Editor's Shag Bag of Golf

Lex Alexander is back

Lex Alexander is back in the Carolinas Golf Association winners’ circle after a 32-year hiatus.

Alexander, who grew up in Charlotte and was a member of Wake Forest’s 1974 NCAA championship team, captured the 10th North Carolina Mid-Amateur Championship at Brier Creek Country Club in Raleigh April 13.

He posted rounds of 70-69-70 for a 209 total that was three shots clear of Greg Earnhardt of Greensboro and Greg Powell of Whiteville. Earnhardt shot 71-75-66 and Powell 73-71-68.

Alexander, who turned pro after his Wake Forest years, regained his amateur status and started a chain of health food stores. He’s now 50 and retired in Durham.

The Mid-Am victory was his first CGA triumph since he beat Randy Transou of Winston-Salem in a playoff for the 1971 North Carolina Amateur title. The event was played at Willow Creek in High Point that year.

Pros win Tar Heel Cup

The Carolinas PGA rolled to a 17-point victory over their amateur counterparts on April 1 in the Tar Heel Cup Matches, giving the pros their seventh win in the nine-year history of the event.

Kelly Mitchum teamed with Gus Ulrich and Billy Anderson paired with Bob Boyd in 3-0 match sweeps in the morning four-balls, giving the CPGA a 8.5 to 3.5 lead going into the afternoon singles.

Mitchum, Boyd, Anderson and Jeff Lankford posted sweeps in the singles to pace an 18-6 advantage and an overall count of 26.5 to 9.5.

The event was played at the Pinewild’s Holly Course in Pinehurst for the second straight year.

The Tar Heel cup Matches send eight of the state’s best amateurs into competition against eight of the state’s best club professionals. Scoring is based on a Nassau format with one point awarded for winning each nine and another point for winning overall.

CPGA Majors

Two major championships on the Carolinas PGA schedule are upcoming in May.

The Pfizer CPGA Seniors’ Championship is set for Ocean Ridge Plantation (Panther’s Run and Tiger’s Eye) in Sunset Beach May 22-23.

The BB&T North Carolina Open is scheduled for The Heritage Club in Wake Forest May 28-30. It’s the first points event on the 2003 schedule.  

Local qualifiers

Several CPGA members will be busy playing on national professional tours in May.

David Thore of Reidsville, Chris Tucker of Charlotte and Bob Boyd  of Wilmington made it through a section qualifier March 17 for the BMW Pro-Am at the Cliffs, a Nationwide Tour event scheduled May 1-4.

Thore and Tucker shared medalist honors with 68 and Boyd shot 70.

Kent Stauffer of Charlotte and Brian Lamb of Pickens, S.C. claimed the section’s two spots for the PGA Tour Wachovia Championship set for May 8-11 at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte.

Both Stauffer and Lamb shot even-par 72s on March 24 to edge Mocksville’s Jeff Lankford by a shot.

Lankford wasn’t to be denied in qualifying for the SAS Carolina Classic, however. He fired a four-under-par 68 to grab one of the three spots in the qualifier April 14. The other two went to Rick Murphy of Greensboro with a 70 and Keith Grassing of Vass with a 71.

The Carolina Classic, a Nationwide Tour event, will be played May 22-25 at the TPC at Wakefield in Raleigh.                      

Ferree tops senior women

Karen Ferree of Hilton Head, the Carolinas Golf Association senior player of the year in 2001 and 2002, shows no signs of giving up her reign.

Ferree won the Carolinas Women's Senior Championship at Forest Lake Club in Columbia, SC. April 1-2, shooting 76-79 for a seven-shot victory.

Clate Aydlette of Elizabeth City and 2001 champion Patty Moore of Charlotte tied for second at 162. Aydlett shot 83-79 and Moore 77-85. Wilmingotn’s Barbara Young, the defending champion, was fourth at 163 (79-84).

Decker in team matches

Reigning Virginia State Open champion Keith Decker of Martinsville headlines a group of 12 players selected to the Virginia team for the

Virginia-West Virginia Team Matches which are slated April 26-27.

The matches will be played at The Greenbrier’s trio of layouts, the Greenbrier, Old White and Meadows courses.

The Virginia team has posted nine consecutive victories in the

series and has won 10 of the 12 matches since the competition’s resumption in 1991.

Hensley team ties for first

Fran Hensley of Ridgeway and Mandy Beamer of Burkeville fired a six-under-par 66 and tied for first place in the VSGA’s Two-Person Captain’s Choice Tournament April 14 at Williamsburg Country Club.

Hensley and Beamer shot 32-34 on the par-72 course and were tied with two other teams. A scorecard playoff, using the back-nine total as the tie-breaker, left Hensley-Beamer with third prize, however. The other two teams had cards of 33-33.

