The Georgia Open returns to the Legends at Chateau Elan for a second straight year, with the tournament undergoing a slight change in its playing dates.
The tournament has traditionally been played in a standard Thursday to Sunday schedule, with a pro-am on Wednesday. To better accommodate members of the Georgia PGA, the tournament will be played Monday to Thursday this year, with the pro-am set for Sunday. The tournament dates are July 29-August 1.
For the first time, the tournament is being sponsored by Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, which has six locations in metro Atlanta.
The Georgia Open annually attracts a diverse field, with mini-tour pros and amateurs joining Georgia PGA members and apprentices in the field.
Since Stephen Keppler won back-to-back tournaments at Lake Oconee courses in 1994 and ’95, current or recent tour players have won the Georgia Open 15 of the last 17 years. The only exceptions were Georgia PGA members Tim Weinhart, who won at the Legends in 2004, and Jeff Hull, currently in the Carolinas PGA Section, who won at Champions Retreat in ’07.
In both cases, Weinhart and Hull edged out players currently competing on the PGA Tour. Weinhart finished one shot ahead of Kris Blanks, at the time an assistant pro at The Landings in Savannah, with Hull also winning by one stroke in ’07 over Luke List, now a PGA Tour rookie.
Jonathan Fricke, who plays primarily on the North Carolina-based eGolf Tour, is the defending champion, winning at the Legends last year by one shot over recent Kennesaw State standout Matt Nagy, who completed his college career shortly before the 2012 Georgia Open.
Last year’s tournament was the most closely-contested Georgia Open since Hull won by a shot over List in 2007. Veteran mini-tour player Jay McLuen scored a decisive 7-stroke victory at Barnsley Gardens in 2011, with Samuel Del Val winning by four over Tim O’Neal at Savannah Harbor in 2010.
Both Del Val, who had recently concluded his college career at Berry in Rome, and O’Neal, a former Nationwide Tour member and Georgia Amateur champion, are playing on the fledgling PGA Latinoamerica Tour, with O’Neal winning recently in Colombia. Del Val was 4th last year at the Legends and McLuen tied for 6th. McLuen had three straight finishes of 4th or better in the tournament from 2006-08 before winning in ’11.
McLuen is 2nd on the Georgia-based Hopkins Golf Peach State Tour money list behind fellow Georgia resident Wade Binfield. The Peach State Tour is off the week of the Georgia Open.
The most prominent player to win the Georgia Open in recent years is current PGA Tour member Roberto Castro, who won by two shots in ’09 at Barnsley Gardens, one year after finishing 2nd at the same site, five behind former Nationwide Tour player Bryant Odom, now an assistant golf coach at Wisconsin.
Castro is one of two players currently on the PGA Tour to have won the Georgia Open in the past decade. Justin Bolli, like Castro a mini-tour player at the time, won in a playoff at Ansley Golf Club’s Settindown Creek in ‘03, with Weinhart part of a three-way playoff.
Weinhart came back the next year to win at The Legends. But other than Hull’s win at Champions Retreat in ’07, Georgia PGA members have rarely contended in the event since then.
Hull, making his final appearance in the state before joining former UGA women’s coach Kelly Hester on the staff at Furman, was low among Section members last year, tying for 11th.
Keppler, Clark Spratlin and Bill Murchison tied for 6th at Barnsley Gardens in 2011, with Hull and Shawn Koch 7th at Savannah Harbor the previous year. Craig Stevens was 5th and Matt Peterson 7th at Barnsley Gardens in ’09, with Murchison 5th at Barnsley the year before.
Peterson, the head pro at the UGA course in Athens, won the tournament in Savannah in ’93 on his way to more than a decade as a tour player, primarily on what is now the Web.com Tour, along with one year on the PGA Tour.
