Mother Nature has been a little bit deceptive during the past few weeks with daily temperature highs in the 80s and the 90s. Then again, maybe we”re owed some decent weather when you consider that last May was more like February, with heavy rains and cold conditions.
Nonetheless, the calendar is what it is, and the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit will conclude its 17th season of competition next Saturday with the playing of the Lake County Tournament of Champions at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. The TOC will once again be a tournament within a tournament as the On the Links Golfer of the Year races conclude when the final putt drops.
Billy Witt of Kelseyville has an 85-point lead over Brels Solomon of Upper Lake in the championship division for golfer of the year honors. Witt, who works at Hidden Valley Lake Golf Course, is one of the few remaining golfers from the circuit”s golden era of the middle and late 1990s when Charles Creecy was good enough to hit every green in regulation and Gary Bagnani was gifted enough to seemingly one-putt every green. Solomon was the Lake County Circuit”s golfer of the year in 1996 during his senior year at Kelseyville High School. He later played collegiate golf at Cal State-San Marcos, turned professional for a period of time, and is now a reinstated amateur.
For Solomon to be able to catch Witt, he will have to win the Tournament of Champions and Witt will have to finish no higher than a tie for fourth. If Solomon finishes in solo second place, Witt would have to come in eighth place or lower for Solomon to run him down. However, with the way Witt has been playing throughout much of 2010, it”s hard to imagine he will finish that far down the leaderboard in the season”s concluding event. At least the one thing you can say about all this golfer of the year talk is that the scenarios are a whole lot more understandable than the PGA Tour”s Fed Ex Cup playoff series.
In the senior division for golfers ages 50 and older, Dennis Layton of Kelseyville has a slim 21-point lead over last year”s senior golfer of the Year, Craig Kinser, of Lakeport. However, Kinser, a longtime coach at Upper Lake High School, is the least of Layton”s worries. Kinser is not going to enter the TOC as it conflicts with his 1970 College of the Redwoods football team”s induction ceremony into the school”s Hall of Fame. Kinser was a starting cornberback on the Redwood team that won the junior college state championship that year.
Alan Mathews of Lakeport is in third place in the senior bracket, some 91 points behind Layton. Mathews would have to win the TOC while Layton would have to finish in fifth place in order to win the senior points title. The long-hitting Layton appears to be in the driver”s seat and has the added experience of having gone through this before, securing senior golfer of the year honors in 2005.
In the net division for golfers with handicaps of 10 and higher, Javier Castenada of Kelseyville should take home the net golfer of the year plaque. Castenada holds a 125-point lead over Kelseyville High School All-Conference golfer Wyatt Ferrell. For Ferrell to have any chance of catching Castenada, he would have to win the TOC and hope that the frontrunner would finish in eighth place. The net flight is the least-subscribed division of the Lake County Circuit and there is a very real possibility there won”t even be eight net golfers entered in next Saturday”s Tournament of Champions.
Finally, the senior net division comes down to a family affair. Tom Jolin of Lakeport holds a 120-point lead over his brother, Dr. Bob Jolin. For Doctor Bob to make up all that ground and take home senior net golfer of the year honors, he”d have to win the TOC and count on his brother to finish no higher than tied for seventh. Just like Castenada, it appears as if Tom Jolin”s lead is too much for him to be caught in the season finale.
This weekend is a very active one for the professional golf tours in the Bay Area. The PGA Tour is at the Corde Valle Golf Club, located just south of San Jose, for the playing of the Frys.com Open. Although the Frys is a Fall Finish tournament, the field is pretty impressive for a post-Fed Ex Cup event.
Included in the Frys field are past major champions David Duval, Ben Curtis, Justin Leonard, Todd Hamilton, Lee Janzen, Trevor Immelman, Tom Lehman and John Daly. Other name professionals in the field include Tim Clark, J.B. Holmes, Stuart Appleby, Rickie Fowler and Rory Sabbatini. Windsor Golf Club PGA professional Jason Schmuhhl is also entered in the Frys as well as Northern Californias Scott McCarron, Michael Allen, Charlie Wi and Spencer Levin.
Ten of the golfers in the Frys field are ranked from 120th to 130th on the PGA Tour”s money list. The top 125 golfers on the money list earn exempt status for 2011. Allen is 120th in earnings at $716,031 while Joe Ogilvie resides in 130th place, less than $85,000 behind Allen. A solid finish in any of the final three events will stamp the ticket for another exempt year whereas missed cuts and ties for 45th place will send one back to Q School or to golf”s minor leagues. There”s a lot at stake this week for the bubble boys.
As for me, now that my son Nick is away at U.C. Davis, I”m in a family situation with all females. As a result, my daughter Liz and my German foreign exchange daughter, Delia, have decided that we”re heading to Blackhawk Country Club in Danville this Sunday to watch the greats of women”s golf at the CVS Pharmacy LPGA Challenge. The field includes U.S. Women”s Open champ Paula Creamer of Pleasanton, Bay Area golfers Juli Inkster and Christina Kim, Sacramento”s Natalie Gulbis, Cristie Kerr, the game”s top player, and a host of others. Of course, to be quite honest, I”m not complaining. The caliber of talent on the LPGA is outstanding, the crowds are smaller, and the press and media are treated regally. If only I could putt like they do.
