TOURNAMENTS l WSGA Match Play Championship  

Jones starts season fast with three titles

Garrett Jones has completed the early season portion of Wiscon-sin’s summertime amateur golf schedule, and in doing so has hardly resembled the player who recently ended his college golf career at UW-Madison.

And that’s a good thing.

The way his college career ended – with the Badgers missing the NCAA Division I Championship by one stroke – left a bitter taste in Jones’ mouth. But what’s done is done, and all Jones can worry about is the here and now. He’s done that remarkably well lately with with three impressive amateur tournament victories during the month of June.

Jones, 22, won the Wisconsin State Golf Association Bestball Championship (with partner and former UW teammate Jeff Kaiser) at the beginning of the month and the WSGA Match Play Championship a couple of weeks later. Then he added a record-breaking win at the prestigious Ray Fischer Amateur Championship at Janesville Riverside GC on the weekend of June 24.

“I had a poor spring and end to my college career, which I was pretty disappointed about,” Jones said recently. “I struck the ball really, really, really bad. I can’t remember a time when I hit the ball that poorly. But all I can do now is forget about it. I wish I had a better finish to my college career – especially as a senior, I wish I was the one who stepped up – but I can’t dwell on it.”

Jones, who plays out of University Ridge GC in Verona, may have officially put those memories to bed with his win at the WSGA Match Play Championship, presented by TaylorMade. The tournament was held at Troy Burne GC in Hudson and Jones was strong from the opening bell, with a round of 67 in the 18-hole qualifying event which establishes the match play seeding.

Jones advanced to the championship match against Matt Behm of Janesville Riverside GC and used a solid, steady approach to defeat Behm by the score of 3 and 2. In the 16 holes that the match lasted, Jones made 16 consecutive pars while Behm recorded three birdies, three bogeys and three double bogeys.

“Matt could have played better,” Jones said. “He’s a better player than that.”

Jones said his opening match against Kevin Cahill of Merrill Hills CC in Waukesha was his toughest of the tournament. Jones survived a 3-up lead by Cahill on the front nine to win 1-up.

Jones then beat Paul Williamson of Cedar Creek CC in Onalaska (4 and 3); Patrick Duffy of Butte des Morts CC in Appleton (3 and 2); Joe O’Brien of Racine CC (6 and 5); and Andy Hansen of Dretzka Park GC in Milwaukee (6 and 5) on the way to the title match.

Behm, along with partner Eric Hjortness of Westridge GC in Neenah, also finished runner-up to Jones and Kaiser at the WSGA Bestball Champion-ship, presented by Laser Link Golf. The tournament was held at Fox Valley GC in Kaukauna and Royal St. Patrick’s GC in Wrightstown at the beginning of June.

The final match was delayed by rain, lightning and fog and was played on Monday, June 4, a day after originally scheduled. Jones and Kaiser took the lead on the front nine, but Behm and Hjortness squared the match with a birdie on the 11th hole. Behm and Hjortness took a 1-up lead thanks to an eagle on the 14th hole, but Jones made consecutive birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to turn the deficit into a lead. The 17th was then halved with birdies, and the 18th was halved with pars to secure the win for Jones and Kaiser.

Jones said he and Kaiser, who plays out of Cedar Creek GC, may have had a slight advantage in the crummy weather since they faced a lot of the same during the spring college season. But weather concerns aside, Jones said he and Kaiser were fortunate to prevail.

“Both (Behm and Hjortness) were putting so well,” Jones said. “It seemed like Behm would make everything he looked at, and if he was out of the hole then Hjortness managed to make par or stay in there with a good putt.”

Jones will attempt to make history at the Wisconsin State Amateur Champion-ship,  July 16-19 at Bristlecone Pines in Hartland. In 2001 Ryan Quinn became the only player to win the WSGA Bestball (along with Williamson), the Match Play and the Wisconsin State Amateur, and Jones can match that feat.

Professional golf also is on the horizon  for Jones. He wants to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship in August. But if that doesn’t happen, he will likely turn pro at the Wisconsin State Open, Aug. 20-22.

TOURNAMENTS l WSGA Governor’s Cup championship 

Pyle wins Governor’s Cup

With the sounds of golf balls hitting tall timber echoing throughout the golf course, Bob Pyle survived a windy and heavily wooded Maple Bluff CC in Madison in June to earn his second Wisconsin State Golf Association Governor’s Cup Championship. By avoiding the trees and getting just enough putts to fall, Pyle won by five shots.

