Category: Headlines

Three Tied for Lead at KC Masters

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Wolf Creek Golf Club — The 2014 KC Masters began with incredible October weather this morning.  Temperatures started in the mid 60s and hovered around 70 degrees for most of the day.  The weather was a stark contrast to the 2013 KC Masters where the wind and chilly temperatures created extremely difficult playing conditions.

Four players took advantage through the first nine holes and posted front nine, under par rounds. The back nine of Wolf Creek would claim several victims and only three players were able to complete under par rounds.

University of South Florida standout, Joseph Winslow, was one of only a few players to card a back nine better than his front.  With four birdies and a blemish free back nine, Winslow posted 36 – 34 to finish at two under 70.

Former KC Amateur champion, Steve Groom, would match Winslow’s total with a par of 35s to post 70.  Groom’s only misstep was a bogey on the difficult 444 yard eighteenth.

Completing tomorrow’s final pairing will be Craig Broswick.  Broswick led all competitors after nine holes firing a blistering three under 33 on the opening nine. He followed the opening nine with a back nine 70.  His only dropped shot came at the difficult down hill par 3 eleventh.

Twenty-seven competitors will return to Wolf Creek tomorrow in the final regional championship of the season.  Up for grabs are the year’s final player of the year points and positioning for the 2015 Watson Challenge.

For complete results of today’s action click here.

Stateline Tour Championship is in the Books

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Steve Groom, of Raytown, MO fired an even par 71 today on a tough day at Shoal Creek Golf Club to take home the title in the Senior division of the Stateline Tour Championship. Groom was the first round leader after a 72 in round one. Tom Leonard, Greg Loteckie and Ed Walsworth were all close behind and within striking distance, but Groom never faltered and cruised to a four shot victory.

In the Legends division, Fran Ferns, of Leawood, KS won his first Stateline Tour championship with an 8-over 150 total. Ferns shot a 2-over 73 the first day, which gave him a lead of two shots over Ron Brewer and three shots over Jim Lodes and Brad Robinson. Fern’s led by only one with two holes remaining, but was able to hold on for the victory. Ron Brewer took home the title in the net competition with a 141.

In the Players division, first round leader Michael Buckhouse, of Lawrence, KS struggled a bit down the stretch, but was able to secure the championship. Buckhouse, who shot a 1-under 70 in round one got off to a great start and looked like he would cruise to an easy victory, but a few bad holes made things interesting. Ultimately, Buckhouse’s total of 149 would win by 2 over runner-up Ritch Nigh. Greg Hillman took home the net championship with a 141.

Finally, in the Open division, Mark Terranova, of Overland Park, KS, came from behind to secure the title with a 5-over 147. Terranova trailed first round leader Josh Weems by one shot after the opening round, but quickly made up that deficit in round two and played a solid back nine to clinch the win.

Click here for complete results.

Blue Hills Women Secure KC Cup

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For the second time in three years, the women of Blue Hills Country Club are the Kansas City Cup champions. It was a cool, gray day at Meadowbrook, but Blue Hills played great and cruised to a 3-0 victory over The Golf Club of Kansas. For the Golf Club of Kansas, it was their third straight trip to the finals, but they’re still in search of that elusive first victory.

In match #1, Toni Zink and Missy Giocondo of Blue Hills defeated Debbie Henderson and Veda Landon of the Golf Club of Kansas 3&2. Landon and Henderson squared the match when Landon made an ace on the par 3 2nd hole. It was Landon’s third career hole in one. That would be the highlight of the day for the Golf Club of Kansas, as Blue Hills would soon take the lead and hold the lead for the rest of the day. Zink and Giocondo led 2-up on the 16th hole when Zink made a 50 foot net eagler putt to clinch a 3&2 victory.

In match #2, Diane Easley and Carol McLerran of Blue Hills defeated Mary Kolich and Paula Sowell of the Golf Club of Kansas 4&3. Easley and McLerran jumped out to an early lead and looked liked they might have an easy victory, but Kolich and Sowell made a run at them in the middle of the round to cut the lead to 2-up. Easley and McLerran would pull away and clinch the match with a long par putt on the 16th hole.

In match #3, Shelley Whipps and Liz Kryger of Blue Hills defeated Sydney Tucker and JoAnne Bridgnell of the Golf Club of Kansas 5&4. Whipps and Kryger played a stellar round of golf and led from wire-to-wire to clinch the final point for Blue Hills.

Congratulations to Captain Diane Sparks and Blue Hills Country Club!

