We’re less than 20 days away from the culmination of the 2020 calendar year. Golf is still being played on the European Tour and the LPGA Tour. The European Tour is in Dubai for its end-of-the season tour championship with Americans Patrick Reed and Collin Morakawa in the hunt for the title of Euro Tour golfer of the year. The LPGA Tour is in Houston at the Champions Golf Club for the playing of the 75th annual United States Women’s Open.
Meanwhile it’s time to get going on our annual reviews of the year past. Since the men and women professionals still haven’t finalized their seasons, we will start with a review of the local golf scene for 2020. Next week will review the play-for-pay crowd.
The Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit hosted its 27th season of competitive golf for area linksters. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a cancellation of some early spring events, but the circuit was able to re-adjust its schedule and complete all the finalized tournaments. The circuit has four divisions for amateur golfers, and this time around three of the four races were nailbiters while the other bracket featured a history-making season for one noted area golfer.
Hidden Valley Lake superintendent Billy Witt was the On the Links Lake County golfer of the year for the third consecutive year as well as for the fifth time overall. Witt won the One Man Scramble, the Three Man, the Match Play and the Alternate Shot. When he didn’t win, he came in second place. He won a tightly contested championship division over Cypress College golfer Matt Wotherspoon.
Wotherspoon won the Partners Scramble, the Lake County Open, the Partners, the TOC, and turned heads when he shot 62-68 to win the Lake County Amateur. Wotherspoon failed to play a complete schedule on the Lake County Circuit because of his early spring college golf commitments. As for the future, Witt turns 50 and hopes to be the first golfer in circuit history to win top honors in both the championship and senior flights.
Standing in Witt’s way on the senior level is 52-year-old Juan Lopez of Finley, who had a record setting season of old-timer golf. Lopez entered all nine senior tourneys on the Lake County Circuit and won all of them. There was no senior Match Play division this year because of a lack of entries, so Lopez entered the scratch division of the Match Play and came in second to Witt. Lopez almost did the same thing in 2004 when he won eight out of nine tourneys in the scratch flight only to lose the Amateur by one stroke to Witt. Lopez was simply dominant.
Todd Colbrandt of Middletown was the senior net golfer of the year for a record-setting fifth consecutive season. A solidly strategic golfer, Colbrandt won the senior net Three Man and the Match Play this year. Every year he enters every circuit tournament and places top five on most occasions. He also enters the net flight and competes against the younger set. Colbrandt ended up tied atop the yearlong standings for the net golfer of the year. Darren Hostetler of Cobb was equal to Colbrandt on the net level this year as he won the net division of the Partners Scramble, the Lake County Open and the Alternate Shot. Both are co-golfers of the year in the net flight, something that has happened two other times on the Lake County circuit.
Lake County is down to three operating golf courses as we conclude the 2020 season. At Hidden Valley Lake, Gene Manning won the men’s club championship while Teresa Sand captured the women’s club championship. At Buckingham, Matt Wotherspoon ran away with their club championship while Mary Emery was the women’s titlist. Dylan Harrison won the men’s club championship at Adams Springs while Debbie Meadows is Adams’ women’s club champion.
High School golf was severely impacted by the pandemic this spring. It would have/should have been a championship season for Middletown High School, but after one match at Rooster Run, the season was canceled. Austin Pritchard of MHS would have probably been the Coastal Mountain Conference’s MVP had he been able to play a full season. Cory Holt of Kelseyville High School would have been in line to win All-Conference first-team honors and Nathon Lopez of Clear Lake High School probably would have achieved All-Conference success as well.
The pair of local junior tournaments, the Buckingham Summer Junior and the Lake County Junior at Adams Springs, were able to be contested this past July. Holt won the Buckingham Junior while Pritchard captured the Lake County Junior for the second consecutive year. Keara Alonso of Clear Lake High School showed her skills by winning both junior tourneys at Buckingham and Adams Springs. She was also the first junior girl to enter the Lake County Amateur since Lisa Copeland and Liz Berry played in the Am more than 10 years ago.
On the golf course front, Black Rock Golf Course in the heart of Cobb was fallow throughout all of 2020 and still remains for sale. Buckingham Golf and Country Club is also on the market. All three of Lake County’s operating golf courses had a great increase in play once courses were allowed to open April 24 after being closed by county health officials for a total of 34 days because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in play was attributable to new golfers taking up the game. With limitations on participatory activities such as health clubs, softball leagues and basketball leagues, golf was a new option for many active adults and kids. Sales of golf related equipment was also at a 15-year high in 2020. Hopefully some of the newbies will end up becoming regular linksters.
As for this columnist, it really wasn’t all that memorable a year as a golf coach. Kelseyville High School played just two matches before the spring school closures. We did get to play at Northwood and Rooster Run, but our run for an at-large playoff berth was put on hold along with everyone else’s season. I’m not thinking all that positively about our 2021 season although I am hopeful. Golf-wise, I played in the NCGA Private Club series and was able to tee it up this summer and fall at Richmond, Sequoyah, Castlewood and Ruby Hill, all courses worth the drive and the entry fee. In theory I received a very nice honor from the California Coaches Association this past summer when I was named the recipient of their Distinguished Service Award for 2020. I was going to be presented with this honor at the CCA Hall of Fame banquet that was scheduled to be held in Sacramento. Alas, that too was canceled for very obvious reasons. It is going to be rescheduled for next June in Sacramento and hopefully the new vaccinations will have an impact upon controlling the pandemic. In the meantime, stay safe.
