89th Georgia Amateur Championship
The Landings Club, Savannah (Deer Creek Course)
July 8-11, 2010
Championship Preview
Format and Schedule
The Georgia Amateur Championship takes place Thursday, July 8 through Sunday, July 11, with 18 holes of stroke play each day. The field of 156 will be cut to the low 70 and ties after 36 holes.
Eligibility
Entries were open to male amateur golfers who belong to a GSGA member club and are residents of Georgia. A total of 518 players entered this year’s championship, including 20 with exempt status. Non-exempt players competed in one of 10 statewide, 18-hole qualifiers which took place June 1-21 for the remaining 136 spots in the field.
Event History
The Georgia Amateur Championship began in 1916 and has been contested at 29 different GSGA member clubs in 20 cities. This year marks the 89th annual event. Beginning with 14-year-old Bobby Jones, who captured the inaugural title in 1916 (still the youngest Amateur champion), there have been 64 different winners in the history of the event. Current Champions Tour player and two-time U.S. Senior Open champion Allen Doyle of LaGrange lays claim to the most titles (6), won between 1978-90. Macon’s Arnold Blum pocketed five titles from 1946-56. Legendary Atlanta amateur Danny Yates has three championships to his credit – 1977, 1989 and 1996.
Host Club: The Landings Club-Deer Creek
The Landings Club, located on Skidaway Island, features six 18-hole golf courses. The Deer Creek Course was designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1991, but underwent a renovation in 2008-09 and re-opened last fall.
With such a variety of championship-caliber courses, The Landings has played host to several GSGA competitions and USGA qualifiers over the years, including four Georgia Senior Championships (1987, 1989, 2002, and 2008), two Georgia Junior Championships (2000 and 2006), the 1990 Georgia Top 40 Women’s Classic and the 2006 Georgia-South Girl’s Junior Challenge Match. The 2000 Junior and 2002 Senior Championships were held on Deer Creek. The Landings’ Palmetto Course will host the 2011 USGA Women’s State Team Championship, of which Georgia will be the defending champion.
The Director of Golf at The Landings is Tad Sanders, and the golf professional at Deer Creek is Ty Weller. The superintendent is Mike Perham.
Directions to the Deer Creek course: I-75 S. to I-16 E. to Exit 164/I-516/Lynes Parkway S. This short expressway turns into DeRenne Avenue. Continue on DeRenne Avenue. Turn right on Waters Avenue. Continue on Waters Avenue, which will become Whitfield Road and then become Diamond Causeway. Diamond Causeway will cross over the Intercoastal Waterway. Turn left at village traffic light and go 0.2 miles to Deer Creek gate on left. Turn left; proceed .8 miles to club.
The Deer Creek course will play to 7,094 yards and a par 72 during the Georgia Amateur Championship.
| Hole |
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
Total
|
| Yards |
396
|
189
|
551
|
385
|
320
|
580
|
396
|
201
|
446
|
3464
|
| Par |
4
|
3
|
5
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
36
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole |
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
Total
|
| Yards |
449
|
388
|
188
|
443
|
525
|
442
|
405
|
197
|
593
|
3630
|
| Par |
4
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
5
|
36
|
Last Year's Champion
Russell Henley of Macon fired his second-straight 67 to finish at 16-under-par 268 and capture his second-straight Georgia Amateur title by eight strokes over David Noll Jr. of Dalton at the Country Club of Columbus. In winning his second title, Henley broke his own Georgia Amateur scoring record of 270 that he set in 2008 on his home course, Idle Hour Club. He also became the first champion to claim back-to-back titles in 15 years. Henley, who recently qualified for the U.S. Open and finished tied for low amateur honors (16th overall), is not in the field this year.
