Georgia Open preview – 2011, page 16
By Mike Blum
Over the past two decades, the Georgia Open has provided an opportunity for some of the state’s lesser-known tour players to make a name for themselves in one of the most prominent professional events in the state.
The tournament has been played continuously since the 1950s, and some of the biggest names in Georgia golf history are among its champions, beginning with Tommy Aaron, who captured his third Georgia Open title two years after his triumph in the Masters in 1973.
Among the winners in the 1970s and ‘80s were the likes of DeWitt Weaver, Larry Nelson, Tim Simpson, Bob Tway and Gene Sauers. Tway shared the title with Simpson in 1980, with both players going on to successful careers on the PGA Tour. Tway was still an amateur at the time, with Franklin Langham also winning as an amateur nine years later en route to his professional career on the PGA and Nationwide Tours.
Langham won the tournament again in 1992 as a young professional, beginning a two-decade stretch of dominance in the Georgia Open by a string of tour players, either on their way up to the top levels of their profession or trying to return to that status.
No amateur has won since Langham’s victory in 1989, and only three PGA club professionals have been champions since Gregg Wolff captured the title in 1991. Stephen Keppler scored back-to-back victories in 1994 and ’95 after losing in a playoff to rising tour player Matt Peterson in ’93, but the only other Section members to win since are Tim Weinhart (2004) and Jeff Hull (2007).
Langham and Peterson started the trend of up-and-coming young professionals winning the Georgia Open on their way to careers as tour players. The two former Georgia Bulldog teammates have since retired as tour players, with Peterson now the head professional at the UGA course in Athens.
Langham, who played successfully for well over a decade on the Nationwide and PGA Tours, left the game a few years back when his swing suddenly left him after he scored his third Nationwide Tour victory in 2007.
Justin Bolli won the Georgia Open at Settindown Creek in 2003 as a member of the Hooters Tour, and has played on either the PGA or Nationwide Tour every year since. Roberto Castro won the Georgia Open at Barnsley Gardens, the site of this year’s event, in 2009, and within a year was a Nationwide Tour member and near winner after splitting his time between the eGolf and Hooters Tours.
The 2011 Ziplocal Georgia Open will be played July 28-31 at Barnsley Gardens, the third time in four years the event has been played at the northwest Georgia resort in Adairsville.
With both the eGolf and Hooters Tours off that week, it will be a conflict-free week for most of the state’s tour players not playing on either the PGA or Nationwide Tours. The Georgia-based Peach State Tour will be in action that week, with a tournament at Nob North in Cohutta ending the day before the Georgia Open tees off.
Among the state’s mini-tour contingent already inquiring about playing in the Georgia Open are current Nationwide Tour player David Robinson of Sandersville and former Nationwide Tour member Jonathan Fricke of Covington. Robinson has limited Nationwide Tour status and plays primarily on the eGolf Tour as does Fricke.
Mini-tour players finished 1-2-3-4 in last year’s Georgia Open, played at Savannah Harbor, the home course for the Champions Tour Legends of Golf. Samuel Del Val, who played his college golf at Berry and now lives in Athens, won in impressive fashion, posting a 20-under 268 total to win by four strokes over Savannah’s Tim O’Neal, who spent several seasons on the Nationwide Tour.
Duluth’s Brent Witcher, a young mini-tour player, was 3rd at 273. Savannah’s Mark Silvers, who has won a number of tournaments in the past year on the Peach State Tour, was 4th at 276 along with fellow Savannah resident Doug Hanzel, one of the state’s top amateurs.
Sharing low club professional honors were 2007 Georgia Open champion Hull, an instructor at the UGA course in Athens, and CC of the South Director of Instruction Shawn Koch, who tied for 7th at 279.
Barnsley Gardens hosted the Georgia Open in 2008 and ’09, with Castro and Bryant Odom the two featured performers. Odom, a former Georgia Bulldog who played briefly on the Nationwide Tour, won in 2008 at 14-under 274 with Castro five shots behind in 2nd.
Castro turned the tables the next year, firing a final round 66 to break out of large logjam at the top of the leader board. The former Georgia Tech standout from Alpharetta finished at 281, two strokes ahead of mini-tour player Drew Bowen and three in front of Odom and Travis Nance, both from Cartersville.
Nance, a former mini-tour player, is now an assistant at Coosa CC in Rome, while Odom is out of the golf business after working for a time as an assistant at Ocean Forest. Both tied for 10th at Savannah Harbor last year, along with Georgia PGA members Brian Dixon, Michael Parrott and Winston Trively, and mini-tour veteran Don Wright, who notched his third straight top-10 finish in the tournament. It was the fourth consecutive top 10 in the Georgia Open for Odom.
The best showing in the two Georgia Opens at Barnsley Gardens by a Georgia PGA member was turned in by Stevens, an Atlanta area instructor who tied for 5th in 2009 at 285. Peterson was the only other Section member in the top 10, tying for 7th at 286.
The lone Georgia PGA member in the top 10 in ’08 was Towne Lake Hills assistant Bill Murchison, who tied for 7th at 284. Hull, who has been the Section’s most consistent performer in the tournament in recent years, tied for 15th in ’08, for 11th in ’09 and was T7 last year with Koch.
Hull won at Champions Retreat outside Augusta in 2007, outdueling rookie pro Luke List, now on the Nationwide Tour. David Noll of Dalton, who tied for 11th both times the tournament was played at Barnsley Gardens, almost became the first amateur winner in nearly 20 years, finishing just two shots back in 3rd place.
The field for this year’s Georgia Open will tackle one of the state’s finest courses, with the Jim Fazio-designed Barnsley Gardens layout providing a serious test. Odom’s winning score of 14-under in 2008 was the only score better than 9-under for 72 holes the two years Barnsley Gardens hosted the Georgia Open, with Castro winning the next year at 7-under.
Barnsley Gardens has decent length (almost 7,200 yards from the tips), one of the state’s best and strongest collection of par 3s and a stout quartet of par 4s averaging 450 yards. But Fazio’s outstanding layout also includes mostly ample fairways, a vulnerable if slightly hazardous group of par 5s and a trio of short-ish par 4s that are also susceptible to birdies.
The putting surfaces are not as expansive as those on most courses designed by Fazio’s brother, but have plenty of character, with several offering modest-size targets requiring precise iron shots to set up birdie opportunities. Barnsley’s greens are typically of top caliber, with enough speed and roll to test players’ putting skills.
Six qualifiers will be held for players not exempt into the field, with the deadline July 8 at 10 a.m. Qualifying sites are: Cartersville CC (July 11); Orchard Hills (July 13); Berkeley Hills (July 18); The Frog (July 19); Wilmington Island Club (July 20) and Eagle’s Landing (July 21).
For information, visit www.georgiapga.com.