The 15th annual NCGA Lake County Partners Golf Championship tees it up June 2 and June 3 at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. The Partners is a better ball (four-ball) tournament that is not only the third-longest running golf event on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit (only the Lake County Amateur ad the Lake County Open have a longer history), but it also doubles as a player-point event on the Northern California Golf Association calendar.
The NCGA certifies some 55 tourneys annually as point events. There are major point events such as the NorCal Amateur, San Francisco City Amateur, the Alameda Commuters, and the State Fair Amateur. There are A-level events such as the Antioch Amateur at Bodega Harbour that attract competitive fields of 100-plus golfers from throughout the North State. Finally, there are regional tourneys with fields ranging from 50-70 golfers, historically in more remote locales such as the Siskiyou County Amateur in Weed, the McCloud Open, the Pepsi Two Man in Marysville, and the Lake County Partners at Buckingham.
During the past few years, a number of the smaller regional tournaments have gone by the wayside, most noticeably the Colusa County Amateur, the Susanville Open, the Yreka City Amateur, the Emerson Lake Two Man, and the Mendocino County Amateur. These events have dropped off the calendar either because of a lack of quality fields or because of turnover in golf course management.
The NCGA Lake County Partners has had a colorful history dating back to its inception way back in 1993. Played in early July that inaugural year, Clearlake resident Jerry Barr teamed up with Buckingham club champion Bruce Dokken to win the first Partners. It would be one of Barr”s final tournaments as an amateur. He would turn professional the following year and begin to follow the sun on the PGA Senior Tour.
From 1994 through 1996, University of San Francisco golfer Matt Parlato would have a hand in winning three consecutive Partners titles. An all-West Coast Conference linkster, Parlato would join up with Mark Miner to win 1994 and then pair up with Upper Lake High School coach Craig Kinser to repeat and threepeat in 1995 and 1996.
In 1997, the Partners came under the umbrella of the NCGA. Lake County had its first NCGA point event and at least for one weekend each year, the handful of local traveling golfers had the opportunity to sleep in their own beds and avoid the Motel 6 in Weed. Fittingly, two of the area”s more competitive golfers, Gary Bagnani of Loch Lomond and Charles Creecy of Lakeport, would go on to win the ”97 Partners, defend their title in ”98, and win again in ”99. In 2002, Bagnani would win the NorCal Senior Amateur at Blackhawk Country Club.
Bagnani and Creecy”s reign would end after three years, and if fingers needed to be pointed as to why, perhaps the blame would fall on the affable Charles Creecy. While playing in the ”99 State Fair Amateur, Creecy told his Antioch childhood friends, Bob Heaton and Reggie Bailey, about Buckingham and the Partners Championship. They entered that following year and went on to win the Partners title in 2000 and 2001. Heaton would go on to capture the NCGA Senior Golfer of the Year title in 2000.
Juan Lopez of Lakeport and John Seed of Sea Ranch won Partners titles in 2002 and 2004. Lopez and Seed met in 1997 at an NCGA qualifier at Windsor Golf Club and became best friends. During those years, Lopez was acknowledged as Lake County”s best golfer while Seed, the golf coach at Point Arena High School, had a regional reputation for outstanding play. Their partnership continues to this day as Lopez and Seed teamed up last weekend with Craig Kinser to win the Lake County Three Man.
Another Seed, John”s son Robby, won the Partners in 2003. A members of the golf team at U.C. Davis, Robby Seed paired up college teammate Kirk Moffitt to dethrone his dad and Lopez. Robby had good local knowledge of Buckingham, having played high school matches there.
The 2005 Partners was a brother affair as Craig Kinser teamed up with his brother, Dave, to take home the title. Dave Kinser of Los Gatos had played Buckingham in a number of member-guest tournaments and is an outstanding player in his own right. Like Lopez and Seed, the Kinser brothers are once again entered in this year”s version of the Partners.
The Partners champions from 2006 are 20-somethings John Dunn of Hidden Valley Lake and Jonathan Carlson of Buckingham. It was one of those times where the two best golfers in the county were paired together and then played better than everyone else to win. In 2004 and ”05, Dunn was arguably Lake County”s best golfer, winning back-to-back NCGA point tourneys at Hidden Valley Lake and the Sonoma County Amateur. Carlson moved to that top spot in 2006, winning the Partners with Dunn, the Santa Rosa Two man with Jess Stimack, and the HVL Amateur, where he opened play with a dynamic 8-under-par 64. Carlson also has qualified for the 2007 California State Amateur.
So, with all this history in mind, expect that next week”s NCGA Lake County Partners Championship will be another classic shootout. Also, expect that the dynamic duo that finds the winner”s circle a week from Sunday will have a high quality golfing resume. It always seems to play that way.