Amateurs Victorious in Camaraderie Cup

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The Country Club at Loch Lloyd — After nearly ten hours of golf, the inaugural Camaraderie Cup matches came down to the last two singles matches in order to determine the winner.  Light showers throughout the day could not put a damper on the intense competition between the teams of eight KCGA amateurs and eight Midwest Section PGA professionals.

The Camaraderie Cup features a “Nassau” format where players compete for three points in each match.  There is a separate match on the front, a separate match on the back and an aggregate match for the total.  With four matches in the team format and eight singles matches in the afternoon, the total number of points possible was 36.  That made the magic number 18.5 for the team that would take the title.

The Midwest PGA Section got off to a very fast start in the team play taking three of the four alternate shot matches, three of the four-ball matches and three of the overall eighteen hole matches.  The would enter the singles matches leading 9 points to 3 points.

In the afternoon, the amateurs came roaring back in singles play.  By the end of the front nine singles session, the amateurs had closed the lead to only a single point.  Led by strong play from Steve Groom and Brent Mertz, who garnered 6 and 5.5 points respectively, the amateurs would climb even with the professionals halfway through the back nine.

As the final two matches came to the finish, the end results was still up in the air.  After the smoke had cleared, the amateurs claimed the title with a 19 to 17 point overall victory in the matches.

Complete results Click Here!

To see photos from the event Click Here!

The KC Cup Finals Are Set

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After a season long tough competition including a vast majority of Kansas City’s golf clubs the 2014 Men’s and Women’s Kansas City Cup Finals are set.

On the Men’s side the championship match will take place at Ironhorse Golf Club on Tuesday September 23. The match is between the number one seed Wolf Creek Golf Links who defeated Blue Hills Country Club 5 to 4 in the semifinals.

Wolf Creek will face off against number two seed Stone Canyon Golf Course. Stone Canyon defeated Fred Arbanas Golf Course 51/2 to 31/2 at Blue Springs Country Club yesterday.

One the Women’s side Golf Club of Kansas dominated their semifinal match against Indian Hills at Tiffany Greens Golf Course. Golf Club of Kansas won the match 3 to 0.

On the other side of the bracket Blue Hills Country Club faced off against Hillcrest Golf and Country Club. It was a close match till the end but Blue Hills came out on top with a 2 to 1 victory.

The Women’s championship match will take place at Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club on September 24th.

Make sure to follow the action live next week on our twitter @thekcga.

To see information on Kansas City Cup Click Here.

Kansas City Golfers Grab National Headlines

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Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the legendary Tom Watson will captain the U.S. Ryder Cup team in Gleneagles, Scotland next week.  Watson will try to lead the U.S. team to victory on foreign soil for the first time since he last captained the squad in 1993.

What you may not know is that the area’s best players have been dominating the national golf headlines the past several weeks.

The run of great play from area residents began with Robert Streb at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.  The Kansas State alum caused an uproar throughout local clubs when he holed an eagle putt on his final hole of the championship.  The NBC broadcast team promptly declared that the dramatic eagle putt was good enough for Streb to continue on in the FedEx Cup race.  The putt momentarily put him in the top 70, but after some recalculating, Streb would fall just two FedEx Cup points short of continuing.

Even though his 2014 season was cut short, Streb has made quite a splash in his second year on tour amassing 1.3 million dollars and while becoming the 181st ranked player in the world.  Streb also claimed the title of Kansas City’s best player when he took down the metro’s best at Loch Lloyd earlier this year during the Watson Challenge.  His class as a player and person was on display at this year’s Watson Challenge as he and his wife promptly donated the winner’s check of $10,000 to the First Tee of Greater Kansas City.

“When Robert said that during the awards ceremony, my mouth just dropped open,” said KCGA Executive Director, Matt Williams.  “I know he is having a great year, but he is only three seasons removed from scrapping it around in the mini-tour world. I mean ten grand is ten grand and it took some real class to step up and have an impact on our community like that.”

With the new PGA Tour schedule, Streb is not likely to stay idle for long.  The official 2015 PGA Tour season kicks off at the Frys.com Open in early October which is an event he had reasonable success at last season.

Shortly after Robert Streb’s eagle putt dropped in Boston, the 2014 U.S Mid-Amateur Championship kicked off at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, PA.  The event, which gathers the best amateurs ages 25 and over, boasts one of the greatest first place prizes in all of amateur golf.  The Mid-Amateur champion is traditionally awarded a spot in the Masters each spring.  Needless to say, the competition from the average “working Joes” is fierce.

St. Joseph’s Brad Nurski, is no stranger to big events.  He has been an excellent player on the local and statewide scene, but has never had substantial success on the national level.  After advancing through the Kansas City local qualifier as medalist, Nurski joined 264 other players from across the globe with the hopes of claiming one of amateur golf’s top prizes.