A 46-year-old member of Oneida G&CC in Green Bay, Pyle also won the Governor’s Cup in 2002. The 36-hole tournament is a state championship for amateurs ages 40-54.

It helped when Pyle bolted to an early lead with his 4-under-par 67 in the first round, which was also his first chance to play Maple Bluff. That gave Pyle a three-stroke lead heading into the final round.

Pyle began the shotgun-start second round on Maple Bluff’s par-4 first hole with the other leaders and went 5 over on the front nine. But he shot even-par on the back nine (with three birdies and three bogeys) thanks to some impressive shot-making on the final holes.

On the par-4 17th, Pyle hit his approach right at the flagstick, but his ball bounded through the green to the back edge and didn’t spin back as Pyle had expected. So he simply rolled in the downhill 30-footer from the fringe for birdie.

“I hit a great shot in there,” Pyle said. “The ball hit 3 feet from the hole and it skipped hard. I thought it was going to end up close to the hole. So I was really disappointed, but then it goes in.”

On the par-4 18th, Pyle missed the fairway left. Facing about 130 yards in, Pyle punched a low 5-iron under the branches and watched his ball hop over a greenside bunker and settle about 12 feet from the hole. He two-putted for par to finish off his round of 76.

Pyle was able to gut out the victory while scores were ballooning all around him in the swirling wind.

“I didn’t putt very well,” he said. “Yesterday was a good score, but I left four or five (shots) on the golf course. It was a struggle today, but I figured with the wind and the pins in difficult places, everyone had to be struggling today. So I just tried to hang in there.”

David Hackworthy of Maple Bluff CC, who shot even par on his home course, handled the conditions well. He shot scores of 77-71–148 for the tournament and finished second. Tied for third were Jim Doing of University Ridge GC (71-78–149) and Kevin Cahill of Merrill Hills CC (76-73–149).

TOURNAMENTS l WWSGA Match Play & Junior Girls Championship

Werwie, Elliott win match play titles

Carly Werwie and Kelsey Verbeten are about the same age and have competed against each other for many seasons in Wisconsin junior golf tournaments. They are friends and future teammates at the University of Wisconsin, where Verbeten will begin her sophomore season this fall at the same time that Werwie joins the team as a freshman.

As two of the top junior players in Wisconsin in recent years, both also have played the Pines Course at Lake Arrowhead GC in Nekoosa on several occasions, the same course which annually hosts an end-of-summer invitational for Wisconsin’s elite junior players.

So there were few secrets when Werwie and Verbeten gathered on the first tee of the Pines Course on June 13 for the championship match of the Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association Match Play Championship. It was hardly surprising, then, that the pairing produced an exciting, closely contested title match eventually won by Werwie in 19 holes.

Werwie, 18, birdied the first hole to grab a 1-up lead, but it didn’t last long. In fact, no lead lasted very long in this match.

“No one was up more than one and if you were up one, you didn’t hold that lead for more than two holes,” Werwie said, “and it was a lot of fun because it was such a great match.”

Werwie, who plays out of Meadowbrook CC in Racine, also held a 1-up lead on the 12th tee, but Verbeten, of Green Bay CC, won Nos. 13 and 14 to grab a 1-up lead of her own. They halved the 15th hole, before Werwie made a birdie on 16 to square the match once more. It stayed all-square as they halved with pars on 17 and halved with bogeys on 18.

The match was decided on the the 19th hole (the par-4 10th hole on the Pines Course). Both women hit the fairway with their drives, and Werwie followed with a nice approach shot to about 8 feet. Verbeten mishit her approach, however, and she also came up just short of the green with her third shot.

Werwie then missed her birdie putt, but Verbeten, facing a bogey putt of her own, conceded the par and the match to Werwie.

The two combatants entered the tournament as friends, and their tight match did nothing to change that.

“Monday night we went out to dinner with her dad,” Werwie said of Verbeten. “We’re good friends, and it’s just from playing golf over the years and seeing each other at the same tournaments.”

