Before Bernhard Langer had sewn up the Greater Gwinnett Championship on Sunday, tournament director Stan Hall was able to stand beside the 18th green and smile about the way the first-year event turned out.
“We’ve had so many great comments from the players,” Hall said. “This gives us a wonderful foundation to build on. We’ll come back and evaluate things and see what we can do next year to make it even better.”
After enduring a horribly cold and rainy day for Friday’s first round, the event enjoyed sunny weather on the weekend. That encouraged local fans to come out and watch a top field of seniors.
“It was great,” said player Peter Jacobsen. “The organizers did a great job and the course was in fantastic condition. The conditions at TPC Sugarloaf were as good as I can ever remember them. I think everyone has been very happy with the way it turned out.”
The only complaint from players was directed at the Champions Tour for its difficult setup. TPC Sugarloaf is long and hilly and a tough walk. Players weren’t exactly happy to see the course played from the tips.
“We were walking to the last tee and we weren’t all the way back,” quipped LaGrange native Allen Doyle. “I said, ‘I guess they didn’t know this tee was back there.’”
The scoring average was 73.44, the highest for a non-major since the 2008 Ginn Championship. Only 16 players broke par for the week.
Nicklaus a big draw: Normally there's a sparse crowd for the first two days of the Legends of Golf in Savannah, when the players compete in the Demaret Division for players 70 and older. But this week was different. A crowd of about 500 people showed up early and followed the dream team of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player around the Westin Savannah Harbor course.
The duo finished tied for seventh, six shots behind Jim Colbert and Bob Murphy.
Competition in the Legends Division begins Friday. David Frost and Michael Allen are the defending champions.
On the Tour: The Web.com Tour begins its two-week run through Georgia with this week's South Georgia Classic at Valdosta's Kinderlou Forest, at 7,781 yards the longest course played on the circuit. Ringgold native Luke List will not be back to defend his title. He's now playing on the PGA Tour.
The Stadion Classic at UGA, which is next week’s event, always gives two exemptions to current Georgia players. This year’s spots went to A.J. Mitchell and Keith Mitchell, who lead the team in scoring average. In 2011 Russell Henley used one of the spots and won the event as an amateur. The defending champion is Hudson Swafford, another former Bulldog. The tournament gave its two last sponsor’s exemptions to former Bulldog Ryuji Imada and Albany native Josh Broadaway. Imada helped the Bulldogs win the 1999 NCAA championship and won the PGA Tour’s AT&T Classic in 2008.
In the field for both events will be four-time PGA Tour winner Billy Andrade. The Brookhaven resident, now 49, is tuning up for a chance to hit the Champions Tour in 2014. Andrade most recently has been working as a broadcaster for Golf Channel. …
The PGA Tour has granted special temporary membership to Thorbjorn Oleson of Denmark and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain. Each has surpassed the total earnings of the player who finished No. 150 on the 2012 money list.
Etc.: Oglethorpe will be the favorite in this week's Southern Athletic Association Conference tournament in Birmingham, Ala. The Stormy Petrels are the reigning NCAA Division III champions and are currently ranked No. 1. Sophomore Anthony Maccaglia is ranked as the nation's No. 1 player and Oglethorpe has six players ranked among the top 100 in Division III. …
Kathy Evans was named volunteer of the year at the Greater Gwinnett Championship and becomes a finalist for the Champions Tour’s overall award. Evans has been a volunteer at tournaments for more than 20 years and has served at the Sarazen World Open, the BellSouth Classic and the Tour Championship. …
North Carolina commitment William Register of Burlington, N.C., and Cindy Ha of Demarest, N.J., won the American Junior’s Exide Technologies Junior Open at the Country Club of the South. Ha beat Roswell’s Rinko Mitsunaga on the second playoff hole. The top Georgian in the boys division was Carter Mobley of Waynesboro, who finished third.
