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The GCSAA National Championship and Golf Classic is presented in partnership with The Toro Co. |
Triple play
A final-round rally and a nail-biting finish gave Seth Strickland his third GCSAA National Championship.
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Seth Strickland, superintendent at Miami Shores (Fla.) CC, captured the 2009 GCSAA National Championship, making him just one of six players to win three or more titles. |
There is more than one way to win a golf tournament, a truism that Seth Strickland has proven in spades over the last five editions of the GCSAA National Championship.
In 2005 in Orlando, Strickland — then playing in just his second national tournament — flashed nerves of steel in gutting out a tight victory over the tournament’s defending champion and a veteran of more than 25 appearances on the national stage, Tommy Robinson. Back in Orlando last year, the seven-year GCSAA member won in a start-to-finish blowout, recording the lowest total score in tournament history (12 under par) and lapping the rest of the field by a whopping 16 shots.
Then last month in Gulf Shores, Ala., Strickland proved he had the ability to both come from behind and hold on for dear life down the stretch, all in the span of just 18 holes. His three-day total of 11-over-par 227 was two shots better than Tim Scott, CGCS at Stony Creek Golf Course in Orland Park, Ill., and won him the 2009 edition of the GCSAA National Championship, presented in partnership with The Toro Co. for the 15th straight year.
The methods might have differed, but the results were ultimately the same, and now with three national titles to his name, Strickland finds himself among a select group of the most dominant players in the 59-year history of this event (see “Elite company,” Page 98).
“People keep telling me that a win is a win,” the superintendent at Miami Shores (Fla.) Country Club says. “Of course, I’d have much rather shot under par like the first two times instead of 11 over par like this time. There is definitely a different feeling this time around, but I’m still really satisfied with the way things worked out. It’s certainly an honor.”
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Five shots off the lead entering the final round, Strickland quickly raced into the lead after a 3-under-par turn on the front nine then held on down the stretch for his third championship in six tries in the GCSAA National Championship. |
Sunshine support group
Like it has been for other repeat winners who have been featured in the pages of GCM multiple times, Strickland’s story as it relates to his career in golf course management is a familiar one. An avid golfer during high school who initially pursued a career as an electrician, he found his true calling working on the golf course for another regular GCSAA National Championship participant, Jim Torba from Wilderness Country Club in Naples, Fla.
That friendship and professional mentoring not only led to a career for Strickland, but also offered an introduction to a group of Florida superintendents who are as serious about their golf games as they are about tending to the golf courses they manage. This year alone, five of the top 14 players in the event hailed from the Sunshine State — Strickland, Steven Bernard of Adios Golf Club in Coconut Creek (tied for fourth), Torba (tied for 11th), Robert Harper from the Club at Emerald Hills in Hollywood (tied for 14th) and Blair Kirby from the Champion Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens (also tied for 14th).
Granted, climate alone gives Florida superintendents a leg up in getting their games in shape for a mid-winter tournament like the GCSAA National Championship — try squeezing in a few weeks of practice in Wisconsin at this time of year, for example — but Strickland remains adamant that the good-natured competitive spirit among those players plays just as big a role in their annual strong showings in this event.
“It plays a huge role, a huge role,” Strickland says. “We’re golf course superintendents first, but we’re also golfers and these kinds of events are important to us. We have a really active core group of guys who participate in our (state) events; they’re like our tour events and you have to have your game in shape to compete.
“And I think that helps us in our careers and on our golf courses, too. I think playing the game and playing it competitively gives us a different perspective on how the things we do on the maintenance side impact things like playability.”
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Tournament runner-up Tim Scott, CGCS at Stony Creek GC in Orland Park, Ill., reacts to a missed putt during final-round play at Kiva Dunes GC in Gulf Shores, Ala. |
A tough test at Kiva
Another difference between Strickland’s run to this year’s title and his previous two wins was, frankly, an almost complete lack of style points. Where his first two victories were sub-par affairs (his winning score was 4 under par back in 2005 to go with last year’s 12-under showing), this year’s run to the title was a struggle, as his 11-over final tally demonstrates.
Strickland wasn’t alone in that predicament, thanks largely to the venue playing host to the National Championship. Kiva Dunes Golf Club, a Jerry Pate design that sits hard along the Gulf of Mexico, flashed its claws all week, allowing just one under-par round the entire tournament, Bernard’s opening-round 71. All told, the field’s average score for the week was 81.80, nearly 10 full shots over par.
“It was treacherous, man. Fair, but just really, really hard,” Strickland says. “But frankly, I really enjoyed it. The people were incredibly nice; the course was fantastic. It was just a great place. I plan on going back there on vacation some day.”
Those struggles with Kiva Dunes about ended Strickland’s tournament before it even got going during Sunday’s first round. He made the turn in good shape at even-par 36 before the wheels came off on a back nine that featured six total bogeys — including four straight at one point — that left him a full seven shots off the lead after a first-day 78.