Ziglar headed to Virginia

The Triad is going to miss a good friend, Tommy Ziglar, the longtime professional at Hemlock Golf Course in Walnut Cove. Ziglar has taken the head professional job at Great Oaks Country Club in Floyd, Virginia. After 22 years at Hemlock, he will commute to the club just north of the border. The course is located just one mile off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Longview remains open
Longview Golf Course in Greensboro is still open for business. The course, which is now owned by the PTI Airport Authority, is still being managed by Eddie Isley and remains open for an extended period of time. The course was supposed to have closed but with delays to projects around the airport it will remain open. Although it was slated to be closed and turned into wetlands, a project to reduce animal life around the airport may help it to stay open even longer. I never understood why they would create wetlands for wildlife preservation next to an airport.

Greater Hickory Classic reorganizes staff

The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn announced a staff reorganization that will increase focus on sponsorship efforts for the inaugural Champions Tour event Sept. 22-28, 2003, at Rock Barn Golf & Country Club in Conover.
James L. "Jim" Correll, Jr., has been named Executive Director for the tournament. Currently serving as the tournament's director of marketing and sales, Correll will expand his role to oversee all aspects of tournament development and serve as the tournament's spokesperson.
Lenny Francoeur, an executive with tournament management group Octagon, will serve as Tournament Director. Francoeur has been handling day-to-day management duties since Octagon joined the tournament earlier this year.
Burt Baine, formerly tournament director, will refocus his efforts toward securing title and presenting sponsorship for the event. Baine will work from his office in Charlotte.
"Establishing corporate and community support for the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, a first-time event, is our highest priority," said Don Beaver, president and CEO of Beaver Sports Properties and owner, Rock Barn Golf & Country Club. "Because of this, we have asked Burt Baine to refocus his efforts toward securing title and presenting sponsors for the tournament. Likewise, we have placed our sales director, Jim Correll, in a more involved role.

Area Professionals win awards

It’s nice when you get to brag on one of your own, and it’s extra nice when one of your own is Ed Ibarguen, one of the many truly good guys in this business. Ibarguen, the director of golf at Duke University Golf Club and the author of “Ask the Pro” in each issue of Triangle Golf Today, has been honored by his peers in the Carolinas PGA as the section’s Teacher of the Year.

A PGA Master Professional, Ibarguen is a 20-year member of the PGA of America, and awards are nothing new to him. He won the Carolinas Section’s 1998 Horton Smith Award, the Bill Strausbaugh Award in 1990 and 1993, and the 2001 Golf Professional of the Year award. Ibarguen has served as an instructor for all three Business Schools for the PGA of America and was one of the original faculty members of the Golf Professional Training Program (GPTP). He has taught junior golf schools at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University since 1979, and for the past two years has taught at The Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher golf schools at the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida.

Two others area professionals also were honored by the Carolinas PGA. Ben Hynson, the director of golf at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary, is the Bill Strausbaugh Award winner for his outstanding contributions to improving employment conditions and relations for PGA members and their facilities. The Carolinas Section’s 2001 Horton Smith Trophy winner, Hynson has been a PGA member since 1983. While a member of the Middle Atlantic PGA Section, he was named the 1986 Virginia Chapter Assistant Golf Professional of the Year.

Finally, the Carolina section’s Junior Golf Leader Award recipient is Don Allan, the head professional at Hillandale Golf Course in Durham. For the past 15 years he has directed the Hillandale Junior Clinic and in 1993 he began the Hillandale Junior Classic. He also has worked with the Inner-City Youth Clinics, which secured a USGA grant to bring golf to this group of youngsters. Allan, a nine-year member of the PGA of America, previously was honored as the section’s 2001 Assistant Professional of the Year. …

Raleigh Teenager captures Jim McLean Future Collegians World Tour

Congrats also are due Raleigh teenager Kaylan Barbrey, who captured the girls’ 15-19 division of the Jim McLean Future Collegians World Tour Shootout at Verdae Greens Golf Club in Greenville, S.C., in late March.

Barbrey put together rounds of 76 and 75 — only 7-over par for 36 holes over a difficult golf course — to finish five shots clear of Emily Culbertson of Covington, Ky. Players are chosen for the tour based on their resumes. …  

Triangle courses in the news

Heritage Golf Club, named the state’s Best New Course in 2002 by North Carolina Magazine, will be the site of the only Carolinas PGA major held in the Triangle this year — the BB&T North Carolina Open on May 28-30.

Nike Golf and the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) are teaming up for a multi-year relationship beginning this month to present the AJGA Nike Golf Junior All-Star Series. The series kicks off May 27-30 at Paradise Point Golf Course in Jacksonville, N.C., the first in a collection of six open tournaments and a season-ending championship tournament for boys and girls, ages 13 to 15. Each tournament will feature a full day of instruction and three days of stroke-play competition.

Since its inception in 1998, the Series has given thousands of AJGA members the chance to compete at the national level. Seven events are planned for this year, including a season-ending championship near Nike Golf's World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., over Labor Day Weekend.

There’s a new face at Crooked Creek Golf Club, the outstanding semi-private course in Fuquay-Varina. He’s Aaron King, a 27-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., native who joined Drew Smith’s staff as an assistant professional after working previously in a similar role at the TPC at Wakefield Plantation. King replaces Matt Caruso, who left the golf business to go into private enterprise.