April will be a busy month for Georgia’s senior amateurs and club professionals, especially a group of the Georgia PGA’s top seniors who have an unanticipated event to add to their schedule.
The April senior schedule in the state includes the GSGA Super Senior Championship at Barnsley Gardens and a popular Georgia PGA Senior Division tournament at Willow Lake in Metter within a few days of each other early in the month.
The Yamaha Georgia Senior Open at the UGA course in Athens moves up about a month to April 21-22, beginning the day after the Champions Tour event at TPC Sugarloaf concludes.
Some of the state’s top senior club pros could have attempted to qualify for Georgia’s only Champions Tour event, but a rainout of the 2013 Senior PGA Professional National Championship has made the April schedule even more crowded for nine Georgia PGA seniors.
The PGA re-scheduled the Senior PNC for April 15-18 at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., placing that event in direct conflict with the Greater Gwinnett Championship, which will be played April 18-20. The nine Georgia PGA members who qualified for the Senior PNC will have a quick turnaround for the Georgia Senior Open, especially if they make the cut in south Florida.
The Georgia Senior Open has been played in mid-May in recent years but was moved to April, getting some separation from both the GSGA Mid-Amateur Championship and the Georgia PGA tournament at Chicopee Woods.
But the move of the Senior PGA PNC, originally scheduled for last October in Virginia, has complicated the scheduling for the state’s top club pros, who will lose the opportunity to qualify for the Champions Tour event at Sugarloaf and may find it difficult to squeeze the Georgia Senior Open onto their calendars.
The qualifiers for the PGA Senior PNC are Sonny Skinner, Craig Stevens, James Mason, Tommy Brannen, Russell Smith, Jeff Gotham, Stephen Keppler, Bob Burk and Phil Taylor.
Skinner has recorded top-10 finishes each of the three times he has competed in the Senior PNC, ending up a close 3rd in 2012. Stevens tied for 3rd in the Senior PNC in 2011, with Brannen making the cut on several occasions, with his best showing a tie for 17th in 2007.
Mason, who still retains limited status on the Champions Tour, was given a sponsor’s exemptions into the inaugural Greater Gwinnett Championship last year, but has played only a handful of tour events annually in recent years.
Stevens and Skinner have alternated victories in the Georgia Senior Open the last three years, with Stevens winning in 2011 and last year, and Skinner the 2012 champion. Skinner was a distant 2nd behind Stevens at Newnan Country Club in ’11, and edged out Stevens with a final hole birdie the next year, also at Newnan CC.
Skinner fell to 8th last year at Chattahoochee Golf Club, with Stevens holding off a furious final round surge by Danny Elkins, whose closing 62 came up one shot short of Stevens’ total of 136, which has been the winning score three of the last four years. Stevens shot a tournament best 135 in his 2011 runaway victory, the lowest winning score since the Georgia Senior Open was reduced from 54 holes to 36 in 2005.
Elkins, last year’s runner-up, is the last player other than Stevens and Skinner to win one of the Section’s two top senior events the past three years, taking the 2011 Georgia PGA Senior PNC. Stevens has been the Georgia PGA Player of the Year the last two years, winning the Section Championship in 2013. Skinner was the Georgia PGA Championship winner in 2012, with the two winning the event twice each over the last five years.
The one year they didn’t win, Keppler captured his first victory in the Section Championship since 1996. Keppler has placed 3rd in the Georgia Senior Open the last two years, finishing two shots behind Skinner in 2012 and three behind Stevens last year.
Mason, who played in the final group last year with Stevens and Keppler, ended up in 4th place.
Mel Mendenhall has been the most consistent player among the state’s strong amateur contingent, finishing in the top 10 three of the last four years and contending for 27 holes in 2011 before struggling over the final nine. Jeff Belk was last year’s low amateur, finishing at 2-under 142 to take 5th, one shot ahead of Mendenhall.
Don Marsh was low amateur and 4th overall in 2012, with Jack Kearney tying for 2nd behind Stevens in 2011. Jack Hall and Bob Young were low amateurs and 3rd overall in 2010 and ’09 respectively at Callaway Gardens, with mini-tour pro Javier Sanchez taking the title both years.
The last amateur winners of the tournament were David Nell at Callaway Gardens in 2008 and Rocky Costa at Planterra Ridge in ’07.
The tournament remains in northeast Georgia, moving from Chattahoochee GC to the UGA course, which has hosted a Web.com Tour event the last four years in late April/early May.
Georgia PGA Tournament Director Pat Day said the UGA course will be set up around 6,600 or 6,700 yards, with the tees playing up a set or two on the longer par 4s on the par-71 layout, which measures over 7,250 yards from the tips.