Nurski opened up with two solid rounds of 70 and 71 to finish one under in stroke play qualifying.  The one under total would be good enough to share medalist honors with Scott Harvey of Grensboro, N.C.  The two players received the first and second seeds in the sixty-four player bracket and went about their business.  After five sets of matches, the two co-medalists would end up squaring off in the finals.

When asked if co-medalists have ever played in a USGA final, the USGA’S Mark Passey explained, “I’m sure our historians back at Golf House are scrambling to find out, but I am not sure it has ever happened.  You typically do not see two players sustain such a high level of golf for an entire week.”

Unfortunately for Nurski, his incredible run would end in the finals.  The inevitable question came from the media following the match. “Obviously you are disappointed with the finish, but what do you take away from this experience?”

Nurski responded, “I mean.. you know that you can compete with the top mid-am guys in the country.  And that was my goal, and the goal is always to win, but Ijust didn’t come out on top today.

You know, obviously it’s going to open up a few doors for me which I didn’t have open when I got here.  I’ll get to play in the U.S. Am next year and I’ll get to come back to this tournament for two years, so that takes a lot of weight off your shoulders when you know you don’t have to qualify for some things.  And we obviously got the USGA State Team coming up in a couple of weeks and hopefully team Missouri can get a little revenge on North Carolina.”

As he mentioned, Nurski will team up with Skip Bermeyer and Phil Caravia, both of St. Louis in the USGA State Team Championship for team Missouri next month.

One of the members of the winning USGA State Team from 2010, Bryan Norton, also grabbed the national spotlight earlier today.  A longtime stalwart in Kansas City area competition, Norton came up just short in the 2014 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship today in Newport Beach, CA.  This was the first time Norton was eligible for the championship as all participants must be at least 55 years of age.

Norton has already amassed an impressive season with a victory in the Senior Coleman Invitational, earned a spot in the U.S. Senior Open at Oak Tree in Oklahoma and took the title at the Kansas Amateur at his home club of Mission Hills.

All that aside, Norton has always had his eyes set on an individual USGA title.  Norton has been very close before.  He suffered an injury in the final match of the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur and was forced to concede the match to Nathan Smith.  The final match concession was the first of its kind in the 108 year history of the USGA.

Redemption will have to wait at least one year more as Norton came up just short in his bid at the Senior Amateur today.  Norton dropped four of his first nine holes, but after birdies on holes eleven and twelve, Norton had clawed his way back into the match.  His opponent Pat Tallent of Vienna, VA rolled in a thirty foot birdie putt on the par four 17th to close out the match 2 and 1.

Norton’s year will certainly be a highlight of his golfing career and as one of the “rookies” in Senior golf, he is poised to be a dominant figure in many more events in the future.

With all this local golf excitement, one burning question remains.  Can Tom Watson lead what experts believe is an underdog American team to a victory in the Ryder Cup?  A victory by the Kansas City icon would serve as the bookend on one of the greatest months in local golf history.

Watson has been downplaying his role as of late. “I am just the director. I put the pieces in place and the actors do their thing.  I really don’t have much say in the outcome,” explained Watson.

That may be true, but Watson is the most successful American ever to play in Europe.  His five British Open victories, dominant record and successful captaincy in the 1993 Ryder Cup can do nothing but bolster the confidence of the twelve man team.

No matter the outcome, the additional exposure on Watson has done nothing but enhance golf in Kansas City.  “I can’t explain it, but there is just a buzz going around golf in Kansas City,” said Matt Williams of the KCGA.  “Every day there is a great story about someone doing something amazing on the links and if team USA can win next week, there will be people celebrating in the streets.  The level of competition here in Kansas City is some of the best in the country and it is exciting to see it play out in the world’s biggest events.”

Greene and Groom Grab Their Third Victory on the Year

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Fast greens and narrow fairways at St. Joseph Country Club made golf difficult for the StateLine players in today’s event. Other than the tough course conditions it was a beautiful day for golf.

Steve Groom dominated the field once again winning by five strokes after shooting a 1 over, 72. He only had two birdies on the day and struggled on the long, difficult Par 3’s.

Behind Steve in second was Ted Roberts with a 77 and in third was Ed Walsworth with a 78. This is Steve’s third victory on the StateLine Tour this year.

In the Legends Division Ron Brewer came out on top with the victory after shooting a 6 over, 77. Ron did not have a birdie on the day but played consistent throughout the round to finish in first. Behind Ron in second was Bob McKinney who had a great birdie on 18 but finished with a 79.

