiple antibiotics,” Eventually, Brecht followed Smith to the added Stephanie. “Doug began having seizures. There were a lot of complications be- LPGA Tour to work as a rules official. Smith left Oklahoma in 1989, with Brecht followcause of his immune system.”

By late September, and back in his home ing him to the LPGA in 1993.

Brecht met former LPGA touring professtate, Brecht was taken off sedation, but he was still breathing by a ventilator through a sional Stephanie Lowe in the mid-1990s. tracheotomy. Doctors were trying to wean The two actually had a bumpy start after him off the ventilator to breathe on his own. Brecht gave the player a two-shot penalty He also resumed taking his anti-rejection for slow play at the LPGA’s tournament in Springfield, Ill. medicine.

“It took me a few years to cool off about “He is still really weak, but his vital signs are good,” said Stephanie. “He’s not para- that,” laughed Stephanie. “I couldn’t look at lyzed, but the virus affected the part of the him for about 18 months.”

But the two were married in 1999. And, brain that controls movement. So far, he has moved his toes, thumb and fingers on his ironically, one of Brecht’s biggest impacts on own. We’re working with an occupational the LPGA Tour was his hard line on slow and physical therapist to get him to squeeze play. Regardless of where players were on the money list or where they were on the my hand.”

Smith went to visit his long-time friend scoreboard, if they were out of position on in the hospital. When he walked into the the course, Brecht would enforce the rules of golf. room, Brecht’s eyes widened.

“Slow play really gets under his skin and “He can’t talk and he can’t move very much, but Doug saw me,” said Smith, who that’s why he has been so vigilant about it,” was the head professional at the University said Stephanie. “Doug always felt he could of Oklahoma’s course in 1978 with Brecht make a difference in the pace of play and as his assistant pro. “I said, ‘Son, you need he treats everybody – whether they are No. to get up and get out of here so we can go 1 or No. 144 – the same way. He just felt when he stood up for the rules, he was proplay golf.’”

And then Smith added, “I know Doug will tecting the field.”

Pace of play was such a high concern for work hard to get over this, but it’s going to Brecht that he and Daly-Donofrio began be a long road.”

Doug Brecht’s long road in golf has tak- working individually with tour players this en him from the University of Oklahoma, year who needed help. Rather than just aswhere he played college golf in the 1970s sessing strokes for deficient times during and earned a degree in mathematics, to competitive rounds, the two LPGA staff the Jimmy Austin University of Oklahoma members tried to help players understand Golf Course, where he worked as a club pro where they were losing time to avoid being for 17 years. He also served as Oklahoma’s penalized.

38 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

“We’ve tried to be more proactive and Doug has timed many of them when they weren’t on the clock,” said DalyDonofrio, who has known Brecht since she was an LPGA rookie in 1998. “Many of those players have improved and responded well to the help.”

Brecht has also not been afraid to make unpopular decisions for setting up courses for LPGA tournaments – such as when a host course has rough spots in fairways that must be marked as “ground under repair.” Those areas of courses are marked with white paint by rules officials, often to the great displeasure of course superintendents.

“Doug would say to some of the superintendents, ‘You’re not going to like it, but we’re going to paint it ground under repair,’” said Stephanie. “What these people eventually learned was Doug was doing it only because it was the right thing for the tour.”

Smith credits Brecht’s knowledge of the rules as well as his knowledge of the game as strengths that have benefited the LPGA. Over the years, the two frequently consulted each other about rulings in competition.

“Doug knows the rules and he’s very thorough,” said Smith. “He’s also a great teacher of the game and really understands the golf swing. Because of his knowledge and analytical mind, he makes real sound decisions in everything he does.”

Brecht began experiencing renal failure in 1999. He would travel on the LPGA Tour with a portable dialysis machine and come off the course twice a day for treatments in the staff’s mobile office.

After his kidney transplant in 2000, Stephanie left the LPGA Tour to spend time with him at home in Oklahoma.

“Somehow, that little white ball wasn’t so important anymore,” she said.

But it was, after all, that little white ball that brought Doug Brecht and so many of his loved ones together. And it’s still the game that serves as motivation for Brecht to return to the LPGA, where he is respected by staff and players alike, and to the practice tee where he has honed his own game for a lifetime.

“Even though Doug is not onsite at our tournaments right now, his presence is felt and he’s still very much a part of our lives,” said Daly-Donofrio. “He has a long road ahead of him, but he’s strong-willed, and if anybody can pull out of something like this, I believe Doug can do it.”

Mickey is a former LPGA staff member.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 39

College Preview

OU, OSU women have high hopes by ken macleod Returning all five starters, including NCAA Champion Chirapat Jao-Javanil, has hopes and expectations soaring in Norman.

The defending Big 12 Champion women Sooners begin the season ranked 13th by Golfweek and hope to improve on their sixth-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Championship last spring.

Over the past two years under head coach Veronique Drouin-Luttrell, OU has posted 14 top-five finishes in its 22 events, including 11 top-three showings and four team titles.

“As a team we have been ready to get back out there since May,” said Drouin-Luttrell, who is starting her fourth year at OU. “Everyone put in a lot of time and effort all summer to get better. We all got a taste of being so close to the top by finishing sixth at the NCAA’s, and we’re excited to be back.”

Jao-Javanil, who averaged 73.32 strokes per round last year, is No. 4 on Golf World’s list of the top 50 female players to watch in 2012-13.

Also back for the Sooners are seniors Taylor Schmidt (75.38) and Jacki Marshall (76.89), and juniors Anne-Catherine Tanguay (74.65), Emily Collins (77.25) and Jade Staggs (78.67).

New to the OU program this year are junior Tennessee transfer Kaitlyn Rohrback (75.96) and freshman Amanda Johnson.

Big 12 rival Oklahoma State has added arguably the state’s best player to a roster that includes returning All-American Kelsey Vines as well as solid returning starters such as Jayde Panos and former starter Hillary Wood.

The newcomer is Megan Blonien, fourtime Class 5A state champion at Altus. With a veteran squad, OSU coach Alan Bratton won’t have to place huge early expectations on his prized newcomer.

“You never know how kids adjust to college right away,” Bratton said. “I think she can push for a four- or five-spot this year.

She won the state four times, so that’s very impressive. She’s got a great upside.”

OSU was in contention for the Big 12 Championship last year until dropping back to fourth in the final few holes, then did not make it through regionals to the NCAA Championship.

“When we’re good, we’re really good.

We’ve got talent,” Bratton said. “We just 40 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

need to show some consistency.

At Tulsa, senior Kristina Merkle, the returning Conference USA Player of the Year, will lead a rebuilding team with a strong international flair including players from Indonesia, Taiwan, Dubai and Germany as well as California and Mustang, Okla.

Oral Roberts is also rebuilding after losing three of its four All-Conference selections from a year ago. Junior Alheli Moreno and senior Tiffany Robbins are the lone upperclassmen for ORU in 2012-13. Moreno was the 2011-12 Newcomer of the Year and finished second on the team with a 76.81 stroke average, just 0.03 strokes per round back of team-leader Crystal Reeves. Moreno and Robbins led the team in the NCAA Tournament, while Ashton Collier returns for her sophomore year after playing 12 rounds as a freshman. Battling for the other spots will be freshmen Alejandra Acosta, Paola Aviles, Shinwoo Lee, Ashley Rand and Patty Torres.

At the University of Central Oklahoma, Taylor Neidy had a 77.6 stroke average and earned all-region honors. She returns along with sisters Erica, Lindsey and Katie Bensch as well as Oklahoma transfer Aly Seng.

All-American Chaney Uhles is expected to redshirt. Tressa Brumley and junior transfer Bethany Darrough will also push for time.

Northeastern State is set to soar in the 2012-13 campaign. The team returns senior All-American Whitney McAteer (Jenks, Okla.), who led the nation in scoring at one point last year, and fellow senior Kelsey Kirkpatrick (Golden, Texas), who won a school-record three tournaments and was in the top 10 in scoring average at one point last year. NSU also welcomes back talented sophomore Alex Koch of Jenks, who was one of the top three finishers for the team in six events a year ago.

All-Americans Jessica Shiele of Grimsby, England, and Ada’s Taylor Howard return to lead Oklahoma City University in pursuit of its sixth NAIA national championship. OCU finished eighth in 2012. The Stars did capture their 10th Sooner Athletic Conference championship in 11 years. OCU owns national titles from 2005 through 2009.

OCU returns four seniors – Howard, Mary Larsh, Schiele and Tanya Tibshraeny.

Larsh took all-SAC honors. Other returnees are Taylor Cusack, Kendra Mann and Cait-

Oklahoma’s defending NCAA champ Chirapat Jao-Javanil.

lyn Swisher.

OCU coach Marty McCauley added to that core group Elia Folch, a two-time junior college all-American, and Oklahoma all-staters Kurstyn Mills from Shawnee and Abby Thompson from Deer Creek.

“We are very excited about the 2012-13 season,” McCauley said. “We return our top five regular starters and have added the top junior college player in the country along with two Oklahoma all-state high school golfers. This should be the deepest and most talented lineup that OCU has fielded since the 2009 national championship season.”

Oklahoma Christian, which is transitioning from the NAIA to the NCAA, is pursuing its first team title in its second year as a program. Coach Greg Lynn’s team finished runner-up three times in its inaugural season.

“It’s an excuse to fall back and say, ‘We were only a first-year program.’ I don’t look at it that way,” Lynn said. “I look at it as we are a talented team and we didn’t reach our potential. In not one tournament the entire year did we reach our potential. This year, I hope to do that, but the team has to come together. Winning breeds winning.”

Arrese Cortadellas from Barcelona led the

ers in Whitney Hocutt and Cecilie Nordahl.

Hocutt, a Claremore native, has recuperated from a broken ankle this summer. She shot an average score of 81.6 her sophomore season.

Five promising newcomers will also join the team, including Kelsey Steuver of Washington High School, Brooke Fern of Broken Arrow and Chelsea Burney from Randall High School in Amarillo, Texas.

College men

OSU coach Alan Bratton expects a bright future for freshman Megan Blonien.

NAIA in stroke average in the spring (74.15 in 13 rounds) and was one of only two freshmen to make the NAIA All-America first-team list. Lynn expects her to continue improving during her sophomore season.