Werwie shot 73 and tied Christine Larson of Western Lakes GC in Pewaukee for medalist honors in the 18-hole stroke play qualifier that kicked off the tournament. Werwie was the medalist in this same tournament two years ago at the tender age of 16 (also with a 73), when she chose to compete against the women instead of the juniors. Werwie said she likes to get off to a good start with a solid qualifying score, even though she’s playing for little more than a high seed.

“I like being medalist because it’s good to know my game is coming around to how I want it to be and everything is starting to click,” she said. “And it’s just nice getting that higher seed. So it is important.”

At age 18, and with her college plans firmly in place, Werwie said she will play in a mixture of adult and junior events throughout the rest of the summer, including some United States Golf Association competition and maybe even a final American Junior Golf Association event or two.

In the WWSGA Junior Girls Champ-ionship, held at Lake Arrowhead concurrently with the WWSGA Match Play Championship, Alyssa Elliott of Nakoma GC in Madison defeated Lindsay Danielson of the WPGA Junior Foundation by the score of 1-up.

Danielson was medalist of the 18-hole junior qualifier with a round of 77, and Elliott was runner-up with a 79.

Swedish friends and foes battle for title

Sofie Andersson flew under the radar for most of the weekend at the Aurora Health Care Championship at Geneva National GC in Lake Geneva in early June, but following the second of two rain delays which interrupted the final round, Andersson made several clutch shots coming in to earn her first Duramed Futures Tour title.

With four holes left to play following the rain delay, Andersson, a 24-year-old native of Angelholm, Sweden, rolled in a key 7-foot birdie putt on the 15th green to assume a share of the lead along with amateur Esther Choe of Scottsdale, Ariz. But Choe, 17, ruined her chances with a bogey on the 18th hole when her approach flew the green and she was unable to get up and down.

Andersson shot 70-72-70–212 for the week and won the tournament by a single stroke over Choe (72-69-72–213) and Brandi Jackson of Greenville, S.C. (71-72-70–213).

The $12,600 first-place check, from an overall purse of $90,000, moved Andersson up to fifth on the Futures Tour money list, putting her in range of earning one of the LPGA Tour exemptions given to the top five money-earners on the Futures Tour at year’s end.

“Being four shots behind going into the last day and then to win by one, that’s pretty cool,” said Andersson, who played college golf at the University of California-Berkeley.

Andersson was overshadowed for most of the week by her close friend and fellow Swede Caroline Larsson, who shot 69-69 over the first two rounds to take a three-stroke lead into Sunday. But Larsson, who travels and rooms with Andersson on the road, struggled early on. Larsson lost the lead, then regained a share of it with a birdie on No. 13, but she bogeyed Nos. 14 and 16 to drop off the pace. She finished with a final-round 76 to tie Jane Park of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., for fourth place.

“I didn’t give up for a second,” Larsson said afterward, “but I didn’t feel like anything went my way today.”

Meanwhile, Jackson rallied with birdies on Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 17 in the final round to get within range of Anderson, but she settled for par on 18 when she couldn’t come up with the final birdie she needed.

Andersson could finally relax when Choe chipped onto the putting surface of the par-4 18th on the Palmer Course from an awkward lie, then missed the tricky 12-footer which would have forced a playoff.

Moments earlier, Andersson, playing in the second-last group, played a delicate flop shot from just off the green to 2 feet from the hole. Her par on 18 ultimately sealed the victory by one stroke.

In capturing the tournament title, Andersson became just the second player from Sweden to win a Futures Tour tournament, and it has certainly been a while since the first. Marie Wennersten of Sweden won her only title on the Futures Tour way back in 1983, the same year that Andersson was born. Andersson later attended instruction clinics as a junior player conducted by Wennersten.

Amateur Katie Elliott of Madison, the medalist in a local amateur qualifying event earlier in the week, made the cut and tied for 59th place. Elliott shot 76-75-75–226. Other state players included Katie Connelly of Beloit, who missed the 36-hole cut (76-77) and amateur Carly Werwie of Kenosha who missed the 18-hole cut (88).

TOURNAMENTS l WIAA BOYS Championship

Whitefish Bay’s Schultz outduels Anderson

On a cool and windy day June 5 at University Ridge GC in Verona, Whitefish Bay sophomore Jack Schultz beat Appleton East junior John Anderson in a one-hole playoff for the WIAA Division 1 individual title.

Schultz’s birdie on the first playoff hole lifted him to victory over Anderson. Schultz, an individual qualifier, shot a final-round 70 to tie Anderson (73) at 1-under 143.