“Personally, I didn’t think I had a chance at that point,” Strickland says. “I know Steven Bernard, know how consistent a player he is and there were just a lot of good players between him and me at that point. Plus, the course seemed to be getting harder and harder by the hole. It was getting windy, the greens were getting faster and I just didn’t think this was going to be my year.”
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Strickland is joined (from left) by Mike Happe, the managing director of The Toro Co.’s commercial equipment business; David S. Downing II, CGCS, 2008 GCSAA president; and Jerry Pate, 1976 U.S. Open champion who designed Kiva Dunes GC and owns a Toro distributorship in the Southeast, for the trophy presentation. |
The comeback begins
The start of day two didn’t do much to change Strickland’s opinion of his situation. He double bogeyed the par-5 second hole, bogeyed the par-4 seventh and par-4 ninth holes and, with the weather again turning tough, found himself at 10-over-par for the tournament heading into a back nine that had taken him to the woodshed just 24 hours earlier.
Was Strickland panicking? Maybe just a little, he concedes. “I didn’t like where I was, that’s for sure. I was hitting good shots, but was really struggling with the putter (a total of 12 three-putts over the course of the tournament). I didn’t think it was realistic that I could make up that kind of ground.”
Yet, remarkably, he did make up some ground — albeit just a little — on the leaders before the conclusion of the second round. Thanks largely to a putter that was growing steadier with each passing hole, Strickland slowed the bleeding with an even-par turn around the back nine that left him with a 4-over-par 76 for the day and at 10 over for the tournament. The leaders after 36 holes — Bernard and Richard Pavlasek, CGCS, from Gainey Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. — were at 5 over for the tournament, meaning Strickland’s seven-shot hole after the first round had shrunk to five shots after round two.
He now knew, along with the rest of the field, that he had a shot.
A fast start …
Playing in the next-to-last group on the final day, Strickland wasted little time in getting down to business. He birdied the par-5 second hole, which he had double bogeyed the day before, marking the first of four birdies on the front nine that would pace him to a sizzling 3-under-par 33 on the front side.
But with the second-round leaders in the group behind him and a host of contenders spread among a handful of groups in front of him, Strickland didn’t really know where he stood entering the final nine holes. “Some of those guys still had to finish the front, some of the others had already done that, so I wasn’t exactly sure where I stood overall,” he says. “I figured I had made at least a little move.”
He had done that, and then some. Coupled with a few rough patches among those other contenders, Strickland’s nine-hole performance had unknowingly turned that five-shot deficit into a two-shot advantage over his closest competitor at the time, Robert Friend, CGCS, from Stonehenge Golf & Country Club in Richmond, Va. Three shots back at the turn were Scott and James Boring from Berkeley Hall in Bluffton, S.C.
With a cold wind once again picking up pace off the Gulf of Mexico and turning Kiva Dunes’ putting surfaces from fast to faster, the back nine turned into a test of survival for the entire field, and heading to 17, it was Strickland who had done the best job of avoiding major damage. He balanced out a bogey on No. 10 with a birdie on No. 14, and when he came to the tee at the par-3 17th, his lead had grown to five shots after Scott double bogeyed that hole right in front of him.
“At that point, I thought I was leading by three, so I knew I could go bogey-bogey and probably still win,” Strickland says.
… and a hair-raising finish
Kiva Dunes’ 17th hole is a short, but nasty par-3 with water running along the left side, and during the final round of the GCSAA National Championship, it was playing into the teeth of the wind. Most players played it safe off the tee and took advantage of the ample room to the right of the green, Strickland among them. “You had a lot of options from over there,” he says. “You could really chip it around and make bogey a lot of different ways. It should have been a fairly easy bogey.”
“Should have” being the operative words. After a nice chip to within 15 feet, Strickland faced a downhill putt with the wind straight behind him. “I just didn’t judge it right. I hit it about as easy as I could and it still rolled about six feet past.” When the comeback putt for bogey also missed, that five-shot lead was down to three.
The par-4 18th didn’t offer Strickland much relief, either. After putting his drive in a fairway bunker, he faced a ticklish approach to a mounded green with a back left hole location set to bring a deep swale at the back of the green into play. It saw plenty of action on Tuesday, including Strickland’s approach.
Just keeping the chip shot on top of the mound was a challenge — more than one player in that position saw the shot come back down to his feet — but Strickland pulled it off. With Scott already in the clubhouse with a three-day total of 229, Strickland knew he could now four-putt the hole and still win, which allowed him to lag his first putt to within inches and then tap in for a bogey and, more importantly, his third championship.
“I’ve looked back at the records and knew that winning it for a third time put me in a pretty select group,” Strickland says. “I’m happy to be in that group. It’s a really nice feeling to have done so well in a tournament that means so much to me.”
Playing the perfect host
The white-sand beaches of Gulf Shores and the tees, fairways and greens of Kiva Dunes, Peninsula Golf Club and Craft Farms attracted a total of 351 participants to the 2009 event, with the previously mentioned 68 taking part in the National Championship and 283 playing in the Golf Classic. Sunday’s Four-Ball Competition attracted a field of 242.