OC’s other returning NAIA All-American, Sarah Harper, played in some events in Tex-

as this summer and posted a 77.86 stroke average last season. Morgan Dockery, an All-SAC pick last season, also returns, along with Catherine Odgers, who had a successful summer in her native Australia.

Rogers State, entering its fourth year under coach Lynn Blevins, returns its top two play-

The good news was Tulsa made it back to the NCAA Championships last spring for the first time since 2007 and just the 10th time in school history. The bad news was the Hurricane finished 30th, dead last in the 30-team field.

Tulsa can still take a lot of positives from the experience. Colton Staggs and Matt Mabrey both started as freshmen in the tourney and are now tested sophomores, while junior Mark Mumford and senior Chris Worrell are back as the upper-class leaders. Hurricane coach Bill Brogden will be looking for a fifth starter from sophomores Mark Hicks and Cody Kent, junior transfer Logan McCracken or freshman Trent Mewbourn from Heritage Hall in Oklahoma City.

Across town at Oral Roberts, the Golden

The Perfect Club Selection

Mention this ad for 1/2 Off Initiation No Dues For Three Months rules and restrictions apply contact Charles Candler for more information or a club tour

1025 E. Indian Hills Rd. Norman, OK 73071 405-364-0111 www.belmargolfclub.net www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 41

Eagles return five of their top six players for their first season in the Southland Conference. David Holtgrewe, who led the team with a 73.5 stroke average last year, is exploring the possibility of redshirting for his senior year. That leaves senior Shannon Allen and sophomore Scott Newell, who was the Summit League’s Newcomer of the Tournament last year, to pick up the slack.

Transfers Josh Bernard and David Kostyal will figure into the mix, as will senior Jake Spencer and sophomores Trevor McInroe and Spencer Sheets.

Oklahoma City University enters the 2012-13 as the No. 1-ranked team in the NAIA according to Golf World.

The Stars return all-Americans James Marchesani and Michael Palmer in addition to letter winners Mark Anderson, Jose Lopez, Anthony Marchesani, Sondre Ronold, Jacob Simon and Scottie Verplank.

OCU’s recruiting class is comprised of Issa Abou El Ella, Brodie Hinkle, Monty Lack and Oswin Schlenkrich.

OCU captured its eighth national championship and 15th Sooner Athletic Conference championship in 16 years. OCU has won 20 conference championships, 18 in the SAC. Seven-time NAIA coach of the year Kyle Blaser has directed the Stars to all eight na-

Oklahoma City 2012 national champions, left to right, Jim Akerstrom, Clark Collier, Taylor Artman, coach Kyle Blaser, Michael Palmer, Elliot Groves, James Marchesani.

tional titles. He will be inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2012-13.

“I’m excited about James Marchesani and Michael Palmer returning from last year’s national championship team,” Blaser said. “I’m excited about this class. It looks like one of the more competitive classes I’ve had. Any of the new kids are liable to crack the lineup and win at any time. They will give us great

depth and talent to help us reach our goals.”

Oklahoma Christian, previously the main rival for OCU in the Sooner Athletic Conference and at the national championship, is moving to NCAA Division II. That will end a streak of 13 consecutive top-four finishes in the NAIA National Championship, including two titles.

As the university goes through the NCAA

Residential & Commercial • Wood • Chain Link • Vinyl • Masonry • Pre-Cast Concrete • Electric Gates • Ornamental Iron • Access Control #1964

Oak Tree Cou

ntry Club

www.superiorfenceok.com • (405) 616-9203 3313 South Byers Avenue • Oklahoma City, 73129 42 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Division II membership process, the Eagles won’t be eligible to compete in NCAA postseason events. OC has joined the National Christian College Athletic Association, however, and the NCCAA conducts its golf national tournament in the fall. So, instead of using the fall to build with an eye on the spring season, OC’s traditional schedule will be reversed in 2012-13 with a focus on winning the national title that’s out there, coach David Lynn said.

“We’re trying to compete a little bit more in the fall,” Lynn said. “Our practices will be a little more intense. Normally we would take the fall and be more casual, but this is our championship season, for what we have to compete for this year.”

The good news for Lynn is that he’s got four starters – who each earned NAIA AllAmerica honors in 2012 – back from a team that finished as the NAIA runner-up last season. Add to that some high-profile recruits and other team members eager to break into the lineup and there figures to be much competition for one of the team’s five starting spots.

Three of the returning starters – Alasdair Dalgliesh, Vilhelm Bogstrand and Jared Consoli – each won at least one individual tournament title last season. OC’s fourth returning starter, senior Logan Herbst, hasn’t won a tournament but has been a top-10 fixture in most events he plays. Three incoming freshmen also have stellar credentials. Sam Johnston shot a 62 at OC’s home course, River Oaks Golf Club, in September. Ryan Evans and Bobby Todd played in a handful of top-flight events over the summer, including the Oklahoma Open and the Oklahoma Golf Association Stroke Play Championship. Evans will redshirt, but Johnston and Todd figure to push for playing time, as will Taylor Williams, Trey Payne, Johnny Ellis and Cooper Denton.

The University of Central Oklahoma Bronchos, also a D-II program, will be in rebuilding mode. Senior Dillon Rust is the only starter back from last year, an honorable mention All-American who had a 73.4 average and five top-10 finishes, including a sixth at the regional.

Northeastern State reached an NCAA Division II rank of No. 13 in the fall last year, and the team will look to continue that success this season. The RiverHawks lost team MVP Casey Nelson, but they return a core group of seniors in Jacob Bartel (Sallisaw, Okla.), Kyle Fouts (Carrollton, Texas) and Matt Vineer (Beatrice, Neb.). NSU has competed in the D-II NCAA Championship in 12 of the last 13 years.

Rogers State reached a milestone in the

school’s fourth season by cracking the NAIA top 25 rankings. This year coach Lynn Blevins looks to take another step, this time into the national tournament.

“We just keep getting better and taking the next step as a growing program,” Blevins said. “I’m really excited and I think we can have a real impact and have a legitimate shot at going to the national Oklahoma Christian’s Sam Johnston has already shot 62 this fall. tournament.”

Tanner Owens returns to lead the Hillcats. son after transferring to RSU from Okla“Tanner is a senior that has a chance, I homa Wesleyan prior to the 2011-12 camthink, to be one of the top players in the paign. Last season the Copan, Okla. native conference this year if he plays to his abili- won the MACU Tournament to open the ty,” Blevins said of the four-year Hillcat. “He season followed by a top 10 individual finish worked at the Patriot Golf Club this sum- at the 13th Annual NSU Golf Classic.

Trevor Williams and Mark Healy return mer and had the opportunity to really work on his golf game. Probably the best summer as well after redshirting last season and six he’s had as far as that and I’m looking for a freshmen join the Hillcats this season The lone Oklahoman in Blevins’ signing class is lot out of Tanner in leadership.”

Preston Bartley is back for his senior sea- Jenks’ Aaron Davis.

For Tee Times: 580-564-2581 FISH & CHIPS & MORE CHIPS For the sporting and gaming enthusiast – nothing could be better than a threein-one package of golf, fishing and casino action at Pointe Vista and Choctaw Casino Resort. Enjoy Texoma’s most Dynamic Stay-n-Play Package, which includes: • Championship golf at the nationally-ranked Chickasaw Pointe Golf Club • World-class “striped bass” fishing chartered from Catfish Bay Marina • Gaming action and luxurious accommodations at Choctaw Casino Resort

***800.788.2464 ext. 1235 to BOOK PACKAGE***

PO Box 1009, Kingston, OK 73439 / www.Pointe-Vista.com www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 43

Programs at crossroads

Cowboys, Sooners both seek path up by john rohde

The men’s golf programs at Oklahoma State and Oklahoma are at a crossroads, but coming from opposite directions.

Will the once-mighty Cowboys continue to fall? How high will the Sooners rise?

OSU’s record streak of 65 straight NCAA Championship appearances came to an abrupt halt last season. The Cowboys had advanced to the national tournament every year of the program’s existence since 1947.

Meanwhile, OU’s dry spell of advancing to the NCAA Championships ended with a second straight appearance.

Last season was uncharted territory for OSU, which boasts 10 NCAA team titles and 15 runner-up finishes in its storied history.

The 2011-12 squad was stung by the departures of All-Americans Kevin Tway and Morgan Hoffmann and lost even more firepower when senior Peter Uihlein – who was selected as the 2011 Ben Hogan Award winner, Big 12 Player of the Year, a two-time Walker Cup member and a two-time firstteam All-American – left the Cowboys one semester early by turning pro last December and making his debut on the European Tour.

OSU began the fall season with a tie for second and third-place finishes, but after that finished no better than fifth in any stroke-play tournament and was eight 44 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

strokes away from stretching its NCAA appearance streak to 66 straight.

“You could see the season sliding,” coach Mike McGraw admitted.

The Cowboys routinely have a head-tohead winning percentage between .800 and .900 every season. Last season, that percentage was .530 (77-68-3), barely above the “.500 rule” required to gain entry into NCAA Regional play.

After a solid fall, junior Sean Einhaus struggled in the spring and finished no higher than a tie for 22nd. “It wasn’t for lack of effort,” McGraw said of Einhaus. “That kid was trying and training so hard, just like he had done it in other years. He just wasn’t getting the same results.”

Though Talor Gooch was a first-team AllBig 12 and an All-Central Region selection as a sophomore last year, his play faded late in the season. “I think he started thinking about the team and thought, ‘They need me to play better’ or whatever,” McGraw said of Gooch. “If he had just kept on doing what he was doing, he would have had a good finish to the season. He kind of leveled off to average the last three or four tournaments.”

Gooch regained his focus last summer, advancing to match play in the U.S. Public Links and U.S. Amateur and winning the OGA Stroke Play championship by an as-

At left, OU coach Ryan Hybl with Michael Gellerman. At right, OSU coach Mike McGraw walks with Talor Gooch.

tounding 12 shots after shooting 20-underpar (63-68-62) at OU’s Jimmie Austin Golf Course in Norman.

McGraw considers the disastrous 2011-12 season a learning experience and has since turned the page to 2012-13, where the Cowboys plummeted to No. 27 in Golfweek’s preseason rankings.

“We just had things happen and we didn’t handle it very well,” McGraw said. “I’m hoping this year the players take the right approach, that the coaching staff takes the right approach and we can figure out how to maximize what we have. You can’t do any more than what you are. Whatever we are, we’ll do the best we can with that. Everybody’s going to have their own challenges each year. We just didn’t do a very good job of handling the ones we had and you could see it snowballing. There can be some positive and negative energy.”

