The 2007 Lake County Amateur Golf Championship is in the record books. Champions have been crowned in the overall, net, senior and senior net flights. A tournament record for overall scoring has been set, and were it not for some pretty tough pin placements and treacherous greens, we may have seen our first 59 in the history of Lake County golf.
It was 15 years ago that Roy Dufrain of the Record-Bee and Duke Doucette, the owner of Adams Springs, resurrected the Amateur. Dufrain still sponsors the tournament through his current business, Dufrain Printing. Doucette has retired to Arizona.
Looking back at 1992, there were seven golfers in this year”s field who teed it up way back then. They include Tom Salie, Al Mankins, Eddie Mullins, Dennis Layton, Jack Glenn, Pieter Van Hattem and this columnist. Back then we were hitting persimmon woods and balata golf balls. Another way of looking at it is that Tiger Woods was a high school freshman, Lake County Amateur champion Jonathan Carlson was in fifth grade, and junior champion Nick Schaefer was a year old.
Of course, Carlson was the story of this year”s tournament. Last year he shot rounds of 70 and 68 for a 138 total to win the Amateur. This year, Paul Moore, a four-time club champion at the Ukiah Golf Club, shot rounds of 70 and 68 for a 138 total. Those are pretty good numbers except that this time around, Moore came in second, a full seven shots behind Carlson.
While winning is always the ultimate goal, Billy Witt, Nick Schaefer and John Berry have to take some amount of pride in their tied-for-third-place finish in the Amateur. Sometimes a third-place finish means you”re only a couple of shots out of the winner”s circle. For the trio tied for third, that simply wasn”t the case. This time around, third place was an insurmountable 17 shots back.
Carlson is that much better than Moore and he”s way better than Witt, Schaefer and Berry. During the past couple of seasons, the Kelseyville High School and Point Loma University graduate has been the best golfer north of the Bay Bridge. His golfing resume is very impressive in amateur golfing circles.
Last year Carlson tipped his hand when he missed a short putt on the 18th green and then tapped in for a 64 in the NCGA Hidden Valley Lake Amateur. He was 4 feet from setting a course record. He won that tourney and then went on to win the first of two Santa Rosa Two Man championships with partner Jess Stimack. He qualified and played in the California State Amateur at Pebble Beach this summer. He”s won back-to-back Lake County Amateur titles. Last month, he won the Sonoma County Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Am regional at Fountaingrove, all within a three-day period.
Two weeks ago, he made local golf history, becoming the first Lake County resident to play in a national tournament. Carlson ventured to Bandon Dunes along with 288 regional qualifiers to play in the United States Mid-Amateur. He missed the cut line after two runs, failing to advance into the 64-man match play field. Nonetheless, he was there, playing alongside Danny Jackson, Tim Mickelson (Phil”s brother), George Zahringer and Trip Kuehne, as well as other nationally ranked amateur golfers.
The interesting thing about Jonathan Carlson is that while he has accomplished more in amateur golf this year than anyone else in the Redwood Empire, he also knows the limits of his game. When he was asked this weekend by a number of the golfers in the Amateur field about his timetable for turning professional, his stock answer was, “never.” Carlson knows that there are a bundle of very good golfers out there, the vast majority of them never realizing their dream to tee it next to Tiger, Vijay and Phil.
Jonathan is the nephew of longtime professional Babe Hiskey, who won an NCAA title at the University of Houston. He has had a 40-year career on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour. Carlson has caddied for Uncle Babe in senior tour events. He knows all about the toughness of the lifestyle. Were Carlson to turn pro at this time, he would most probably have to hone his skills on golf”s mini-tours. The money isn”t all that good, the lifestyle isn”t all that glamorous, and after a while you get tired of the Motel 6 and the Denny”s in Minot and Kokomo and Dothan.
The other interesting story at this year”s Amateur were those golfers I call the ”tweeners. The ”tweeners are those linksters who have handicaps in the 8-12 range. On occasion they are the equal of those golfers in the championship flight, but other times they struggle to break 90. Norm Rentsch of Lakeport was featured on these pages in a column about ”tweeners several years ago. This year Rentsch, a 9-handicapper, opened play on Saturday with an 82. On Sunday, he had the third overall low score of the day. His 71 was only bettered by Carlson and Moore and it tied him with Schaefer. When you subtract his 9 handicap, it made for a net 62.
It”s frustrating for the ”tweeners because sometimes they”re just as good as Paul Moore or Juan Lopez or Craig Kinser, but other times they play poorly enough that they couldn”t make the Kelseyville High School golf team. Consistency is the bane of the net flight golfers and it must be particularly tough on the ”tweeners.
Chris Fisher, another ”tweener, recorded two rounds in the 70s, shooting 76 on Saturday and 79 on Sunday. Jim DeCristofaro of Pacifica, the husband of KHS grade Sandi Cleveland and a Lake County Circuit regular, came in with an 80 and a 79. Ted Knowles of Kelseyville shot a 90 in the first round and a 79 on the second day.
Rentsch, Fisher and DeCristofaro all made an impact in the net flight, but their scores weren”t good enough to get into the top five of the championship flight. Then again, maybe a better short game, a few more made putts and a little better course management would be the difference.
The 25th annual Lake County Amateur Golf Championship is now in the record books. Like any other tournament, just beyond the leader board are a bunch of good stories to go along with a bunch of good shots. That”s why they tee it up.
