Peachtree Golf Club head professional Donn Perno begins his defense of the Georgia PGA Match Play Championship this month, and has a significant incentive to make a deep run in the 64-player tournament.
If Perno can win four matches and advance to the semifinals, he will have the chance to compete on his home course, with the semifinals and finals to be played Aug. 18 at Peachtree.
The tournament changed formats last year, with the first four rounds played at courses determined by the individual participants, and the semifinals and finals played the same day at one site.
The only match play event among the Georgia PGA’s points tournaments has been played under various formats during its 30-plus years, competing at one site over three days from 2006-2012 before returning to a similar format last used from 2000-05.
The change was made primarily to increase participation in the event, one of the Section’s four majors. It achieved that purpose, but with an unintended consequence.
The 64-player field filled up prior to the published deadline, and several of the Georgia PGA’s top players – two-time defending champion Tim Weinhart among them – did not sign up until after the field reached its limit, and were unable to compete.
An early round match had to be decided on a coin flip when the two players could not settle on a mutually agreeable date and the championship match ended on an unfortunate note, when Craig Stevens was forced to withdraw due to heat exhaustion after nine holes.
Last year’s semifinals and finals were played at East Lake, with the four participants required to walk in the mid-August heat. After going 18 holes in the morning to defeat Bill Murchison, Stevens made it through nine holes in the afternoon against Perno before the heat and humidity forced him to withdraw, trailing Perno by one hole when he retired.
This year’s field also filled up prior to the deadline, but the players were more aware of the necessity of signing up early. All the Georgia PGA’s top-ranked players will be in this year’s field, other than a handful of seniors who elected not to enter.
First round matches are scheduled for April, with players having one month to complete each round. After matches in May (second round), June (third round) and July (quarterfinals), the four survivors will play Aug. 18 in the semifinals and finals at Peachtree, with the competitors having the option of riding carts in those matches.
The players determine the site and date of matches through the first four rounds, with the 64-player bracket divided into eight groups of eight players each. To reduce travel, players from the East and Central chapters are paired together, with Sonny Skinner (Central) and Patrick Richardson (East) the top seeds.
Other players who will be seeded first in their groups of eight are Stevens, Weinhart, Kyle Owen, Shawn Koch, Clark Spratlin and Murchison. Perno will be a second seed in his eight-player bracket.
Weinhart won the Match Play Championship in 2011 at Chattahoochee Golf Club and 2012 at the University of Georgia, with the two courses hosting the entire tournament over three days. Weinhart defeated Stevens in the 2012 finals in a match-up of players who have won the last five Player of the Year honors in the Section.
Stevens, the Player of the Year in 2012 and ’13, has won the tournament twice (1985 and 2000) and lost in the finals three times. Weinhart has three Match Play titles and has been a finalist two other times, losing to Stevens in the 2002 championship match.
Spratlin is also a three-time champion, with all three titles coming in a 4-year stretch from 2001 to ’04. Other past champions in the field include David Potts, who beat Weinhart in the 2010 finals at the UGA course; Shawn Koch (2008); Greg Lee (’07); Skinner (’06); and Brian Dixon (1997).
Spratlin, Koch, Dixon and Richardson all advanced to the third round last year, with Owen, Seth McCain, Winston Trively and Danny Elkins reaching the quarterfinals. Trively, a finalist in 2011 and semifinalist in 2012, did not enter this year, with Sung Back, who lost to Perno in the semifinals, on the alternate list.