McGraw said there will be open qualifying each week this season for spots on his starting five.

“Everything is brand new, a fresh start,” he said. “Everybody’s got the same chance to make the team.”

When OU coach Ryan Hybl arrived in June 2009, he saw before him a depleted roster with beaten players. Re-establishing selfconfidence in a once-proud program was no easy chore.

“It took a while, I can tell you that,” said Hybl, a prolific junior amateur who played

collegiately at Georgia (2001-04) and later served as an assistant there (2005-09). “When I first got here, you could just see (defeat) in the boys. For one, they just needed a little bit of love from the aspect that we (coaches) are here to help. We wanted to get better. Obviously this game beats you down a lot, so you don’t need very many folks just telling you how bad you are. Occasionally that needed to happen overall, but you’ve got to try to pump up guys and get them ready to go and play next week.

So that was tough. My first year here – make no bones about it – we were terrible. The talent level was not good, although the work ethic in the guys was pretty good.

“In football and basketball, you can get the guys bigger, faster, stronger and they can really improve a lot. In golf, sometimes you either have it or you don’t. You put in a lot of work, but a guy improving his stroke average by half a shot over four years, that’s not very good if your stroke average is 75.

We’ve had to emphasize recruiting and make sure we’re getting better guys in here, and we are. I think our younger guys are better than the guys who are leaving.”

After making 16 straight NCAA Championship appearances from 1981-1996, the Sooners advanced to the national tournament only five times from 1998-2010. This season, OU will be looking for its third straight NCAA appearance. Last season, the Sooners came within two strokes of placing in the top eight at the NCAA Championships and advancing to the match-play finals. Their 11th-place finish was the program’s highest since 1993.

“Heck, we should have made it to the final eight of match play,” Hybl said. “We just really kind of folded up coming down the stretch. It was good to be there, but it stung big-time. Two shots out of it, but it’s good to kind of catch that sting occasionally and be able to move on. Our guys are excited this year to hopefully put ourselves in that same spot.”

The entire roster is now filled with Hybl’s recruits and OU was No. 22 in Golfweek’s preseason rankings.

“Everybody’s starting to toot our horn a little bit and I’m a lot more apprehensive than that because I still know we’ve got

some young guys and we’ve still got a lot of work to do with our guys right now, even our older guys,” Hybl said. “At the end of the day, yeah, I’m excited about where our golf program is going and what we’re doing and recruiting and just everything, but I still know it’s a work in progress, that’s for sure.”

Leading the way for the Sooners this season will be senior Abraham Ancer, who has led OU in stroke average ever since arriving from Odessa (Texas) Junior College as a sophomore. His 22 rounds of par or better last season tied the school record for most in a season and his 44 rounds played also tied the school’s single-season record. He tied for third at the Big 12 Championships and was selected to the All-Central Region team.

Like McGraw at OSU, Hybl said open qualifiers will determine his starting lineup for each tournament.

“Heck, every day around here is a big day for us. Every day matters,” Hybl said.

“Whether it’s right, wrong or indifferent, I try to preach to my guys that every day matters.

“I take the fall season just as serious, if not more, than the spring. It sets you up for who your top five guys will be. If you take the fall season lightly, you can put yourself in a bad spot.”

Slick Rock No. 14, Par-4, 361 yds.

“The Million-dollar Hole”

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 45

DESTINATIONS

Hill Country original

Horseshoe Bay upgrades amenities by art stricklin

HORSESHOE BAY, Texas — A Texas Hill Country golfing original, Horseshoe Bay is continuing to add to its considerable golfing legacy to spur its latest success story.

The first Lone Star golf resort in this scenic, golf-rich section of the state has recently added a variety of new products including a spectacular new Jack Nicklaus private golf course, Summit Rock, new poolside cabanas and a variety of new dining options to provide new life to an old golfing favorite.

Located one hour west of the Texas capital of Austin, Horseshoe Bay has always been one of the most drivable golf resorts in the Southwest.

It is three hours from Dallas, four from Houston and six from Oklahoma City, almost all by interstate highway to the property located on the shores of Lake LBJ. First opened by cousins Norman and Wayne Hurd in 1971, the 2,400-acre facil46 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Golf Oklahoma readers get a special discount at Horseshoe Bay Resort.

ity has always been an embarrassment of golf riches with three Robert Trent Jones Sr., public courses – Slick Rock, Applerock and Ram Rock – the latter long considered one of the toughest courses in Texas.

When San Antonio business executive Richard Jaffe bought the resort from the Hurds in the mid-1990s, he began working on upgrading the entire Horseshoe Bay image. The golf courses had matured nicely and Jaffe added some gradual renovations and maintenance to the varied layouts. His masterstroke was recruiting industry resort leader Marriott in 2004 to build its first Texas resort, a six-story hotel complete with a huge pool, top restaurants and clay tennis courts.

Now the resort has the three Jones designs plus the new Jack Nicklaus-designed Summit Rock, which opened in October 2011. It also boasts a huge tennis complex,

conference facilities, an extensive marina and even its own 6,000-foot airstrip for visitors and members to fly in and out for a funfilled weekend.

Another unique feature was a championship 18-hole natural-grass putting course, Whitewater, along with prime Lake LBJ access, rentable boats and power water crafts of all shapes and sizes, plus bikes to ride and even a video arcade for the young and young at heart.

There are ample activities for the entire family at Horseshoe Bay, from the hardcore golfer to the boater, swimmer, tennis fan or just lounging-do nothing expert.

“We’ve really made Horseshoe Bay a true family friendly resort destination,” said director of resort operations Mike Abbott.

“We are combining our great Hill Country location, Lake LBJ destination, our great golf course, great service and great people for

Golf Oklahoma Special Offer!

To celebrate their new additions, Horseshoe Bay is offering The Instant Replay Golf Package which includes: Standard accommodations, daily breakfast buffet at the Lantana Grill, unlimited round of golf per person on any of three Robert Trent Jones Sr. golf courses, shuttle service to and from the golf courses, complimentary round on Whitewater Putting courses, and a 30-minute group golf lesson.

This special is for Golf Oklahoma magazine readers and must be booked through the toll-free line at Horseshoe Bay Resort at 877-258-4512.

For information on the Horseshoe Bay vacation experience, go to www. hsbresort.com or call 877-258-4512. a fantastic time for both resort guests and members alike.”

Abbot was another key addition to Horseshoe Bay; bringing more than a decade of resort management skill to the property.

The par-72 partly elevated Summit Rock layout had a soft opening late last fall and is now enjoying its first full year of play, after nearly 10 years of financial delays.

“Summit Rock will be the newest jewel in the crown of our golf courses at Horseshoe Bay Resort,” said Jaffe, chief executive officer, Horseshoe Bay Resort & Horseshoe Bay Resort Realty. “There is no other place in the Hill Country and few places in Texas which can match this collection of four outstanding golf courses designed by legends of the game.”

While the course is private, tours are currently being offered to visitors interested in viewing the course and the new homes that will be part of the Summit Rock community.

Nicklaus has done more than a dozen courses in Texas, but Summit Rock is one of his more successfully mellow efforts.

Starting on the third hole, the courses overlooks the dramatic Hill Country scenery and the huge lake in the backdrop, but at no time do you feel overwhelmed and beaten up by this layout, something that cannot be said of all Nicklaus courses.

Other recent improvements at Horseshoe Bay include luxury poolside villas, which offer fresh fruit, personal refrigerators and flat

A giant pool with Lake LBJ in the background and beautiful views await guests.

screen TVs, along with a sand beach, plus an upgraded resort pool.

Dining options include the newly renovated Lakeside Grill, where you can eat inside or out, watching the boats tie up to the dock. The more formal Yacht Club also offers dining inside or outside on a shaded patio. The is also the Lantana Grill and Bar inside the Marriott, which features Texassized steaks for lunch or dinner along with a large breakfast buffet There are several bars along with food available at the three golf courses.

Golf is what made Horseshoe Bay popular with decades of visitors and what continues to draw the crowds from across the Southwest.

The Slick Rock course was the first to open in 1971. It plays 6,834 yards from the

back tees with a par of 72 and is considered the most user-friendly of the three courses.

It has plenty of open fairways, but is routed through colorful outcroppings of native granite and a wide variety of trees.

Ram Rock was the second course to appear in 1981 and for nearly two decades carried the label as the toughest track in Texas.

There are plenty of long, narrow greens, surrounded by water or small putting surfaces, which require an accurate approach shot.

The course features 62 deep sand bunkers, slick bent-grass greens with water hazards on 10 holes and a natural creek on six more.

Apple Rock was the third course to appear at Horseshoe Bay in 1986 and occupies some of the highest points of land at the facility, which gives it stunning views of the lake and surrounding landscape. www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 47

DESTINATIONS

Dancing Rabbit

Southern charm on, off course by bill harper

When it comes to resort golf, Dancing Rabbit has to be a finalist in anyone’s – and everyone’s – rankings. Don’t be bashful; start handing out a blue ribbon with goldplated lettering and all the trimmings.

As Janet Leach, sports marketing manager for Mississippi’s tourism division, said: “You don’t expect accommodations to be that great, but they are. You just want to sit in the room or on the veranda. It’s so pretty.”

It’s so Southern it drips with that renowned reputation, the mansion-like building and all.

Oh, that’s right, there is also golf. It’s pretty darn good itself, once you pry yourself away from the amentities.

Although only 15 years old, the grand clubhouse feels and looks older. The building houses the pro shop, men’s and women’s locker rooms, a pleasant dining area and bar plus eight spacious king-size suites upstairs. A veranda wraps around the entire second story, giving guests spectacular views of some of the golf holes as well as the driving range.

Let’s not forget the casinos, also part of the Pearl River Resort, a sprawling development by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Once the sun starts diminishing, Silver Star or Golden Moon become the headliners, giving the golf package added extras.

Director of golf Mark Powell knows his golf facility is only a portion of the entertainment package. As a result, each guest is afforded his/her own golf cart to cruise through the backwoods from the exquisite 48 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

housing complex to a front-door parking spot for your cart at the casino. Now that’s a perk!!

Top, the Azaleas course and above, the Oaks course at Dancing If Dancing Rabbit Rabbit in Mississippi.