The Open Division saw fantastic golf from Don Walsworth and Michael Greene who both shot even today. Greene had a colorful scorecard but got the job done after an eagle on 10 and four birdies. Don saw a colorful scorecard as well but had 6 birdies on the day to finish tied for first.

Behind Greene and Walsworth was Brent Mertz who finished with a 3 over, 74. This is Greene’s third victory on the year and he leads the point’s race in the open division.

In the Players Division Michael Buckhouse had a fantastic round going today with a 3 over, 74. He started off great with birdies on holes 1 and 5 but struggled the rest of the round. He finished in first and grabbed his second victory of the year in the players division.

The next event is September 26th at St. Andrew’s Golf Course. Be sure to get signed up before the September 19th deadline.

To see the full results Click Here.

Spencer Survives Sycamore

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Boys Champion Andy Spencer receiving the Match Play Trophy from Executive Director Matt Williams.
Boys Champion Andy Spencer receiving the Match Play Trophy from Executive Director Matt Williams.

Sycamore Ridge Golf Course – It was a calm Sunday morning for the start of the Championship match between Andy Spencer and Eric Pahls. Both competitors won their semifinal matches in tremendous fashion Saturday afternoon.

Eric Pahls seemed to be in control at the start after going 2 up with a birdie on the Par 3 fifth. But Spencer would not go away with birdies on 6 and 8 to bring the match back to all square.

After hitting two golf balls in the water on the Par 5, ninth hole, Spencer conceded the hole to Pahls who went 1 up going into the hard back nine.

The tough back nine at Sycamore saw steady play from both competitors. Lots of pars and few birdies saw an all square match after thirteen holes.

Eric Pahls seemed like he was going to run away with it after the great birdie on number fourteen but Andy would not go away. Eric had an opportunity to put the match out of reach on the sixtieth green but barely missed his birdie putt. Andy took advantage of this opportunity by sinking his par putt after a great chip from behind the green.

On the seventeenth green both players had par putts from five feet but Eric’s putt just slid past the hole opening the door for Andy to make the match all square going into eighteen.
You could feel the shift in momentum going into eighteen after Andy sunk his par putt on the Par 3, seventeenth.

Both players missed the fairway on the eighteen but an awkward lie and stance for Eric Pahls made it hard for him to hit the green with his approach shot.

Eric did everything he could to get up and down form a tough location left of the green but just missed his par putt from five feet. A short putt for par from Andy Spencer secured his come from behind victory.

We want to thank Sycamore Ridge for hosting the event everyone who came out to compete in this year’s competition.

To see full results from this year’s event Click Here.

To see photos from the event Click Here.

Pahls and Spencer Advance to Finals

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Sycamore Ridge Golf Course – The Saturday afternoon semifinal matches of the Boys Metro Match Championship have concluded, and Eric Pahls and Andy Spencer have survived to play for the title.

In semifinal #1, Ethan Packel jumped out to a big lead early. Packel the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th holes to go 4-up and looked like he would cruise to an easy victory. Pahls, however, had other plans. With wins on the 10th, 11th and 12th, Pahls got to within one and would square the match with a par on 15. Packel ran into trouble down the stretch and Pahls would finish off a 2&1 victory with solid pars.

Unlike semifinal #1, semifinal #2 was close the whole way. Andy Spencer birdied the 1st to take a 1-up lead, but that would be short-lived, as James Henderson birdied the 2nd to square the match. On the 16th hole Spencer was 1-up and looked poised to take a commanding 2-up lead, but Henderson was able to make a long putt to save par from the hazard and Spencer missed a short putt that resulted in the match being all square. On the 18th with Spencer safely on the green in regulation Henderson caught a flier from the left rough and ended up in a very difficult position behind the green. Henderson was unable to save his par and conceded the hole, giving Spencer the match and a showdown with Pahls in the morning.

The final will take place tomorrow morning at 7:30am. Complete results and live scoring for tomorrow’s finals match can be found by clicking here…

336 Team Entries Accepted for Inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball

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FAR HILLS, N.J. – The United States Golf Association has accepted entries for 336 teams (or two-player sides) for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, to be contested May 9-13 on the Pacific Dunes Course at Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Ore.

Entries for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball are open to players who have a Handicap Index® not exceeding 14.4, with no age restrictions. Team partners are not required to be from the same club, state or country, and substitution of partners was permitted until the close of entries.

To see the full story Click Here!

The inaugural U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be held on the Pacific Dunes Course at Bandon Dunes Resort in Bandon, Ore., May 9-13, 2015. (USGA/John Mummert)
The inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be held on the Pacific Dunes Course at Bandon Dunes Resort in Bandon, Ore., May 9-13, 2015. (USGA/John Mummert)