For a number of former members of the UGA golf team , a one-time assistant coach for UGA’s women’s team and a current Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket, 2014 was a very good year.
For about half of the tour events played in the state as recently as 2013, 2014 was a very bad year.
This past year was a mostly quiet one from a golf standpoint in the state, with the biggest off-the-course news the sale of the Canongate/Sequoia family of facilities to ClubCorp, which will impact thousands of Georgia golfers, mainly in metro Atlanta.
On the course, Georgians were prominent throughout the year on the PGA Tour and made more noise on the Champions Tour than in recent years, but it was a mostly disappointing showing for the state’s Web.com Tour contingent, who will be without a Georgia tournament for the first time in almost a decade.
Georgia made plenty of news in amateur circles, hosting the biggest amateur event in the game, while two of the state’s top amateur players made headlines at the national level.
Here’s a look back at the top 18 stories in Georgia golf in 2014, with an addendum or two , starting in Augusta in April and winding through various tours, tournaments, teams and individuals. They are in no particular order, flowing from one topic to the next with some connection, kind of like a golf course.
No. 1: DOUBLE BUBBA: Former Georgia Bulldog Bubba Watson claimed his second Masters title in three years, and did not need any late dramatics, as he did in his playoff triumph over Louis Oosthuizen in 2012. This time, Watson made up four shots on leader Jordan Spieth on the eighth and ninth holes and went on to a 3-stroke victory with an un-Bubba-like near flawless final round.
No. 2: HOW ‘BOUT THEM DAWGS: Watson’s Masters victory was just one of a seemingly endless string of wins by ex-Bulldogs on the PGA Tour’s first ever wraparound 2013-14 season. The run began late in 2013 with Chris Kirk taking the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island Golf Club and Harris English winning the next week in Mexico.
Watson scored the first of his three 2014 victories in Los Angeles, and Russell Henley captured his second Tour title in just his second season, taking a playoff that included Rory McIlroy in the Honda Classic. Brendon Todd (Byron Nelson Championship) and Brian Harman (John Deere Classic) collected their first PGA Tour wins, and Kirk wrapped up season by winning the Playoffs event in Boston and finishing second in the final fedExCup standings.
Throw in two wins by Patrick Reed (Bob Hope Classic and WGC-Doral), who played one season for the ‘Dogs before being asked to leave, and the UGA win total for 2013-14 was 8, with Watson’s recent WGC win in China counting towards next year’s total.
No. 2B: Georgia Tech picked up a couple of PGA Tour titles in 2014, with Chesson Hadley winning in Puerto Rico the same week Reed prevailed at Doral, and Matt Kuchar ending a three-week stretch of near misses, holing out from a bunker on the 72nd hole to edge out Luke Donald in the Heritage Classic. Kuchar’s win was one of four in 2013-14 for players residing on St. Simons Island, joining English, Harman and Zach Johnson, who won the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, the 2014 opener. Kirk lived on St. Simons before returning to metro Atlanta prior to his McGladrey victory.
No. 3: HOT HORSCHEL SIZZLES AY EAST LAKE: Floridian Billy Horschel concluded a torrid three-week stretch in the Tour Championship, winning by three strokes over McIlroy and Jim Furyk. Horschel tied for second behind Kirk in Boston and finished two ahead of Watson the next week to win the Playoffs event in Denver. Adding his $10 million bonus for winning the FedExCup, Horschel took home about $13.5 for his three weeks of exceptional golf.
No. 4: CHAMPIONS TOUR CHAMPION: Journeyman Scott Dunlap, a long time Duluth resident and even longer itinerant tour pro, scored the biggest win of his career when he won the Champions Tour event in Seattle in a dramatic playoff over Mark Brooks. Early in his career, Dunlap won tournaments in Canada, South Africa and South America, but during two decades on the PGA and Hogan/Buy.com/Nike/Nationwide/Web.com Tours, had just two wins, one coming in Panama.
No. 4B: ALMOST CHAMPIONS TOUR CHAMPIONS: Dunlap, was among three Georgians who had multiple close calls on the 2014 Champions Tour. Following his victory, Dunlap had consecutive runner-up finishes in Quebec and Hawaii despite carding final round scores of 64 and 65, finishing one shot behind the winner both times. He was selected the Champions Tour Rookie of the Year.
Atlanta’s Billy Andrade, a Champions Tour “rookie” like Dunlap, had an early-season second place finish in Mississippi, and later engaged in a furious late Sunday shootout with Fred Couples in Calgary, losing in a playoff after shooting 62 in the final round to Couples’ 61. Savannah’s Gene Sauers also lost in a playoff to Colin Montgomerie in the Champions Tour’s biggest event — the U.S. Senior Open. Sauers bounced back from the disappointment to finish third in two succeeding tour events, and joined Dunlap and Andrade in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
No. 5: WEB.COM WOES: Since it began in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour, Georgians have enjoyed tremendous success on the Web.com Tour, but that was not the case in 2014. No Georgian finished in the top 25 on the regular season money list and no player from the state was among the 25 players to earn PGA Tour cards through the four Web.com Finals tournaments. Kris Blanks won an early season event in Louisiana, but that was about it for the Georgia contingent, which had only a handful of players retain exempt status for the tour in 2015.