Golfers come from everywhere, not just Golf Club’s restaurant doesn’t offer what your taste buds desire, the surrounding states but worldwide.

“We have very high-service standards it can certainly be found in the two casinos with a slew of cuisine options, including the much like your best country club, but have thousands of golfers that play the courses Villa Restaurant at Golden Moon.

But golf owns the drawing power with each year,” said Powell.

The Azaleas course ranks No. 3 in the the 36 holes designed jointly by Tom Fazio and Jerry Pate. Originally this was a vast state and the Oaks No. 5; both are excepacreage of seemingly worthless landscape, tional.

“The Azaleas has received more notorinot something the Indians could use for ety,” said Powell, “but the Oaks is rated as farming or anything else.

Thanks to Fazio’s and Pate’s imagina- the harder course.

“Both courses complement each other tions, two splendid golf course’s emerged.

The complex has won numerous national with their differences and golf-course design.

“The Oaks has more elevation changes, awards, the latest being a No. 32 ranking in Golf Magazine’s Best Courses You Can Play water features and rock formations; while the Azaleas has more creeks, valleys and, of in America. course, flowers. The Oaks has lush Zyosia And rightly so.

“It is very seldom golfers do not walk fairways and Champion Bermuda greens, away totally impressed,” explained Powell, while the Azaleas has Bermuda fairways whose task when hired was to move the and A-4 bent-grass greens.

“I have not ever seen two championship complex to the next level.

“It is our goal to be the flagship golf resort golf courses that start from the same clubfor not only the Mississippi Band of Choc- house that are so different.’’

The golf alone is worth it. The caino is taw Indians, but the state.”

Powell is a master at the extra touch, such one amentity, but there is also a water park as a crushed ice machines and iced towels which draws tremendous crowds.

For more information: www.dancingrabon the course for hot summer days. Weather in fall and spring is perfect for golf getaways, bitgolf.com and www.pearlriverresort.com . however.

For a free golf package quote at over 40 hotels & casino resorts go to www.Golfcoast.Com

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 49

MAHOGANY’S PRO PROFILE

Bo Van Pelt

and winning in Malaysia (fall European Tour) was really big Tulsa’s Bo Van Pelt has been for me. I played more last offon the PGA Tour for a dozen season than I have in the past years and has grown into one of and I think that really helped the Tour’s steadiest and stron- me. gest players. There were plenty of highs in 2012, including ten You mean, helped you get off to top-10 finishes and more than a good start?

It did that, but it also helped $3 million won in prize money.

Yet there were some disap- me avoid any sustained lull durpointments as well for the- ing the year which has hapformer Oklahoma State star, pened before. Some years I namely not making the Ryder would go a month without playCup team and not winning for ing in the off season and when I came back I was really rusty the second time on Tour.

In the majors, he finished (four of five missed cuts to start tied for 17th at The Masters the 2011 season). I felt I started and tied for 18th at the PGA good this year and kept it up Championship. He jumped out most of the year. to a hot start with four top-10s in his first seven events and Did you try something new for finished strong, including ty- 2012 which you felt helped you ing for 10th at the BMW and this year?

Not really. You know I’ve the Tour Championship. From start to finish, Van Pelt, 37, en- been doing the same thing for joyed the longest sustained pe- a long time and feel it’s really riod of excellence in his career. helped me and helped my comSitting in the East Lake fort level. I’ve had the same Country Club locker room at teacher (Mark Wood) for 12 The Tour Championship, Van years and the same caddy (Mark Pelt discussed his 2012 season Chaney) for seven so I don’t rewith correspondent Art Stricklin. ally see the need to change a lot of things.

Bo, every pro goes into a new season wanting to have a good What helped you this year?

I just worked on being more year or thinking about a special season, but did you think consistent around the greens and off the tee.

2012 could be this good?

I thought I was pretty consisSee VAN PELT page 54 tent at the end of last year (2011) 50 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

CHARLESTON’S AMATEUR PROFILE

Bill Brogden Bill Brogden has begun his 27th season as head golf coach at the University of Tulsa. The son of a high-school basketball coach, hoops was his first passion and he was a deadly shooting guard in both high school and at East Carolina. He may have been the next Dean Smith or Roy Williams, but there were no basketball jobs open in the fall of 1969 after he earned his Masters at Virginia Commonwealth, so he became the head golf coach at Memphis State.

A loss for basketball but a big gain for golf. Brogden has gone on to take teams to national competition 36 times in his 43 years as a head coach, including seven NCAA Championship appearances at Tulsa.

He has been named conference Coach of the Year five times.

More importantly, he has had a positive influence on generations of young men.

ers would miss important finals the next day.

Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated highly praised you in a column called A Stroke of Inspiration.

TU president Steadman Upham wrote a letter to the faculty saying he had never been more proud of any coach or team.

You received as much recognition for that probably as any success on the course.

Probably more than I should have. I just felt like it was the right thing to do. Academics are still the most important thing in college. Ninety-five percent of my players have graduated and that’s part of a coach’s responsibility. I want to win as much as anybody, but the right way.

Looking back over 43 years as a college golf coach, what are some of the biggest changes in the game and the players.

The equipment has changed the game a lot because of how far they can hit it now. And the Bill, despite all the success your kids today are much bigger than players and teams have had on they were 30 or 40 years ago. the course, you’re also known I’ve got guys who are 6-footnationally for what happened 2 and 200 pounds. Most of the in 2005, when you pulled your guys I had back then were 5-7 team off the course as it began to 5-10.

The courses have changed a a sudden-death playoff with SMU for the WAC Champi- lot. They are much longer and onship, knowing if you didn’t harder now, but they have to be leave then you would miss the See BROGDEN page 54 last flight out and several playwww.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 51

QUAIL CREEK BANK’S CELEBRITY PROFILE

Val Skinner

Dedicated to making a difference

Heather’s priority right before she passed away was for us to remember her and what happened. As an athlete, you have the platform to make a statement about it.

The players that came well behind her understand her story and the essence of her courage and passion and the gratitude that we all need to have about our health. . . .

This year we had Lexi Thompson and Paula Creamer playing for the first time. It’s great to see these younger athletes step forward and do something positive and help share our message.”

What’s the state of your golf game these days? With everything you’re involved in, do you get a chance to play?

I play in a fair number of the Legends Tour events we have. We usually play for one or two days with a pro-am one day. Nancy (Lopez) still comes out and plays and some of the players that really inspired me when I was younger.

“I don’t want to practice that hard, but I am still competitive. I still strike the ball solidly. It’s still a part of you. There’s a place you go within yourself to obtain those low numbers and low rounds and it’s nice to get out there and feel some of that come back.”

Val Skinner could be as driven and focused as any golfer on the LPGA Tour.

Sometimes that laser beam of intensity was pointed toward winning golf tournaments.

More often, as the 1982 Oklahoma State All-American advanced in her career, her passion led to a truly monumental effort to help raise awareness of the risks of breast cancer among young women.

Skinner was profoundly affected by the death of close friend and fellow LPGA golfer Heather Farr, who died at 28 from breast cancer after numerous surgeries and radiation treatments. Before she passed away, she asked Skinner to not let the death of someone so young and otherwise healthy go unnoticed. Skinner has made Farr proud.

The Val Skinner Foundation works closely with both the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Susan G. Komen For The Cure. Her annual LIFE Event (LPGA Players in the Fight to Eradicate Breast Cancer) brings together elite professionals in an annual fund-raiser that began in 2000 and raises more than $500,000 each year. That helps fund programs such as the Komen on the Go program, an interactive mobile tour that travels to communities and universities and has reached “millions and millions of 52 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

We’re blown away by the amount of work you do to prevent breast cancer. What’s the main message you try to get across?

We want young people to be proactive about their health, live healthy lifestyles and do self-exams. Heather’s whole thing is that she was blindsided. She didn’t have the awareness that something like this could happen to a young healthy person.

The thing we know is 98 percent that detect early survive and that’s with young people and old and all different types of cancers.

With Komen on the Go, we’ve reached millions and millions of young people with the message to be proactive about their health.

You played at Oklahoma State for Ann Pitts and alongside such players as Janice Burba Gibson, now the director of the First Tee in Tulsa, Lew Erickson, a Tulsa banker who heads up the USGA Senior Woomen’s Amateur this year, and Patty Coatney, who went on to win more state amateur championships than any other Oklahoman.

I’m proud of Janice. She was always a player that plugged along, hit every shot in the fairway and could putt the lights out.

We called her Auto. She is a good human being and a good teammate and has done an amazing job with the First Tee. Lew Erickson is a big part of the USGA and I got to see her this summer at the Women’s Amateur.

She has helped me to get to know our new coach (Alan Bratton) at OSU. Patty was a great teammate and has been a great player for years and years. We had a good team my senior year and finished third in the NCAA. I’m proud to be in the Hall of Honor at OSU.”

Although not many players on tour now knew Heather, the younger ones have embraced your message and the support through your LIFE Event is amazing.

You won nine tournaments at OSU, were Big Eight Female Athlete of the Year in 1982 and a two-time All American. Ann recruited you with a phone call to you and your father?

young women.”

Skinner graciously talked with Golf Oklahoma recently covering a wide range of topics, not only her work against breast cancer but also her career as a golfer and television analyst for the Golf Channel and a look back at her college days at Oklahoma State. Some excerpts:

“I was a dark-horse recruit. I did have a lot of offers but I had a comfortable feeling with Ann. I knew and trusted that my experience would be about golf and more than golf. And that she would ask me to be responsible for me.

I knew that you wouldn’t play in perfect weather and would learn how to be a good wind player. The schedule was great because we would go east, north, south and west and get a good experience all across the country. Plus you could see that everybody cared about golf, from Ann to Labron Harris to Mike Holder.

“I would go watch the men’s team. The guys were so good. I would watch Willie Wood and Bobby Tway. I spent a fair amount of time with Mike Holder. He was such a smart coach in how he could spot talent and craft these amazing teams. And they all helped me and cared about how I did.

When I’m out now doing the Women’s Amateur on the Golf Channel, it’s hard not to walk up and tell these girls to go to Oklahoma State. It was a great experience for me.”

Ann is very proud of all you accomplished on Tour, winning six times and ranking in the top 15 in seven of your 21 seasons. But she is even more proud of all you’ve accomplished off the course.