Those participants found the 2009 version of this event offered much more than just a day on the links. For Four-Ball and Golf Classic competitors, there were on-course putting contests, a hole-in-one contest with a Toro Workman MD on the line (it went unclaimed, by the way), as well as contests for closest to the pin, longest drive and straightest drive.
Back at the Perdido Beach Resort, the official headquarters hotel for the event, participants enjoyed a host of post-round activities, from the Welcoming Reception and Super Bowl party to a pair of 19th Hole Receptions on Monday and Tuesday evenings, plus door-prize drawings during all of those events.
Falling in line behind Strickland and Scott to take third place in the National Championship was 2007 champion Jason Regan from Pine Oaks Country Club in Ocala, Fla., who finished the tournament at 14-over-par 230.
In the chapter team competitions, the No. 1 team from the Midwest Association of GCS took the gross title, while the No. 9 team from the California GCSA came out on top in the net competition. A full listing of tournament results can be found online at http://gcsaa.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/gcsaa9/event/gcsaa93/index.htm.
The 2010 edition of the GCSAA National Championship and Golf Classic will head west to Palm Springs, Calif., Feb. 5-7.
Seth Strickland’s victory in the 2009 GCSAA National Championship makes him just the sixth superintendent to win at least three titles, and the seventh to win back-to-back crowns. The following is a list of all the multiple winners in the tournament’s 59-year history:
Emil Mashie (6): 1940, 1941, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950
Bob Martino (3): 1970, 1972, 1973
Dan Meyers (3): 1979, 1981, 1984
Roger Null (3): 1983, 1990, 1991
Dave Powell (3): 1985, 1988, 1989
Seth Strickland (3): 2005, 2008, 2009
Marcus List (2): 1954, 1956
Thomas C. Hamilton (2): 1978, 1980
Mike Apodaca (2): 1982, 1987
Todd Baker (2): 1995, 2000
Mitch Clodfelter (2): 2001, 2002
2009 GCSAA Golf Champions
National Championship
Overall: Seth Strickland, Miami Shores (Fla.) CC, 78-76-73—227
Runner-up: Tim Scott, CGCS, Stony Creek GC, Orland Park, Ill., 79-76-74—229
Golf Classic
First Flight
Gross: Brady Clarke, Churchill Valley CC, Pittsburgh
Net: Bill Herbert, Montecito CC, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Second Flight
Gross: Karl Olson, Desert Forest GC, Carefree, Ariz.
Net: Matthew Hughes, Fallen Oak GC, Biloxi, Miss.
Third Flight
Gross: Kevin Glover, CGCS, Owensboro (Ky.) CC
Net: Keith Ihms, CGCS, CC of Little Rock (Ark.)
Fourth Flight
Gross: Denis Kerr, GC at Quail Lodge, Carmel, Calif.
Net: Merrily Zales, Hinckley Hills GC, Medina, Ohio
Senior I Flight
Gross: Alan Hess, CGCS, Augusta Pines GC, Humble, Texas
Net: Mark Esposito, Hinckley Hills GC, Hinckley, Ohio
Senior II Flight
Gross: Harry Yewens, Weston Lakes CC, Fulshear, Texas
Net: James Medeiros, Thorny Lea GC, Warren, R.I.
Super Senior Flight
Gross: Frank Lamphier, Morrisville, Vt.
Net: Edward Mena, Joliet, Ill.
Affiliate Flight
Gross: Tim Orton, Agrium Advanced Technologies, Sylacauga, Ala.
Net: Warren Savini, Synatek, West Chester, Pa.
Chapter Team Competition
Gross
Midwest Association of GCS, No. 1: Alan Pondel, CGCS, Rockford (Ill.) CC; David Kohley, Silver Lake CC, Orland Park, Ill.; Tim Scott, CGCS, Stony Creek GC, Orland Park, Ill.; Tommy Robinson, Ravinia Green CC, Riverwoods, Ill.
Net
California GCSA, No. 9: Dennis Kerr, GC at Quail Lodge, Carmel; Don Naumann, Blackberry Farm GC, Cupertino; Brian Nettz, Presidio GC, San Francisco; Donald Allen, R.V. Cloud Co., Campbell.
Four-Ball Competition
Division I
Gross: Mark Warren, Taylor Made Golf, San Diego, and Kevin Kienast, CGCS, Four Seasons Resort Aviara, Carlsbad, Calif.
Net: Alan Hess, Augusta Pines GC, Humble, Texas, and Adam Hess, Penn State University, Humble, Texas
Division II
Gross: John Alexander, Royce Brook GC, Hillsborough, N.J., and David Dudones, North Jersey CC, Wayne, N.J.
Net: Kenneth Small, Brook Hollow GC, Dallas, and Tyson Thill, Gleneagles CC, Allen, Texas
Division III
Gross: Travis Klosterboer, BASF Corp., Humble, Texas, and Jon Snider, Miramont CC, Bryan, Texas
Net: Donald Cross, Skokie CC, Glencoe, Ill., and Robert Maibusch, Hinsdale GC, Willowbrook, Ill.