News & Notes
- Savannah Champions
The winner of the 2010 Georgia Amateur will be the first to hoist the Robert H. Martin trophy at The Landings Club, but he will join a select group of golfers who have captured the title in Savannah. The champions from the nine previous times the event was held in Savannah include four members of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame – Watts Gunn of Atlanta (1927), William Goodloe of Valdosta (1954), Charles Harrison of Atlanta (1959) and Allen Doyle of LaGrange (1979). Also winning in Savannah were local Noble Hardee in the second Championship (1917), Ward Wettlaufer of Atlanta (1966), Peter Persons of Macon (1984), Carter Mize of Columbus (1994) and recent UGA graduate Brian Harman of Savannah (2005). All but two of those previous Championships were held at The Savannah Golf Club. The 1979 and ’84 tournaments took place at the Savannah Inn and Country Club (now known as Wilmington Island Club).
- Past Champions Watch
Just two former champions are entered in the 2010 Amateur. The 2003 champion, David Noll Jr. of Dalton, is back after finishing no worse than sixth in each of the last five Amateurs, including a runner-up finish in 2009. Also returning is 1995 champion Adam Thomas of Baxley. Thomas did not compete last year, but tied for eighth in the 2008 Amateur.
- Will the Bulldogs’ Streak Continue?
Over the last six years, the Georgia Amateur champion has been a current, former or incoming member of the University of Georgia golf team. The streak started in 2004 with rising senior David Denham of Tifton and continued in 2005 with incoming freshman Brian Harman of Savannah. The 2006 winner, Bill Brown of Dublin, is an alumnus of the program. Like Harman, Harris English of Thomasville was about to join the Bulldog squad when he won in 2007 and Russell Henley of Macon won back-to-back titles in 2008 and ’09 after his freshmen and sophomore seasons. Four current members of the UGA golf team are competing this year, including Robert Bennett and Brian Carter, both of Augusta, T.J. Mitchell of Albany and Wills Smith of Savannah. Of those four, Carter was the only one exempt into this year’s Championship based on his 11th-place finish in 2009.
- Qualifying Quips
Ten 18-hole qualifiers for the Georgia Amateur Championship took place across the state June 1-21 … The medalists at seven of the 10 sites shot in the 60s, and two others shot 70 … The highest medalist score was 73 at Champions Retreat in Evans … The highest score to get in across all 10 sites was 77 (Atlanta National GC in Alpharetta and Jennings Mill CC in Bogart) … 67 was the low at two sites (Fields Ferry GC in Calhoun and Berkeley Hills CC in Duluth).
- Family Ties
• Brothers Grant and Jared Cagle are the sons of Georgia lieutenant governor Casey Cagle. Jared, 20, a member of the Georgia State golf team, qualified with a 76 at Berkeley Hills CC in Duluth. Grant, 17, who joins his brother at GSU this fall, carded a 73 at Jennings Mill CC in Bogart.
• For the second year in a row, the father-son tandem of Jeff Knox and Lee Knox of Augusta will be competing. Both players were exempt this year after finishing among the top 15 in 2009. Jeff, a two-time Georgia Mid-Amateur Champion (2008,’09) tied for fourth last year, while Lee, a member of the University of Alabama golf team, tied for 14th.
- A Youthful Outlook
The 2010 Georgia Amateur Championship field definitely has a youthful feel to it. Nearly half the field – 73 players – are age 21 or younger. Thirteen of those players fit the classification for junior golf (age 17 or under). A total of 102 players are under the age of 30.
- The Young…And Young at Heart
The youngest player in the field is Zach Healy of Norcross – at age 14, he is the youngest by two years. At 68 years young, former Georgia Senior Champion Frank Costanzo of Savannah is competing on his home course as the elder statesman of the 2010 Georgia Amateur field. He surpasses the next most “veteran” player, 56-year-old George Bullard of Martinez, by 12 years.
About the GSGA
Founded in 1916, the Georgia State Golf Association (GSGA) received its official charter on June 24, 1924. Since that date, the GSGA has grown to one of the largest state amateur golf associations in the country, with over 350 member clubs and 85,000 individual members. With a mission to promote and preserve amateur golf in the state of Georgia, GSGA offers a computerized handicapping service, course rating and measuring, and annually conducts a full schedule of statewide competitions for men and women of all age groups. Other services include a summer-long junior sectional program, award-winning Golf Georgia magazine, membership recognition and rewards programs and a charitable foundation administering two college scholarship programs.