Ann focused on life and her big thing was self-reliance and how to manage yourself as an athlete. I later worked a lot with Bob Rotella and they said a lot of the same things.

I’m sure I was quite a challenge because I was very independent and strong-minded and knew exactly how things should go all the time. But she would always have that one line that would help me turn myself around.

offered to sponsor me early on but it was important to me to do it my way and on my own.

Everyone is always looking for the next great American player. Is she out there?

Lexi Thompson has almost everything you need. The one thing, and we saw it with Michelle Wie, is she needs to be more fluid and rhythmic on the greens. She’s a work in progress but she has the ability and the drive. She doesn’t play to be rich and famous, she plays to be great.

Michelle Wie is like an over coached Secretariat An amazingly talented natural athlete who has been overanalyzed. I hope How do today’s players differ from your she can pull away from everything and find herself. era if at all?

Players are as good as we were but maybe not as independent. In my generation, you The greatest female golfer ever?

Annika Sorenstam. In greatness, there’s always had the last word over your father, caddie, agent, whatever. It was uncool to almost a desparation. For some athletes, have an entourage. Today players have a they need it, they want it, but they want it so bad they can’t get out of their own way. different mindset.

I think there’s a strength in character and a Annika wanted it, but she figured out how wisdom as an athlete that you gain through to get out of the way.” an independent journey. I had people who

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 53

Van Pelt, continued from 50 One question I’m sure you get a lot at home and have probably asked yourself a lot. Why do you think you went without a win this year and have only won once in your PGA Tour career?

I just try to do the right things to put myself in position for a win and I know it will eventually come. You know, it’s funny on the PGA Tour. Wins usually come on the most obscure things. One week you’re really playing well and you win big. Another time, a win just falls into your lap. I’ve seen it happen both ways out here.

be a lot of fun to make for those guys, but I had an idea what he was going to say. It’s disappointing to get that phone call, but it will just add more fuel to my fire, Were you still interested in the Ryder Cup this year with your OSU buddy Scott Verplank as an assistant captain?

“I’ve talked to Scott a bunch about the matches. I couldn’t see any of the golf on Saturday because we had kids stuff and then we went to the Oklahoma State-Texas football game.”

What goals are you setting for 2013 after your successful 2012 season?

I’m going to play a few international You had to think you were pretty close this tournaments to stay sharp and get ready for another year like I had this year. I want to year to being a Ryder Cup pick?

A win this summer would have put me in be on the Ryder Cup team and want to win a different spot, but when you’re a (Ryder tournaments. but I just have to keep doing Cup) rookie you have to take it, you can’t the same things to put myself in the best possible position. count on anybody to give it to you.

Did you have a feeling you knew what Davis Love would say when he called you after the second FedEx Cup event in September?

It was the same phone call I got two years ago from Corey Pavin. That phone call can’t

Do you have anything in mind to reward yourself for the great year. Maybe upgraded OSU tickets or something?

No, I have three young kids and I don’t want to play this game all my life. I think I’ll just put it in their fund.

The Best Golf in Oklahoma City!

SAVE ON GOLF!

When you plan your golf season 20% savings with FREQUENT PLAYER 25% savings with TOUR OF THE CITY Purchase from any of our courses December - February USE ALL YEAR! For details call any of our courses Featuring seven of Oklahoma City’s best 18-hole golf courses, one nine-hole course, driving ranges, restaurants and tournament facilities.

405-691-1727

405-424-1421

54 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

405-677-8874

405-843-1565 405-424-4353

Brogden, continued from 51 to test them when they hit it so far.

The players come to you having taken way more instruction than they need. They can be too mechanical and need to learn how to just play and create. That’s one thing we try to do as coaches, is get them to manage the game they have.

Another change that I don’t particularly like is they come in having only played one sport. They give up everything else too early. I used to take basketball players and make them golfers because I knew they were good athletes. Now all they do is golf from the time they are little kids.

I’m sure you’ll say the best team you’ve coached was the 1981 NCAA runner-up at Oral Roberts featuring Joey Rassett, Bill Glasson, Jim Kane and Bryan Norton.

How about the best college player you’ve coached?

Joey Rassett. He was the best looking 18-year-old golfer I’ve ever seen. He just hit shots, made putts, walked around with a cockiness like he knew what he was doing and backed it all up.”

How about your best team at Tulsa?

The 2005 team of Sam Korbe, Brett Myers, Ryan Henry, Mitch Cohlmia and Nicolas Geyger. They all came in and got along and got better. All five guys won at least two college tournaments and that is very rare. Four of the five were Academic All-Americans.

And they are all doing well today. Sam is a doctor in Birmingham. Nick is still playing in Canada and South America. Ryan, Brett and Mitch are working here in town. They are all married except Nick.

How about the best player you’ve seen in college?

Nobody was better than Tiger. Although Phil (Mickelson) won the nationals three

times and was very good. And Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were as good as any college players ever. They just won every tournament.

Houston had the best teams and then Mike Holder came to OSU and OSU had the best teams for a long period. I still look at my ORU team as one of the top five teams ever in college golf.

How much has recruiting changed and do you enjoy it?

I used to be about six months behind in recruiting, now I’m about a year and a half. I had a coach tell me the other day that he already has his class of 2013 and 2014 locked up and was working on 2015!

Now there are more players than there have ever been but there are also many more teams with good budgets, practice facilities, assistant coaches and everything needed to be good. There are probably 100 of those and that’s far more than there used to be.

The top 50 in the junior rankings are probably still looking at the name schools. The kids from 50 to 300, you’re judging on potential as to who is actually going to turn into a good player. It gets down to the kid.

We expose them to good things in college and how he responds to those things by playing a good schedule, practicing, going to class and doing the things that are necessary is what will make him successful.

You’ve always been there for your players but often to teach them self-reliance, which may seem like a contradiction.

If I have just had a smidgeon of positive influence on every guy I’ve had, that’s reward enough for me. My whole thing is I just want to be a positive influence in their lives.

Follow through

What you do at the end matters

by rod alexander, head professional at lew wentz golf course

A

Put a grip under each foot to improve your balance.

Accelerate through the ball each time.

Being a college golf coach has its perks?

I’ve personally been able to play Pine Valley, Augusta, Seminole, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, Spyglass, Southern Hills. I had a chance to go to Scotland and play a bunch of courses there, which is the best trip I’ve ever been on. So yes, I’ve been fortunate to go to a lot of really nice places.

I think we can safely put you down on the side of the ledger with those coaches who would like to see the NCAA Championship return to 72 holes of stroke play. Anything else on your agenda?

I would like to see us change how we keep score. Instead of counting four of five scores, count all five. When in life do you get to throw away a bad day? Every day you step out there it counts.

Finish the swing with the club against your neck.

s I look out my Golf Shop window, I am amazed at how many amateurs concern themselves with their backswing. I watch golfers take practice swings and turn it into a two-point, three-point, sometimes four-point checklist. You see their minds grinding on what position they should be in taking the club back, but when they get back to the position of the ball, they stop.

Some golfers (and fellow teachers) would disagree with me, but I feel the most important part of the swing is a foot from your ball to your follow-through.

I could care less what your backswing looks like. Every golfer has a different body makeup. Tall and skinny, short and heavy – whatever you may be, take what you have and worry about finishing your swing. You cannot hit a ball solidly if you decelerate into the ball.

The golf shaft must be leaning toward the target at impact and you must be able to get your weight to your left side (for the right-handed golfer) and finish your swing in balance.

Have you watched the pros on TV or watched a PGA Section event in person? Professionals always finish in balance. They are able to watch their ball land while still in the follow-through position. What would you look like if the television cameras were on you while you made a swing?

Would you be able to stay in frame or would you move out of the picture?

The next time you go practice, put a grip under the outside part of each shoe. This should keep your weight centered during your swing. Take your hands to shoulder height on the backswing and start your downswing by leaning the shaft towards the target. Finish the downswing by having the club shaft touch the back of your neck and hold that position until the ball lands. You will find yourself hitting better shots by swinging in balance.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 55

GOLF FITNESS

Increased shoulder rotation leads to improved ball striking One of the most misunderstood and often overlooked body regions related to the golf swing is the shoulder. We see countless cases of golfers that experience pain and limited backswing range of motion as a result of poor shoulder mechanics. In this article, we are going to cover one key motion you must have in your shoulder to maintain your posture in the golf swing and make a proper turn: shoulder external rotation.

The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, allowing a large range of motion in multiple planes. As a result, it also one of the most complex. The shoulder joint is made up of four joints, multiple bones, stabilizing ligaments and the rotator cuff. All of these structures must work properly and in the right sequence for your arm to move properly.

For the right-handed golfer, the right shoulder must externally rotate to at least 90 degrees at the top of the backswing. Conversely, the left shoulder should externally rotate to 90 degrees when the right-handed golfer is in the finishing position. We will show you a simple test call “The 90/90 Test” to check your shoulder external rotation.

In this test, we will measure the total degree of external rotation in each shoulder from a standing position and then compare that measurement to how the shoulder rotates in the golf posture. Many golfers will lose range of motion in their golf posture due to a lack of shoulder blade stability. If the shoulder blade elevates or flares due to muscular imbalances or poor posture in their golf stance, it will change the orientation of the shoulder joint. This in turn, will greatly reduce the amount of external rotation in your shoulder joint.

Step 1: Stand tall and hold your right arm out to your side with their elbow bent

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

56 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

to 90 degrees and palm down (See Figure 1). Now, without bending your spine backwards, try to externally rotate (rotating the hand up and back) your right hand as far as possible. Only continue rotating as far as the body will allow with no compromises in the posture (no arching of the back!). Never perform this test to the point of pain or discomfort. Be sure and check both sides.

Step 2: Once you are in a fully externally rotated position, it is time to grade the degrees of rotation. We are going to place you into one of three categories: Less than Spine Angle - your forearm does not externally rotate past the angle of your spine angle (usually less than 90 degrees See Figure 2) Equal to Spine Angle - your forearm is parallel to your spine angle (usually 90 degrees - See Figure 3) More than Spine Angle - your forearm externally rotates past your spine angle (usually greater than 90 degrees - See Figure 4) Step 3: The next portion of this test will be to complete the same process with only one change, the setup posture. In this portion of the exam, get into a normal 5-iron setup posture (See Figure 5). Again, raise your elbow and arm to a 90/90 position and rotate the hand externally. Observe the forearm-spine angle relationship in the same fashion as during the standing portion of the exam. Repeat on the opposite side.

