Bob West
News Golf Columnist
It was one of those good news, bad news weeks for Chris Stroud in Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament. Stroud got in position to significantly improve his standing on the Fed Ex Cup points list by rolling in an astounding 14 birdies over the first 36 holes. Despite a couple of double bogeys, he shot 70-68, was T14 at the cut and in position to make a dramatic upward move in Fed Ex Cup points. Over the next two days, however, Chris continued a puzzling trend of mediocre weekend play. After making only three birdies over the final 36 holes, he settled for rounds of 72-74, a T31 and a check of $38,994. That did jump him from 127 to 117 in Fed Ex points, but he’s still on somewhat shaky ground in terms of retaining his playing card. Of particular concern is what has been happening on the weekends. Dating back to the Shell Houston Open, his Thursday-Friday scoring average in the five tournaments in which he’s made the cut is 68.5. The number jumps to 72.3 on weekends . . . PN-G’s Braden Bailey is wrapping up the junior phase of his golf career this week by participating in the American Junior Golf Association’s prestigious Footjoy Invitational at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Bailey fired a two-over-par 72 in Tuesday’s opening round, making two birdies against four bogeys. He is tied for 24th, six shots off the lead of Benjamin Shipp of Duluth, Ga., and Won Jun Lee of South Korea. The 84 player field of top junior golfers from across the United States, will be cut to the top 60 and ties after Wednesday’s second round. Sedgefield Country Club is the site of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship in August and is the only Donald Ross designed course hosting a tour event in 2015 . . . The STPGA’s summer Junior Golf Tour kicked off Monday at Sunset Grove Country Club in Orange, with Skylar Petroski shooting a 75 to edge Cameron Keith by one stroke in Boys 16-18. Mitchell LeBaron was third at 78. Jack Burke won Boys 13-14 in a sudden death playoff with Daniel Cormier, after both had signed off on 86s. Beau Autry took first in Boys 11-12 with an 84. On the girls side, Emily Ross won Girls 15-18 with a 123 and Elizabeth Townsend placed first in Girls 13-14 with a 123. Additional results can be found elsewhere on this page. Next stop on the tour is Monday at Tuesday for the Bruce Lietzke Junior Invitational at Idylwild Golf Club. Lietzke, who won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour and seven more on the Champions Tour, is expected to be in attendance. Registration deadline is June 10 at www.stpgajuniorgolf.com . . . Edward Holley of Vidor celebrated a hole in one at Babe Zaharias on Saturday after sinking his tee shot from 148 yards. Holley used a 7-iron for what was his first ace. The shot was witnessed by Keith Marshall . . . The team of Cody Metts, Mark Petry, Malcolm Tiller and Larry Rogers won the Babe Zaharias DogFight with 17 points. There was a two-way tie for second at 16 points. Closest to the hole winners were Bryce Gregg (No. 2), Scott Welch (No. 7) and Metts (No. 12, No. 15) . . . The Senior Game at The Babe was played in a 2 person 9/9 best ball/scramble format. The team of Larry Thompson-Joe Gongora won First Flight with a 64, with Earl-Richard-Gerald Huebel second at 66. In Second Flight, Rodney Christman-Gary Fontenot won with a 66, edging Harry Green-Ron Mistrot by a stroke. Gene Hardy-Ed Hetzel claimed Third Flight with a 71, finishing two strokes clear of Jim Cooper-Ray Gallier. Scott Welch-Larry Rogers won big in Fourth Flight with a 73 that was six ahead of Charlie Huckaby-Ben Thornton. Closest to the pin winners were Dwayne Morvant (No. 2), Raymond Darbonne (No. 7), Larry Thompson (No. 12) and Mark Petry (No. 15) . . . The Super Saturday Game at The Babe was played in a best 2 ball format. On the front, the team of Price Youngs, Troy Touchet, Steven Richard and Huckaby won at minus 2. The back was taken in minus 3 by the foursome of Tom LeTourneau, Roger Baumer, Green and Robert Lynch . . . The Senior 50 Plus Game at The Babe was played in a two best ball format. On the front there was a five-way tie at minus 4 among teams captained by Rick Pritchett, Cap Hollier, Gary Whitfill, Benny Sharpe and Harrel Guidry. On the back the foursome of Larry Johnson, Tom Letourneau, Larry Foster and Huckaby won with minus 5 . . . One of the best amateur/professional tournaments in Texas is two weeks away from teeing it up for the 48th time. That, of course, would be the Silsbee Country Club Invitational, which is set for June 18-21 and has a very limited number of openings in its 148-player field. The food, drink and entertainment alone has always been worth the $150 entry fee for amateurs in match play flights and the competition in the 20-man pro/championship flight attracts top caliber players. Included in that latter group are Brian Rowell and Dustin Morris, who are No. 2 and No. 3 on the Adams Tour money list, respectively, as well as No. 10 Michael Arnaud, past champ and Lamar ex M.J. Daffue and familiar names like Joran “Red Dog” Meeks, Everette Nini, Chris Davis and Russell Helson. That group and the Presidential Flight are 54 holes of stroke play, while everybody else competes in seven match-play flights. Anyone who is interested should contact Mike Sanchez at 429-8348.
Golf news should be e-mailed to rdwest@usa.net or faxed to 724-6854.