No. 6: SHRINKING SCHEDULE: Although no official announcement has been made as of mid-December, Georgia is expected to lose its third tour event in the last two years, as the Web.com Tour South Georgia Classic was likely played for the last time in 2014. The tournament, which was first played in 2007, lasted eight years, just as the Web.com Tour’s stop in Athens, which was held from 2006-13. Adding the Champions Tour Legends of Golf, which left Savannah after the 2013 tournament, Georgia has lost 10 tournaments on the PGA, Champions, Web.com and LPGA Tour over the past two decades, with just four events left, none on the LPGA or Web.com Tours.
No. 7: U.S. AM AT AAC: Among the highlights of Georgia’s 2013 golf schedule was the U.S. Amateur Championship, which was played at the Atlanta Athletic Club. The tournament was won by little-known Gunn Yang, who was born in Korea, played most of his junior golf in Australia, and played sparingly in college at San Diego State. Yang defeated Canadian Corey Connors in the championship match.
A total of 20 players who either live or play college golf in Georgia competed in the event, with eight of them reaching match play. Ollie Schniederjans reached the third round, the best showing among the Georgia contingent, losing to Yang on the 18th hole. Yang also defeated Seth Reeves, Schniederjans’ teammate at Georgia Tech, in the opening round. UGA golfer Lee McCoy was the qualifying medalist.
No. 8: NUMBER ONE AMATEUR: Although his run in the U.S Amateur ended earlier than he would have liked, 2014 was a memorable year for Powder Springs’ Ollie Schniederjans. The Georgia Tech senior enjoyed an outstanding junior season for the Yellow Jackets, winning five tournaments and finishing in the top-4 four other times, including a playoff loss for the individual title in the NCAA Championship.
Following his junior season, Schniederjans tied for 5th in a Web.com tournament in Wichita, represented the U.S. on the Palmer Cup team and made the cut in the European Tour’s Scottish Open, tying for 41st. Schniederjans finished the year as the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world, and played well in Tech’s Fall tournaments, collecting a win, two runner-up finishes and a third in five starts, with a tie for 6th his least successful effort.
No. 8A: No. 1 in NAIA: In just its fourth season of fielding a golf team, Coastal Georgia College won the NAIA Championship at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., winning by four strokes after trailing by four after 36 holes in the 54-hole event. The team’s starting five featured five Georgians – Allen Bradford, Dylan Freeman, Chase Miller, Hunter Cornelius and Trevor Smith, with Bradford 4th and Freeman 12th in the individual competition. The team was coached by Sea Island Golf Club instructor Mike Cook.
No. 9: USGA CHAMPION: Georgia had a USGA champion for the second straight year, as Atlanta native Margaret Shirley captured the U.S Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in Indiana. Shirley defeated Indiana resident Julia Potter 5&3 in a rematch of last year’s finals, which Potter won on the first playoff hole. Shirley, a three-time Georgia Women’s Open champion who served as an assistant coach at both Georgia and Auburn after playing on the Auburn women’s team, was also the qualifying medalist in the tournament. She won six matches along the way, including an impressive 5&4 victory in the semifinals over former tournament champion Meghan Stassi. Shirley is the Manager of Rules and Competition for Atlanta Junior Golf.
No. 10: MIZE MAKES MARK IN MACON: Accomplishing a feat his famous golfing father never managed, Robert Mize won the Georgia Amateur at Macon’s Idle Hour Club. Mize, a Columbus native and member of the Columbus State golf team, scored a memorable come-from-behind victory, closing with back-to-back scores of 67 the final two days to erase a 4-stroke deficit after 54 holes. Mize’s final round 67 included a triple bogey on the difficult 17th hole at Idle Hour, but he still wound up with a 4-stroke margin of victory over four players. The victory made Mize, son of former Masters champion Larry Mize, the second Mize from Columbus to win the Georgia Amateur, joining two-time tournament champion Carter Mize.
No. 11: TREY RULES THE DOGWOOD: Eatonton resident and Mercer golfer Trey Rule won the annual Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills GC with a birdie on the second playoff hole against Winthrop golfer Zach Seabolt. The two players battled it out over 72 holes, with Seabolt erasing a 2-shot deficit going to the final hole when he birdied the par-5 18th and Rule three-putted for bogey. After the two players parred the first extra hole, Rule won when he birdied the par-5 18th while Seabolt struggled to a double bogey. Both players finished at 21-under 267, with Seabolt the only non-Georgian among the top 5. Alpharetta’s Billy Kennerly (Clemson) was 3rd at 268, followed by Anders Albertson (Woodstock/Georgia Tech) at 269 and Jimmy Beck (Columbus/Kennesaw State) at 270.
No. 12: DÉJÀ VU FOR MCLUEN: For the second time in four years, Jay McLuen won the Georgia Open, with his two victories coming in strikingly similar fashion. McLuen, who also won at Barnsley Gardens in 2011, scored his most recent victory at Pinetree Country Club. Both times, McLuen was four shots ahead after 54 holes and wound up winning by seven. McLuen, a mini-tour veteran from Forsyth, had contended in the tournament several times before his 2011 victory. Current Kennesaw State golfers Jimmy Beck and Kelby Burton were 2nd and 3rd respectively, with recent Kennesaw golfer Matt Nagy tying Burton for 3rd.