Step 4: Finally, note if there is a difference between standing posture external rotation and the amount in your golf posture. If the shoulder external rotation has decreased in your golf posture, you know you have some work to do to improve your shoulder blade stability.

After completing the test, you will be able learn several things about your shoul-

Fig. 3

Sean Riley SwingFit

Ryan Smith SwingFit

der range of motion and stability. First, you can find out if you have enough external rotation range of motion available in your shoulder. The first test in standing will tell you this. Secondly, if you see a difference in your shoulder mobility from standing to a 5-iron setup posture, you know you need to work on your shoulder blade stabilizers.

So, why is all of this so important? Having a loss of shoulder external rotation mobility and stability often contributes to a flat shoulder plane or loss of posture. Either of these swing faults will typically lead a player to make compensations on the downswing with the body or hands to square the club face, leading to loss of power and inconsistent ball striking. If you find that your have inconsistency striking the ball and find that you have limitations when performing “The 90/90 Test,” we recommend you schedule a comprehensive physical evaluation with your local Titleist Performance Institute certified medical provider to determine why your shoulders are limited, and provide you with a custom, focused exercise program to improve this key motion in your golf swing.

Ryan Smith, licensed physical therapist, and Sean Riley, licensed chiropractor, are founders of SwingFit Golf Fitness and Performance Training in Tulsa and are certified by the Titleist Performance Institute. They specialize in golf-specific physical testing, fitness instruction and performance training. Contact them at (918) 743-3737 or visit them on the web at www.swingfittulsa.com.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

ARCHITECT’S NOTEBOOK

Routing the golf course

forth repeatedly, avoid back-to-back par-3s and back-to-back par5s, have the par-3s and par-5s play in different directions (N,E,S,W).

Any time I let someone know that I’m house, etc.)?

While these rules These big-picture decisions will allow us a golf-course architect, the same response Jay Blasi are a good guide, each comes back every time: “Wow, that’s cool.” to start arranging the puzzle pieces. At our Architect of the rules can and After a few minutes the follow-up comes: drawing board, we start coming up with a should be broken if the end result is a better conceptual plan.

“How do you design a golf course?”

After our site studies, we usually have a course. Many of the world’s most famous While there are hundreds if not thousands of tasks, and a huge team needed to design good sense for what land we want to use for courses have violated these rules in order to take advantage of a great natural feature (i.e. and build a golf course, one of the first and golf, so we highlight that on the map.

Sometimes we are told where the club- back-to-back par-3s at Cypress Point). most important tasks is the routing.

Knowing the site and with our general house must go and other times we get to Simply put: help determine its location. Once again we rules in mind, the designer will start to The routing: Where the golf holes go. sketch lines for where the holes might go.

I like to tell people it is like a big puz- highlight that on the map.

Once we know the land we are going to These “centerlines” indicate the general area zle and each hole is a puzzle piece. Other where the hole will start and finpuzzle pieces include the clubish. Ideally these lines will start, house, maintenance area, pracfinish or traverse the best featice facilities, parking and more. tures of the site.

The architect’s job is to fit the 18 Finding one or two good golf individual puzzle pieces (plus all holes is never a problem. Routthe others) onto the site and get ing the course to have 18 good them to work together. holes and seamless connections Each course has 18 puzzle is the challenge. pieces of varying lengths, but Typically, some natural feawhere they go and how the detures will dictate how the routsigner arranges them can mean ing must unfold. For example, the difference between a fun if there is a big cliff on the site, round and a frustrating one. most designers’ would like to In order to come up with a incorporate that. We know we good routing, the designer needs can’t play up and over a cliff, so to be armed with a great deal of we must lay out the hole in the information about the site and other direction. That one decithe project. Designers’ study sion may set the table for the things like: Client goals, topognext four or five holes and where raphy, natural features, wind dithey will go. rection, soil conditions, vegetaDuring the routing process a tion, sun angles, view corridors, designer is likely to sketch up adjacent land uses (housing, multiple routing alternatives for roads, etc) and noise. where the holes can go. Once We gather this info in a couthese options are sketched up, it ple of different ways. First, we is time to go back to the site and try to collect as much mapping test it out. as possible. An aerial photoThe designer will go walk the graph and topographic map are An aerial view of The Patriot land, below left, leads to landimaginary course in order to see often the most important tools. scape detail and ultimately a routing plan (above). if things are working well or if The second way designers gaththere might be some other oper information is to explore the site. We go on long nature walks and take use for golf and where the clubhouse will portunities to explore. Almost always adnotes about the things the maps don’t show go, we start looking for routes to fit in the justments will be made to the initial sketch.

The designer keeps going through this us. Notes like: “Good view this direction” or puzzle pieces.

There are some general rules or goals for process of sketching, walking and adjust“Rock outcroppings.”

Once we have collected all of our data, we golf-course routing: Each nine should be a ing until a final routing is agreed to by the try to start with three big-picture decisions. loop that returns to the clubhouse, each designer and the owner. At this point, the nine should be roughly the same yardage designer can focus on the detailed design of What land will we use for golf? and par, avoid eastward starting holes and each hole. Things like where the bunkers Where will the clubhouse go?

Any specific client goals (i.e. course must westward finishing holes, don’t start or end be walkable, need holes 9 and 10 at club- with a par-3, avoid holes playing back and See PATRIOT page 59

The Patriot was a challenging puzzle

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 57

SUPERINTENDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

Super times at TCC

PRESENTED BY

Renovation met all expectations by brady finton, superintendent at tulsa country club

Brady Finton, 43, has been the superintendent at Tulsa Country Club since 2005. The Joplin native and Oklahoma State graduate worked closely with architect Rees Jones and his staff on a complete renovation of the venerable TCC layout, which was originally routed by A.W. Tillinghast.

The updated layout has drawn rave reviews both for the changes and the level of conditioning, resulting in a strong membership gain.

Finton began his career at Blackwell Golf Club in 1990 as an assistant to Keith Reed and fell in love with the job.

Our maintenance staff here at Tulsa Country Club is excellent. Many of our employees have been here at least 10 years and are well rounded in all aspects of course maintenance.

We could not have timed our new wall-towall irrigation any better considering these last two summers. Our old system would not have been able to maintain our expectations of turfgrass quality during these heat and drought periods.

What sort of changes has the renovation made to your staff and your ability to keep it in shape? Do all the new bunkers mean a lot of added work and are there areas that are now easier to maintain?

We have the same amount of staff as we had prior to the renovation although we added 46,000 square feet of bunkers. We Besides the new greens and grasses, the do spend more time on a daily basis raking, renovation changed a lot strategically and but in a rain event we are able to restore added 40-plus bunkers. Do the members the bunkers in about two hours because of appreciate the new strategies as well as the improved drainage, liners, and the design of each bunker.

Brady, from all reports the course is in the improved conditions?

We have several areas we reshaped to Absolutely! The membership has been best condition ever. Congratulations on that. Considering all the work on the reno- extremely happy with the entire renovation. soften the severity of the slope so we could vation plus two of the hottest summers on Our new design has more risk/reward shots, maintain them with a rough unit instead of record, how we’re you able to accomplish so proper club selection and tee-shot place- weed-eating or fly mowing. ment is vital to score well. that?

PARTNERS IN EXCELLENCE

WWW.LUBER.COM 58 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

Tell us about the combination of grasses you used on the greens and how they’ve withstood a severe first year?

We chose a 50/50 blend of Tyee and 007. Both scored very high on the NTEP studies and after discussions with several universities and other courses throughout the country we felt this blend would be the best choice for the Tulsa Country Club climate. The bent grass has done extremely well. It has a dense, deep, fibrous root system and is very heat and Tulsa Country Club is renewed for its second century. drought tolerant. It is very easy to achieve our desired green speeds through- master planning committee to finalize each design characteristic before any grassing out the entire year. would start. Tulsa Country Club gave Rees Tulsa Country Club has always had a Jones, Inc., a budget and they pinched every great working relationship with the USGA penny they could to meet our overall masand recently hosted the U.S. Senior Wom- ter plan of the course. Rees and Bryce check en’s Amateur. What level of event do you in about every other month to see how the feel would be appropriate to host now post course is doing and see how we are doing. the changes.

Tulsa Country Club has a long history of What is more stressful, daily operations or hosting USGA events. We are always open going through a complete renovation.

The renovation was stressful at times but to discussions with hosting upper-level only due to timelines. What we were acUSGA or NCAA championships. complishing on every hole was so gratifying What was it like to work with the “Open it far outweighed any stress.

As we know, the “120 days of hell” every Doctor” Rees Jones? Did he take your manpower and budget into consideration summer here in Oklahoma is very stressful.

I would do another renovation any day as in incorporating his changes?

Rees and his senior designer Bryce Swan- compared to what we as superintendents go son were incredible to work with. They through every summer! were very open to suggestions from our committees. Rees and Bryce would walk ev- You are a good golfer. Is it important that ery golf hole with our management staff and a superintendent also be a golfer? Does it

Patriot, continued from 57 will go, at what angle will the green sit, etc So that is how the designer routes the course. And yes, it is pretty cool.

The Patriot

The Patriot presented numerous routing challenges. The first challenge was to determine where the golf course would go. There were upland prairies in the north, canyons in the middle and floodplain to the south.

The design team was initially told the course would occupy the floodplain area.

However, on my first site visit I fell in love with the nearby canyons, and asked the owners if we could use that land instead. To the great credit of David Charney and his

partners at Stone Canyon, they agreed.

The next challenge was where the clubhouse would go.

We studied sites on either end of the property and one in the middle.

While the sites on either end would start and finish on the least interesting land, required a continuous routing and had issues with sun angles, the central clubhouse allowed us to start and finish at a dramatic spot, return at the turn and was ideal for sun angles.

With the clubhouse location identified, I searched for ways to incorporate the four distinct landscapes (high prairie, low meadow, limestone canyon, hardwood forest) at The Patriot.

On the front nine I was able to find a route that played through a long creek-lined

help him see things more from his members’ perspective?

Thanks for the compliment, Ken! I believe it is an absolute must that a superintendent plays golf. I would not say a superintendent has to be a 5- handicap, but they definitely need to understand the playability of their course from tee to green. When you play the game you are in spots sometimes that you as a superintendent may miss if you are just driving or walking your course.

