I played last weekend in the NCGA Hidden Valley Lake County Amateur at the Billy Bell-designed course located five miles north of Middletown. I played poorly and came in seventh in my flight. Seventh place may not seem that bad at first glance, but when you consider that there were only seven golfers in the championship flight, it pencils out to a last-place finish.
Prior to the start of the tournament, I easily could have given you more than a handful of reasons why I shouldn”t have filled out an entry for the NCGA points event at Hidden Valley Lake. First and foremost, I”m too old to play in a tournament for scratch golfers at a course as long as HVL. On the PGA Tour, 49-year-olds are not impact players, and the same is true of 54-year-old amateurs who play events that feature college and high school linksters.
I”m about half a year away from my 55th birthday and the start of competitive senior amateur golf. While I am quite accurate off the tee, my average drives measure somewhere out there at 240 yards, a mere 30-60 yards behind my competitors. When your 16-year-old son who weighs 130 pounds knocks it 50 yards past you, it makes for a long round. Going driver/3-wood on par-4 holes such as the first, third and seventh at HVL puts one at a disadvantage when others are going driver/6-iron.
A good example of what I”m talking about is the ninth hole at HVL. It”s a 360-yard, dog-leg-left par-4 from the white tees, with the blue tees 50 yards farther back. Hidden Valley measures out to about 6,800 yards, which is no real issue to high school players such as Doug Quinones or Nick Schaefer, but it is of real concern to a 54-year-old. Sure, I”m doing OK at a 6,300-yard course, especially one that puts a premium on driving accuracy like the course I played at when competing last month in the Chicago Amateur. However, in the world of horses for courses, I”m just not capable of going low or competing at a venue such as Hidden Valley Lake, a noted power-player course.
I could continue with a litany of other concerns, such as the 104-degree heat on Saturday or the need to take a motorized cart at HVL. I think cart golf negatively impacts your game when you”re trying to compete. There were other NCGA point tourneys held last weekend at more enviable sites for someone like me, such as the McCloud Open (6,100 yards), the Vallejo City and Blue Rock (6,100 yards) or the Bay Regional at Tilden Park (6,300 yards). I failed to include the Stockton City, which was held last week too, but I haven”t been back since I played there in 1997 with Charles Creecy and Gary Bagnani. The gunfire at Van Buskirk Park scared us off Stockton golf forever.
So why did I play in a tournament that I was destined to play poorly in? I played in the HVL Amateur because I think tournament golfers should support events in their locale. I felt I owed it to Hidden Valley Lake to play and I felt I owed it to HVL”s outstanding PGA professionals, Andy Gonzalez and Shawn Auten, to compete in their event.
Of course, I am very well aware that I am quite alone in my beliefs as evidenced by the small size of the HVL Amateur field. I could easily name two dozen talented local golfers who didn”t play last week. I”m sure some of them had family commitments or other important issues, but when all is said and done, I am very comfortable in saying that outstanding local amateur golfers of note turned their proverbial backs on the HVL Am. I will forever point the finger at them should Hidden Valley Lake lose its NCGA point tournament status as a result of too small a field in 2007.
Just as tournaments get added to the NCGA amateur tournament schedule, events also get deleted as evidenced by the recent history of the Colusa County Amateur, Yolo City Amateur, Susanville Open, Lake Shastina Amateur, Aspen Meadows Amateur (Beale AFB), and the Emerson Lake Two Man. Hopefully that fate won”t befall the Hidden Valley Lake Amateur, but seven golfers just don”t make for a valid NCGA points tournament.
And while Hidden Valley Lake is a wonderful golfing facility with an interesting and fun-loving collection of longtime members, it obviously lacks a younger generation of serious tournament golfers. Seniors such as Jack Streeter, Don Geiger, Grant Fahs, Dr. Leroy Bowser and Dr. Simon Lee have long histories of tournament golf, but all five them are older than me and are quality bonafide members of the above-55 set.
Most amazingly, the championship flight at the HVL Amateur had more contestants from Buckingham than Hidden Valley Lake, a sad commentary to say the least from the largest golf membership club in Lake County as well as the club with the greatest number of members who have handicaps below 6.
As for me, if they hold the fifth annual Hidden Valley Lake Amateur in August of 2008, I will be one of those seven or 27 or 57 golfers teeing it up in the championship flight. Sure, I”ll be 55 years old and my tee shots will be sailing 235 yards instead of 240, and it still won”t be a good golfing choice for me, but it will the right golfing choice for me.
It wasn”t that long ago that there wasn”t a Hidden Valley Lake Amateur or a Lake County Amateur or a Lake County Open or, for that matter, a Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit. The reason I know all about the Susanville Open and the Yreka Amateur is that I used to play in all those places. I know where the all-too-few restaurants are in those towns and I also know which dive bars and seedy hotels to avoid. I appreciate what Andy Gonzalez, Shawn Auten, Mark Wotherspoon and Ted Matilla are doing for competitive tournament golfers in Lake County. I will continue to show my appreciate by entering their tournaments … even if I am all alone in my beliefs.