“I knew that I’d have to make birdie and when I got myself into position, I just hoped that my putter wouldn’t abandon me,” Schultz said. “After the playoff, I was just relieved that all the anxiety that came with waiting was finally lifted.”

But it was third-place finisher Mike Sorenson (75-71–146) who helped carry his Arrowhead Warhawks to the Division 1 team title. Arrowhead, which last won the tournament in 2001, shot 310-302–612. Middleton blew a 10-stroke lead on the final nine holes to end up in second at 617 (305-312).

Arrowhead coach Tom Tallmadge said he knew early this spring that his team had the potential to do great things this season. The Warhawks hosted a tournament April 22, the Lake Country Charity Invitational, where the players raised about $45,000 for the MACC Fund – the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer – and shot 298.

“They knew they had the potential to go low,” Tallmadge said. “They were very good 18-hole players.

“Playing in the state tournament is the dessert at the end of a long meal. The championship is a hot fudge sundae with pecans, whipped cream and a cherry on top.”

Sorenson, whom Tallmadge said is a “very driven and focused player,” had help from teammates Sam Weber (76-78–154), Nick Weber (81-77–158), Clayton Jones (78-81–159) and Jake Lammert (87-76–163), though only the top four scores count toward the team total. 

In Division 2, Green Bay Notre Dame senior and No. 1 player Jon Walsh birdied his final two holes to secure the team title for his Tritons (310-315–625).

“For a senior to be in that position to have a shot to close it out for us is truly a storybook ending,” said head coach Brian Bobinski.

Waukesha Catholic Memorial came in second at 627 (312-315).

Medalist honors went to Aaron Seubert (150), a Catholic Memorial junior. Seubert shot a 5-over 77 in the final round, but his first-round 73 was good enough to keep him one stroke ahead of Notre Dame’s Ricky Hearden (76-75-151).

Notre Dame, the 2006 Division 2 runner-up to Catholic Memorial, nullified its breakdown on the final nine holes last year after leading by 11 strokes with nine to play.

“It’s definitely something that affected the kids, because these kids were all the same kids that were there last year,” Bobinski said. “I thought it really provided strong motivation for our kids coming into this year. I think they were determined to show that they were better than that.”

Bobinski said the wet weather wasn’t a factor for his team, but the 75-minute rain delay on the first day wore on the boys’ nerves a bit. Whatever qualms the players may have felt quickly evaporated, and their scores proved it. All five Notre Dame players finished in the top 20.

“They really epitomized what golf should be as a team sport this year,” Bobinski said. “They didn’t approach it as individuals, they approached it as a team. Ricky Hearden finished one shot out of the win, and when I told him that, he said, ‘Oh yeah? That’s OK, I don’t really even care.’ That’s a great example of that team concept.”

The top four teams in Division 2 – Notre Dame, Catholic Memorial, Appleton Xavier and McFarland – all shot 315 in the final round.

After three previous tries, Stevens Point Pacelli walked away with the Division 3 team title. The Cardinals shot 639 and beat second-place finisher and annual state tournament contender Osseo-Fairchild by 16 strokes.

Osseo-Fairchild sophomore Shayne Johnson was medalist with a 6-over 150 (76-74). He held off Cochrane-Fountain City’s Andy Foegen (79-72–151) by one stroke. Pacelli senior Grant Shafranski finished third with a 154 (77-77), and four Pacelli players finished in the top 20.

“All season long we’ve had four solid players,” Pacelli head coach Brian Winquist said. “Every meet I could count on one of them probably being the medalist.”

For seniors Shafranski and Chris Loeffler, the victory was particularly sweet. They played on all three of the previous state tournament teams that came up empty-handed. This was the year, Winquist said, his players knew they would win the state championship.

“All of my varsity had a commitment to win,” Winquist said. “They really, really wanted this. They were very confident – maybe to the point of being cocky – but in the end if you can back that up, which they did, I have no problem with that.”

Osseo-Fairchild has placed first or second at the state tournament in all but one year since 1994, and eight of the finishes have resulted in state championships.

“Every team in Division 3 – when they go down to the state tournament – desperately tries to beat Osseo,” Winquist said. “It’s a tremendous feeling to take down a team, to beat a team, of their caliber that’s been that good for over a decade now.”