The Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit kicks off its 15th season next weekend with the playing of the Lake County Two Person Scramble at Buckingham Golf and Country Club, situated at the base of Mount Konocti. In existence since 1994, the Lake County circuit features 11 tournaments, including three stroke play events, three team-formatted tourneys, a match play tournament, a senior medal tourney, two junior events and a parent-junior scramble.
The 2008 season once again kicks off with a two-person scramble. It is a good way to start the competitive golf season. A scramble format allows for the playing of the better shot of the twosome. Opening the season in such a way allows golfers with cobwebs under their head covers and rust on their swings to be competitive while still playing with the golfing version of a safety net. Of course, when both golfers are playing well, it”s a total bonus as the second golfer can try to improve upon a shot to the green by attacking the flag without worry or doesn”t have to worry about aggressively stroking that downhill putt that his partner has nestled within inches. It”s a little bit of a different story, however, if your partner knocks his tee shot out of bounds or he blasts that downhill putt 6 feet beyond the cup.
It was one year ago that one great shot was matched with another as Juan Lopez of Lakeport and former Upper Lake High School coach Craig Kinser went wire to wire to capture the 2007 Partners Scramble. It is a format that Lopez and Kinser have excelled at in the past. They also won this event in 2001, 2002 and 2004. They carded an opening-round 64 and returned on Sunday to better it with a 63. Their 17-under-par 127 was more than good enough to garner a four-stroke victory over the second-place team of Ukiah residents Paul Moore and Brian Bechtol.
The Two Person Scramble is a popular regional event and last year”s champions in the senior division for golfers age 50 and older were Bill Bates and Brian Campbell of Sacramento. They shot a pair of 69s for a 6-under-par 138. Their total was good enough for a two-stroke win over Dennis Layton of Kelseyville and Greg Scott of Lakeport. In the net flight for golfers with handicaps of 10 and higher, Mike Miller and Seth Archer of Garberville came from three shots back on Sunday morning one year ago to win by two shots over Norm Rentsch and Dave Buckner, both of Lakeport. Finally, in the senior net division, Rod Weiper of Kelseyville and Tom Salie of Lakeport prevailed, also winning by a two-shot margin.
Last year”s winners in the four divisions of the Lake County Partners Scramble make for an intriguing point as well as raise an interesting question. The facts are that last year”s Partners field included approximately 60-percent Lake County residents whereas the other 40 percent of the contestants from locales throughout Northern California.
The runner-up team in the scratch flight was from Ukiah. The third-place was from Sea Ranch on the Sonoma County coast. The net flight champs were from Garberville. A member of the third-place net team lives just south of San Francisco in Pacifica. Two of the top five teams in the senior flight reside in the Sacramento metropolitan area. This scenario rings true for the vast majority of the circuit”s tournaments throughout the year. Although the golf is played in remote Lake County, not exactly a golfing destination point (yet), the circuit does have a regional reputation and is positively regarded as the second largest local amateur circuit in the state after Sacramento.
While the Lake County circuit seems to be an annual stopping point for a number of Northern California linksters, it doesn”t necessarily have the widespread support of local golfers, most notably in the scratch or championship flight. Last year”s top-10 leaderboard at the Lake County Open, historically played in late April, read like a Who”s Who of Redwood Empire golf with contestants coming from Ukiah, Fortuna, Sea Ranch, Vallejo, Willits and Sacramento. Only three golfers from that top 10 — Lopez of Lakeport, Kelseyville High School golfer Brent Hamilton and this columnist — reside in Lake County. And now that Hamilton attends UNLV and Berry has turned 55 and is now a senior amateur, the scratch flight doesn”t necessarily seem lacking in local talent, but it does seem devoid of local entrants. Then again, as golfing great Bobby Jones once said, there”s golf and then there”s tournament golf, so maybe Lake County is lacking in quality scratch flight tournament golfers.
The same scenario played out last August at the NCGA Hidden Valley Lake Amateur. The championship flight was small and there were as many entrants from Santa Rosa as there were from Hidden Valley. And there were more Buckingham members in the field than Hidden Valley Lake members. Nonetheless, if you”re into competitive golf and don”t necessarily want to spend your entire entertainment budget on gas prices and hotel rooms and meals on the road, then the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit is the only game in town.
While I am a member of that golfing realm where you tee it up and compete against the rest of the field without benefit of a handicap, who on the other hand is to say that the local circuit doesn”t exist in an equal proportion for seniors, net players, net seniors and juniors? Over the past few years, the championship flight has lacked numbers while the senior and net flights have been oversubscribed. What”s so bad about a Lake County Open where the majority of the field is senior and net? After all, that is the profile of amateur golf in Lake County.
The Lake County Amat-eur Golf Circuit tees it up for its 15th season at Buckingham next Saturday and Sunday with the playing of the Partners Two Man Scramble. With the demise of the scratch flight and the continuing popularity of the other divisions, the tournament headline just might read, “Rentsch and Buckner Overwhelm Large Field to Win 2008 Net Title.”