The trees have always been such a big part of TCC and they’ve been battered unmercifully by ice, wind and drought. What’s the outlook?

We have planted approximately 300 trees since the ice storm and are currently working with Rees Jones, Inc., on a master tree plan. We focus on the playability of the hole with each cultivar of tree from its mature state so we do not overplant an area to make the hole too penal as well as how each tree will effect turfgrass quality. It will be years before Tulsa Country Club will recover fully from the ice storm.

Any other projects on the horizon?

Tulsa Country Club has a Strategic Master Planning Committee that focuses on the longevity of our club. Next on our agenda is an indoor teaching facility at the north end of our range. This will be followed up with a new golf course maintenance facility. We are currently in the design concepts of the maintenance facility.

canyon before popping out into the prairie.

On the back nine two steep cliffs dictated the sequence of holes. I was able to find a route through the prairies and woods to the first cliff where we played downhill at 14 tee. From there the course plays through the low meadow before climbing the second cliff between 16 and 17 and finishing along the canyon edge at 18.

The result is a course that takes the golfer on a dramatic journey through all four landscapes.

Jay Blasi worked on The Patriot as a member of Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s design team. He now has his own firm and can be reached at blasigolf@gmail.com.

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 59

SCHEDULES & RESULTS COLLEGE MEN NSU GOLF CLASSIC At Emerald Falls GC, Broken Arrow (par-72) Sept. 24-25 Team leaders: 1, Southwestern State 294-295 – 589; 2, Washburn 293-301 – 594; 3, Newman 298-299 – 597; 4, C. Missouri 303-295 – 598; 5, C. Oklahoma 304-299 – 603; 6, Arkansas Tech 298-308 – 606; 7, Northeastern State 309-305 – 614; 8, Harding 311-306 – 617; 9 (tie), Southeastern State 314-310 – 624 and Pittsburg State 311-313 – 624; 11, Lindenwood 323-302 – 625; 12, Missouri Western State 312-318 – 630.

Individual leaders: 1, Myles Miller (Newman) 71-70 – 141; 2, James Bolton (Newman) 70-73 – 143; 3 (tie), Eric Klein (UCO) 74-71 – 145, Graham Rucker (AT) 71-74 – 145 and Trey Seigel (Washburn) 71-74 – 145.

THE TERRITORY CLASSIC At The Territory G&CC, Duncan (par-72) Sept. 24-25 Team scores: 1, Incarnate Word 297-306 – 603; 2, Abilene Christian 297-307 – 604; 3, Midwestern State 300-305 – 605; 4 (tie), Cameron 305301 – 606 and Dallas Baptist 304-302 – 606; 6, Texas A&M-Commerce 292-315 – 607; 7, St. Mary’s (Texas) 303-305 – 608; 8, Arkansas-Fort Smith 306-314 – 620; 9, Cameron JV 309-313 – 622; 10, McMurry 306-321 – 627; 11, West Texas A&M 314-319 – 633; 12, Panhandle State 331-339 – 670.

Individual leaders: 1, Patrick Russo (TAMC) 71-74 – 145; 2 (tie), Alejandro Flores (IW) 70-76 – 146 and Kirby Gorzell (St. Mary’s) 74-72 – 146; 4, John Olin (DB-ind.) 73-74 – 147, Derek Oland (MS) 75-72 -- 147 and Matt Porter (McMurry) 74-73 – 147.

Other scores: Corey Bounds (Cameron) 74-76 – 150, Austin Weaver (Cameron) 76-74 – 150,

60 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org

The Patriot wins Ping Interclub series

The winners, fom left to right, coach Daniel Barlow, Eli Russell-18, Peyton Sanders-16, Jacob Stoller-13, Clark Killion-15, Noah Russell-13, and coach Chris Jarrett.

Cullen Stahl (Cameron) 78-73 – 151, Bradley Ferrell (Cameron) 75-76 – 151, Eloy Gonzalez (OU) 75-77 – 152, Trent Combs (PSU) 77-77 – 154.

U.C. FERGUSON CLASSIC At Lincoln Park GC (West), par-71 Sept,. 17-18 Team scores: 1, Bellevue 279-273-267 – 819; 2, Okla. Christian 275-281-270 – 826; 3, Oklahoma City 273-276-283 – 832; 4, Our Lady of the Lake 277-279-285 – 841; 5, Oklahoma City Black 280-275-288 – 843; 6, Oklahoma Christian 287-282-278 – 847; 7, CSU-San Marcos 279-284286 – 849; 8, Rogers State 290-285-278 – 853; 9,

Southern Nazarene 285-292-280 – 857; 10, Oklahoma Baptist 283-291-284 – 858; 11, Lubbock Christian 294-286-285 – 865; 12, Northwood 294-289-300 – 883; 13, Southwestern Christian 304-295-301 – 900.

Individual leaders: 1, Sam Johnston (Okla. Chr.) 63-69-65 – 197; 2, Anthony Marchesani 67-65-68 – 200; 3, Taylor Sundbom (Bellevue) 71-64-66 – 201; 4, Nicholas Smith (OU) 67-70-66 – 203; 5 (tie), Scott Shefflette (CSU-SM) 66-69-69 – 204 and Jose Mario Vega (Bellevue) 68-69-67 – 204; 7 (tie), Logan Herbst (Okla. Chr.) 69-65-71 – 205 and Sondre Ronold (Okla. City B) 67-68-70 – 205.

ONLINE: Get the latest schedules and results at

golfoklahoma.org

WOMEN DALE MCNAMARA INVITATIONAL At The Golf Club of Okla., Broken Arrow (par72) Sept. 17-18 Team scores: 1, Arizona State 280-292-294 – 866; 2, Florida 285-291-293 – 869; 3, Oklahoma State 289-297-289 – 875; 4, East Carolina 293291-297 – 881; 5, Coastal Carolina 293-303-290 – 886; 6, SMU 300-294-295 – 889; 7, ArkansasLittle Rock 294-306-296 – 896; 8, Kennesaw State 300-290-307 – 897; 9, Tulsa 307-295-297 – 899; 10, Augusta State 307-298-304 – 909; 11, Kansas 295-303-312 – 910; 12, Texas-San Antonio 307-307-300 – 914; 13, Middle Tennessee State 313-310-309 – 932l 14, Illinois 311-310-316 – 937; 15, Marshall 338-310-311 – 959.

Individual leaders: 1, Isabelle Lendl (Fla.) 71-6772 – 210; 2, Daniela Ordonez (ASU) 71-71-71 – 213; 3 (tie), Kelsey Vines (OSU) 70-73-71 – 214 and Jayde Panos (OSU) 70-70-74 – 214; 5, Fabiola Arriaga (UTSA) 71-73-71 – 215; 6 (tie), Laura Blanco (ASU) 70-72-74 – 216, F. Gustafsson Spang (ECU) 70-74-72 – 216 and Camila Hedberg (Fla.) 67-73-76 – 216; 9, Brittany Henderson (CC) 74-72-71 – 217; 10 (tie), Antonia VonWnuck (TU) 74-71-73 – 218, Jennifer Park (SMU) 73-7174 – 218 and Kaew Preamchuen (Kennesaw St.) 77-67-74 – 218.

NSU CLASSIC At Cherry Springs GC, Tahlequah (par-72) Sept. 17-18 Team scores: 1, Northeastern State 298-307 – 605; 2, Arkansas Tech 317-304 – 621; 3, Harding 315-309 –624; 4, Southwestern State 306-319 – 625; 5, Henderson State 312-321 – 633; 6, Arkansas-Fort Smith 317-325 – 642; 7, Oklahoma Baptist 323-323 – 646; 8, East Central 319-339 – 658.

Individual leaders: 1, Brittany Marquez (Harding) 71-72 – 143; 2, McCandren Lewis (NSU) 75-72 – 147; 3, Kelsey Kirkpatrick (NSU) 72-76 – 148; 4, Margaret Musser (SWS) 74-76 – 150; 5, Emelie Alpe (AT) 76-75 – 151.

Other scores: Whitney McAteer (NSU) 75-72 – 147, Alex Koch 79-76 – 155.

SWCU WOMEN’S FALL CLASSIC At Lake Hefner GC, Okla. City (par-72/73) Sept. 4-5 Team scores: 1, Southern Nazarene 298-307 – 605; 2, Seminole State 301-310 – 611; 3, Bellevue 307-308 – 615; 4, Murray State 331-351 – 682; 5, Southwestern Christian 362-378 – 740; 6, Northwestern State 405-396 – 801.

Individual leaders: 1, Marion Broedys (SN) 70-69 – 139; 2, Jordan Leibold (SN) 67-74 – 141; 3, Renee Santoyo (Bellevue) 75-72 – 147; 4, Alejandra Arellano (Seminole) 72-76 – 148; 5, Maria Saavedra (Bellevue) 74-75 – 149; 6, Sydney Guinn (Seminole) 74-76 – 150.

OGA MID-AMATEUR At Forest Ridge GC, Broken Arrow (par-72) Sept. 17-18 1, Don Clark 72-76 – 148; 2, Brad Christianson 75-74 – 149; 3 (tie), Daniel Funk 74-76 – 150, Jon Valuck 74-76 - -150 and Heath Myers 74-76 -- 150; 6 (tie), Bill Brafford 75-77 – 152, Tyler Willey 74-78 – 152 and Brent Taylor 73-79 – 152; 9 (tie), Michael Alsup 76-77 – 153, Clayton Partney 75-787 – 153 and Bob Mase 75-78 – 153; 12 (tie), Mike Gotcher 78-76 – 154 and Brad Kropp 77-77 – 154; 14, Ben Harris 78-77 – 155; 15, Blake Gibson 73-83 – 156.

OKLAHOMA OPEN At Oak Tree CC (East), Edmond (par-70) Aug. 24-26 1, Matt Van Cleave 68-67-67 – 202 (won playoff on 3rd hole); 2, Chris Thompson 70-63-69 – 202; 3 (tie), Charlie Holland 68-65-70 – 203, Jonathan Moore 68-66-69 – 203 and Shawn Jasper 6668=69 – 203; 6, Zack Fischer 67-66-71 – 204; 7 (tie), Trent Whitekiller 71-69-65 – 205 and Ryan Spears 69-70-66 – 205; 9, Chase Lindsey 6773-67 – 207; 10 (tie), Jim Kane 66-69-73 – 208, David Schultz 66-71-71 – 208 and Brian Scherer

66-69-73 – 208; 13, Derek Smith 70-69-71 – 210; 14 (tie), Tyler Rody 71-70-70 – 211, Geoff Shaw 68-73-70 – 211 and Josh Creel 72-71-68 – 211.