No. 13: OUT WITH THE OLD…: None of the players who have won the vast majority of Georgia PGA tournaments over the past decade managed to score a victory in a Section points even this year, as a few veterans who haven’t won in a while and a couple of players without a victory made their way into the winner’s circle. Former mini-tour player Hank Smith, the head pro at the Frederica Club on St. Simons and a relatively recent addition to the Section’s membership roll, claimed two of the Section’s four majors – the Atlanta Open and Section Championship, the latter played at Sea Island GC, where he formerly worked as an assistant.
Other Georgia winners included Brian Dixon (Match Play Championship) and Phil Taylor (PNC qualifier), neither of whom had won a Section event since 2002; Kyle Owen (Chicopee Woods), like Smith a former tour pro who was winless in Georgia PGA tournaments; Chris Nicol (RIvermont), who had one Section win in 2010; and amateur Tyler Mitchell (Berkeley Hills). Mini-tour player Jay McLuen ran the string of non-Georgia PGA members to win the Georgia Open to 10 in a row, while multiple Georgia PGA winners like Sonny Skinner, Craig Stevens, Tim Weinhart, Stephen Keppler,.Clark Spratlin, Greg Lee, Shawn Koch and Seth McCain all failed to add to their victory totals.
No. 14: IN WITH THE NEW: Georgia PGA newcomer Karen Paolozzi, who joined the Section earlier this year as an assistant at Druid Hills GC, made an immediate splash in both Georgia PGA and national PGA events. Paolozzi garnered plenty of media attention when she made the cut in the PGA Professional National Championship and posted the best finish ever in the event by a female. She won the Georgia Women’s Open in her first appearance in that event, edging out Augusta State golfer Jessica Haigwood, who scored a runaway victory two weeks later in the Judson Collegiate Invitational.
Paolozzi nearly scored a national victory in her adopted home state, placing second behind former LPGA Tour player Julie Bartholomew in the LPGA Teaching & Club Professional Championship at Chateau Elan. She closed out the year by again making the cut in a national PGA event, opening the PGA Assistants Championship with a 68.
No. 15: SENIOR STANDOUTS: While there were a number of different names among the Georgia PGA’s tournament winners, the Section’s top senior players continued to enjoy success. Despite not winning a Section event, 54-year-old Sonny Skinner earned his second Player of year award thanks to consistent tournament efforts. He also had three wins and three runner-up finishes in Senior Division tournaments and qualified for both the Senior PGA and Senior U.S. Open, tying for 26th in the Senior Open. James Mason, who has played on the Champions Tour since winning a tournament in 2002, also qualified for both, making the cut in the Senior PGA. He closed out 2014 by tying for 2nd in the PGA Senior PNC in south Florida
Stephen Keppler picked up his first major senior win, taking the Section’s PGA Championship, and Craig Stevens added to his growing list of victories in the Georgia Senior Open. Stevens joined Skinner and Mason in making the cut in the Senior PGA Championship.
No. 16: RARE NEWS FROM THE LPGA: Since the LPGA Tour last played at Eagle’s Landing in Stockbridge in 2006, there has been little news to report from a Georgia perspective regarding the tour. But two young Georgians – Valdosta’s Dori Carter and Brunswick’s Katie Burnett – have been moving up the LPGA ladder the last two years, with both securing their playing privileges for 2015.
Carter, in her fourth season on tour, was 70th on the 2014 money list with $194,000, including a pair of top 10 finishes. Burnett was 87th in her second LPGA season with earnings of $119,000, recording two finishes of 12th or better. They will be joined on tour by St. Simons’ Garrett Phillips, who earned a spot by winning a playoff in the finals of qualifying for 2015. Phillips, who has played in Europe and on the Futures Tour after playing two years each at Augusta State and Georgia, finished in a 7-way tie for 18th place and earned one of the last three spots with a birdie on the fourth playoff hole. Newnan’s Jean Reynolds tied for 28th in qualifying finals, and will have limited LPGA status in 2015.
No. 17: MINI-TOUR MONEY WOES: The Hopkins Peach State Tour, which appeared to be enjoying its most successful season in 2014, ended the year in financial distress after failing to pay players’ winnings for the last few tournaments on the schedule. A dispute between the tour’s original owners and a prospective new owner left the future of the tour in doubt.
No. 18: CLUBCORP ACQUIRES CANONGATE/SEQUOYAH: For decades, the biggest name in the Atlanta golf course market was Canongate, with the company owning a sizeable number of private clubs in the metro area. The number of Canongate courses reached the 20s, with several more upscale clubs also part of the expanding family of courses under the separate Sequoia branch.
Dallas-based ClubCorp acquired all the Canongate/Sequoia courses this year, increasing that company’s roster of Georgia facilities from 8 to 35, including many of best private and semi-private facilities in the Atlanta area, making ClubCorp by far the most prominent golf course owner/operator in the state.