The state’s mini-tour players face conflicts with the Georgia Open, as both the eGolf and NGA (formerly Hooters) Tours have events that week in North Carolina. The state’s top amateurs also have a conflict, as one of the two U.S. Amateur qualifiers in the Atlanta and Athens areas will be played the week of the Georgia Open. There are also conflicts for the state’s top juniors, with an American Junior Golf Association scheduled that week in Augusta and the Southeastern Junior Tour playing at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Although there have been some strong efforts in recent years in the Georgia Open by amateurs, the tournament has not attracted many of the top college and mid-amateur players due to its proximity to U.S. Amateur qualifiers.
John Hopper of Eatonton was low amateur last year, tying for 6th overall, with Dalton’s David Noll, the state’s most successful amateur, tying for 8th. College golfer Ted Moon tied for 2nd in 2011 behind McLuen, with Doug Hanzel, Georgia’s top senior amateur, tying for 4th in his home town of Savannah in 2010. Noll made a strong run at victory in ‘07, placing 3rd behind Hull and List
The last amateur to win the Georgia Open was former PGA Tour player Franklin Langham, who scored the first of his two victories in the event in 1989, one year after fellow amateur DeWitt Weaver III claimed the title.
Weaver’s father, DeWitt Weaver Jr., won the Georgia Open four times between 1972 and ’79, and was one of a number of PGA Tour players to win during the 1970s and ‘80s, joining Tommy Aaron, Larry Nelson, Tim Simpson and Gene Sauers. Bob Tway was also among the Georgia Open champions during that stretch, sharing the title with Simpson in 1980 prior to turning pro.
This will be the fourth time in the last 10 years that the tournament has been played at the Legends, which hosted the Sarazen World Open in the 1990s and included Ernie Els, Frank Nobilo and Mark Calcavecchia among its champions.
Weinhart and former tour player Tim Conley were the 2004 and ’05 winners, with Conley posting a winning score of 15-under 273. Among the Georgia PGA members joining Weinhart in the top 10 in ’04 were Keppler, Russ Davis, Stevens and Chan Reeves. Bill McDonald, now the golf coach at South Carolina, was 4th the next year, with Tommy Brannen, Sonny Skinner and Stevens also among the top 10.
No Section members managed top-10 showings last year, when just three players broke par for 72 holes. Fricke shot 5-under 283 to finish one ahead of Nagy. Fricke recorded two birdies and a clutch par over the final four holes to hold off Nagy, who also had a pair of birdies late in the round.
The Legends opened in the early 1990s to considerable fanfare, with its Denis Griffiths design including holes that featured strategic similarities from holes at some of the most prominent courses in the world, including the Olympic Club, Medinah, Winged Foot, Merion, Pinehurst, St. Andrews, Troon, Riviera and Nos. 12 and 13 from Augusta National, the latter two the most visible examples. The holes are not copies of their famous counterparts (Augusta’s 12th is the closest to replicating the original), but feature comparable shot values.
The change from bent grass to Champions Bermuda on the greens has made the Legends more of a test for the Georgia Open participants, with the putting surfaces firm and fast, challenging both iron play and putting touch.
At right around 7,000 yards, the Legends lacks serious length, but features a strong group of par 4s, only one of which is a relative breather, the 344-yard 16th. Several of the par 5s are reachable in two, but three of the four are quite narrow and all four exact penalties for those who stray off the tee or on the approach.
With a few exceptions, the Legends is a relatively tight driving course, with most holes lined by trees that are frequently uncomfortably close to the fairways. The mostly well-protected greens require precision approach shots to avoid bunkers and potential three-putts, with two of them fronted by rock walls that add a little spice to the otherwise straightforward layout.
The par 3s are highlighted by the Augusta National-like 12th (the 15th at the Legends) and the short seventh, inspired by Troon’s “postage stamp” hole. The other two have more length and are among the tougher holes on the course.
The Legends also sports an interesting group of finishing holes, with the par-5 14th – one of the two with greens perched atop rock walls – 15th and 16th all offering birdie opportunities before a stout pair of closing par 4s, The 17th is among the most difficult holes on the course, with the 18th a tough hole to birdie for those coming to the final hole needing one.
Four qualifiers will be played this month for players not exempt into the field. They will be played at Coosa CC (July 15) Eagle’s Landing and Savannah Quarters (July 18) and Berkeley Hills (July 22).