STATE STROKE PLAY At Jimmie Austin OU GC, Norman (par-71) Aug. 6-8 1, Talor Gooch 63-68-62 – 193; 2, Hunter Sparks 70-69-66 – 205; 3 (tie), Stephen Carney 70-6671 – 207 and Michael Hampton 70-73-64 – 207; 5 (tie), Colton Staggs 71-68-69 – 208 and Logan McCracken 67-68-73 – 208; 7 (tie), Dillon Rust 70-70-70 – 210 and Ian Davis 72-68-70 – 210; 9 (tie), Hayden Wood 74-68-69 – 211, Landon Morgan 70-69-72 – 211 and Elliot Groves 71-71-69 – 211; 12 (tie), James Marchesani 73-69-71 – 213 and Sam Lee 69-73-71 – 213; 14, Trent Mewbourn 72-70-72 – 214; 15 (tie), Anthony Marchesani 7370-72 – 215 and Trey Lawson 70-74-71 – 215.

WOMEN’S OKLA. GOLF ASSOCIATION SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP At Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa (par-71) Sept. 18-19 Freshman: 1, Janet Miller 75-82 – 157; 2, Leigh Ann Fore 85-79 – 164; 3, Tita McCoy 85-84 – 169 (low net); 4, Connie Kelsey 85-89 – 174; 5, Brigid Kennedy 91-86 – 177; 6 (tie), Sharon Stieber 8991 – 180 and Susan Kraft 88-92 – 180..

Sophomore: 1, Teresa DeLarzelere 77-80 – 157 (Senior champion); 2, Kathy West 81-82 – 163; 3, Elaine Davis 85-83 – 168; 4, Ann Cowan 81-89 – 170; 5 (tie), Tammy Fairchild 84-89 – 173 and Cherie Rich 94-79 – 173; 7 (tie), Janet McMillan 85-89 – 174 (low net) and Linda Ballard 88-86 – 174.

Junior: 1, Gayle Allen 85-80 – 165; 2, Darlene Crawford 85-85 – 170; 3 (tie), Ann Watkins 8787 – 174 and Joyce Washam 89-85 – 174; 5, Lee Ellen Thurman 87-89 – 176; 6, Marsha Cooper 91-86 – 177; 7, Melanie Robson 88-91 – 179; 8 (tie), Marcia Thrutchley 94-86 – 180 (low net champion) and Teri Miller 95-85 – 180.

Senior: 1, Pam Goodyeon 93-87 – 180; 2, Nita Williams 90-92 – 182; 3 (tie), Carolyn Mason 90-94 – 184 and Pat Monroe 92-92 – 184; 5 (tie), Janice Wyatt 96-92 – 188 and Pat McKamey 93-95 – 188; 7, Shirley Rampsey 96-93 – 189 (low net).

Super Seniors: 1, Ann Turner 83-83 – 166 (putting champion); 2, Betty Dixon 80-90 – 170; 3, Coleen Hazelwood 91-87 – 178 (low net); 4, Kathy Parrott 97-88 – 185.

Masters: 1, Norma Chaney 100-96 – 196; 2, Lorene West 103-103 – 206; 3, Cleta Pittman 104106 – 210; 4, Shirley Cooper 108-107 – 215.

PARTNERSHIP CHAMPIONSHIP At Shangri-La Resort, Monkey Island Aug. 20-21 Gross: 1, Janet Miller/Jill Johnson 72-65 – 137; 2, LeeAnn Fairlie/Teresa DeLarzelere 70-70 – 140; 3, Nan Dyer/Rose Cassidy 75-71 –- 146 (won scorecard playoff); 4, Jann Fouke/Rebecca Davis 71-75 – 146; 5, Tammy Fairchild/Dana Hurley 77-71 – 148; 6, Ann Turner/Linda Ballard 75-76 – 151; 7 (tie), Sherri Buster/Valinda West 76-76 – 152 and Lisa Barrowman/Liz Sterkel 72-80- 152.

Net: 1, Fairchild/Hurley 67-61 – 128; 2, Turner/Ballard 65-66 – 131; 3, Miller.Johnson 70-63 – 133; 4, Buster/West 66-68 – 134.

FORE STATE TEAM At The Highlands GC July 29-31 Team scores: 1, Oklahoma 13.5; 2, Arkansas 10.5; 3, Kansas 10; 4, Missouri 6.

Singles: Alex Stewart (O) def. Hannah Martin (K) 1-up; Caroline Goodin (O) halved Baile Winslow (M); Janet Miller (O) def. Katie Speir (A) 3 and 2; Jennifer Clark (K) def. Amber Hensley (O) 3 and 1; Charter Lawson (O) def. Nancy Walther (M) 5 and 4; Micah Radler (A) def. Jill Johnson (O) 6 and 5’ Kendra Mann (O) def. Rita Gregory (K) 3 and 1; Ali Kruse (M) def. Lauren Michaels (O) 5 and 4; Lulong Radler (A) def. June Tigert (O) 3 and 1; Ally Seng (O) def. Denise Desilet 5 and 4.

FOUR-BALL STROKE PLAY

At Forest Ridge GC, Broken Arrow (par-71) July 28-29 Championship flight: 1, Chris Karlovich/Colton Staggs 65-66 – 131; 2, Steve Hughes/Shawn Kitchen 71-64 – 135; 3, Don Cochran/Ryan Rainer 72-64 – 136; 4, Tanner Owens/Taylor Owens 6968 – 137; 5, Parker Foster/Chris Noel 65-72 – 137; 6, Bill Brafford/Daniel Brafford 68-71 – 139.

Open Flight: 1, Mark Redman/Tim Wilson 71-73 – 144; 2, Jeff Linnell.Lloyd Walker 74-71 – 145; 3, Scott Crane/David Poczynek 76-75 – 151; 4 (tie), David Baker/Ken MacLeod 76-79 – 155, John Blackmon/Michael Blackmon 80-75 – 155 and Robert Maldonado/Rodney Piles 82-73 – 155.

Seniors: 1, Tim Hoagland/Richard Koenig 68-68 – 136; 2, Bil Dobbs/Dave Wing 68-70 – 138; 3, Bil Heldmar/Eric Mueller 69-71 – 140; 4, Paul Keller/ Michael Koljack 70-71 – 141; 5 (tie), Ken Albright/ Bobby Nelson 71-72 – 143 and Kenny Barth/Bill Watson 72-71 – 143 South Central Section Championship At Shangri-La Resort 1, Cary Cozby, Wichita CC, 72-64-71—207; 2, Tracy Phillips, Cedar Ridge CC, 67-7071—208; 3, Kyle Flinton , Quail Creek G & CC, 70-69-70—209; T4 Trent Rommann , Wichita CC, 72-67-72—211; T4 Tim Fleming, Oklahoma City G&CC, 68-70-73—211; 6 Tim Graves, Coffee Creek GC, 73-70-69—212; 7 Jarod Lundy, Quail Creek G & CC, 73-73-67—213; 8, Jeremy Moe, Hardscrabble CC , 73-71-71—215; 9 Jeremy Dear, LaFortune Park GC, 75-68-73—216; 10 Edward Roethlisberger, Big Creek G&CC, 71-7076—217 Senior Division: 1 James Kane, Folds of Honor, 63-68—131; 2, George Glenn, 68-71—139; 3. Vince Bizik, Cherokee Grove Golf Course , 69-72—141; 4 Andy Schaben, Wild Horse Canyon, 72-71—143; 5 Darren Watts, Lake Hefner GC, 73-74—147

Golf Course Construction

Recent Projects Recent Projects

Battle Creek Golf Club

Cedar Ridge Country Club • Broken Arrow, OK • Cart Path Improvements

Broken Arrow • Bunker Renovation

The Patriot Golf Club • Owasso, OK • Cart Path Improvements

Hardscrabble Country Club

Silverhorn Golf Club • Edmond, OK • Creek Crossing Repairs and Gabion Wall

Fort Smith, AR • Tee Improvements

Cedar Creek Golf Course • Broken Bow, OK • 18 Hole Irrigation Installation

Karsten Creek Golf Club

Forest Ridge Golf Club • Broken Arrow, OK • 18 Hole Bunker and Green Renovation

Stillwater • Practice Green Construction

Bailey Ranch Golf Club • Owasso, OK • Resurfacing of 3 Greens

Golf Club of Oklahoma

The Golf Club at Frisco Lakes • Frisco, TX • Cart Path Improvements Eastern Hills Country Club • Garland, TX • Cart Path Improvements

Broken Arrow • Emergency 10” Main Line Repairs

Sapulpa Golf Course Sapulpa • Green Repairs

Contact Us

South Lakes GolfJONESPLAN Course

2328 E. 13th Street Jenks • Practice Green Construction Tulsa, OK 74104 t 918.832.5544

Builder Member info@jonesplan.com Cedar Ridge Country Club

Broken Arrow • Cart Path Improvements

The Patriot Golf Club

Owasso • Cart Path Improvements

Silverhorn Golf Club

Edmond • Creek Crossing Repairs and Gabion Wall

Contact Us 2328 E. 13th St. Tulsa, OK 74104 t 918.832.5544; (918)-832-7721 fax info@jonesplan.com Builder Member

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 61

THE FIRST FAMILY OF WHISKEYS DISTILLED IN NEW YORK SINCE PROHIBITION We’re proud of our award-winning family of five – born from our stills to delight whiskey enthusiasts and revolutionize the craft-distilling movement. American ingenuity and New York roll-up-your-sleeves values are the hallmarks of Hudson.

Not to mention the fact that 90% of our grains are harvested within ten miles of our distillery. We like to keep it local, keep it green and keep it real.

Hand-crafted at Tuthilltown Spirits, Gardiner, NY.

Enjoy in Small Batches. Drink Responsibly.

HUDSONWHISKEY.COM Hudson Whiskey, 46% Al c./Vol. ©2012 Distributed by William Grant & Sons, Inc. New York, NY. HUD102711

www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 63

64 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org