COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA >> Former Middletown High School star Doug Quinones of Hidden Valley Lake shot a course-record 61 on Monday at the Bent Tree Golf Club in Council Bluffs, Iowa to qualify into the field at this week’s Web.com Tour Pinnacle Bank Championship.
The low six golfers out of 128 qualified for the tournament. It’s the second straight year Quinones has Monday-qualified into the event.
Quinones had a clean scorecard as he recorded nine birdies, an eagle, and eight pars to not only win the qualifier, but to also set the course record at Bent Tree. After starting out with a trio of pars, Quinones birdied the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth holes on the front nine to make the turn at 5-under-par 31. Quinones birdied the 10th hole to make it four birdies in a row, eagled the par-5 12th hole, and then ran off three consecutive birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes to record a 6-under-par 30 on the back nine for an 11-under-par total of 61 and the course record.
The former Kansas University golfer tees it up today at 8:57 a.m. on the first tee at The Club at Indian Creek in Omaha, the longtime site of the Pinnacle Bank Championship. He will then play again Friday afternoon starting on the 10th tee. If he is among the low 60 and ties after the second round, he will make the 36-hole cut and play into the weekend.
It has been a very good week for Quinones, the two-time leading money winner on the Dakotas Tour as he captured the American State Bank Dakotas Tour Pro-Am this past weekend at the Ridge Country Club in Sioux Center, Iowa. Quinones shot 63-67-66 for a 20-under-par 196 aggregate score.
Quinones was a four-time All-Coastal Mountain Conference golfer at Middletown High School from 2005-2008 before moving on to Kansas University. The 27-year-old has been a mini-tour professional for the past six years.
Other news
In other Lake County golf news, Hidden Valley Lake superintendent Billy Witt and former Middletown High School All-Conference golfer Riley Adams won their flight on Monday in the Troon Golf Challenge at Yocha de He Golf Course at the Cache Creek Resort and Casino in Brooks. Witt and Adams topped a field of 68 two-man teams with a better ball score of 10-under-par 62.
For their efforts, Witt and Adams advance to the Troon Challenge finals this December in Scottsdale, Arizona where they’ll go up against a national field. Troon Golf is a management company that runs high-end golf courses throughout America, including Yocha de He as well as other California golf courses such as Marin Country Club and El Macero Country Club.
