Golfers Network USA - The Back Nine

The Back Nine - News and Notes

Updated: Mon 9/12/2011 6:59 pm

News and Notes - September 12th

Chris Brant of Edwardsville, IL is off to a great start in his Senior season at the University of Iowa, winning the Gopher Invitational by a shot over teammate Barret Kelpin. Iowa finished 6th as a team after a disappointing 306 team score in the final round. Other notables in the field included Max Buckley, SMU, finishing T18. Buckley lost to Patrick Cantlay in 19th holes at the 2011 US Amateur Championship at Erin Hills just a few weeks ago.

Brant had a busy summer finishing runner up in the Illinois State Amateur, 6th at the Metropolitan Open, 8th at the Trans-Miss Amateur (US Amateur Champion Kelly Kraft finished 1st), 17th at the Northern Amateur and tied for 38th at the Western Amateur. Brant earned second team All-Big Ten honors a year ago after placing second at the Big Ten Championships.

The Fighting Illini finished T6 at the Northern Intercollegiate. "I will wait to make more of an assessment after next week and not judge too much after just one tournament," head coach Mike Small said. "But we got kicked in the teeth pretty good today and got beat up by the course. Finishing sixth in this field is not what we are looking for, and we are not used to finishing sixth, but there were reasons why. The golf course intimidated us a little bit, and we didn't strike the ball as well as we needed to."

Central Florida (870) won the 16-team tournament by 10 strokes over runner-up Tulsa (880). Indiana (888) took third followed by Ball State and Virginia Tech in a tie for fourth at 889. Ball State's Tyler Merkel and UCF's Brad Schneider shared the individual title with a 1-under 212.

Next week, Illinois will host the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational from Sept. 16-18 at the Olympia Fields Country Club.

University of Missouri at Wolverine Invitational - Missouri 6th through two rounds at Wolverine Intercollegiate, 11 shots behind California. Emilio Cuartero and Jace Long of Missouri are currently T7 individually at -2 for 36 holes.

Holtgrieve's attempt to win a 4th Walker Cup comes up short. It was close, but GB&I pulled it off in Aberdeen Scotland to reclaim the Walker Cup after three straight losses - despite a magnificent U.S. comeback.

U.S. Captain and St. Louisan Jim Holtgrieve sent his team out in the final 10 singles hoping to get some points on the board early to over come a five-point deficit. Trailing GB&I 10.5 - 5.5, and needing to win 7.5 out of the 10 points just to retain the cup, Holtgrieve wanted points on the board early to have any chance.

Russell Henley bounced back from benched in the morning foursomes to defeat the top man on the GB&I team, Tom Lewis 4 and 2. Jordan Spieth, arguably team USA's best performer in this year's Walker Cup defeated Any Sullivan 3 and 2 to take the U.S. to 7.5 points. Nathan Smith, the only mid-amateur on team USA, had a shot to win another point againt Jack Senior, however Senior holed a 35 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to salvage an important 1/2 point.

It seemed like that 35 foot putt dropping stopped all of the U.S. momentum. Michael Stewart of GB&I defeated Patrick Rodgers 3&2. Despite Peter Uihlein coming from behind to defeat Stiggy Hodgson, the home team of GB&I was too strong for team U.S.A. on a very emotional September 11th finish to the 2011 Walker Cup.

Missouri Governor's Conference on Tourism announced Inaugural Missouri Golf Day. Adding to the spirit and excitement of the 2011 Missouri Governor's Conference on Tourism, this year's activities kick off with the inaugural Missouri Golf Day on October 11. Hosted at the Jefferson City Country Club, this golfing extravaganza features Joe Steranka, CEO of the PGA of America, Gateway PGA Foundation President and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Ozzie Smith, friends and supporters from the Missouri Tourism industry an dignatuaries from golf associations across the Show-Me-State.

Missouri Golf Day serves as the official unveiling of golf economic impact study spearheaded by the World Golf Foudnation. This is a collaborative study, in effort and funding, by several private entities.

In addition to Joe Steranka and Ozzie Smith, Missouri Golf Day 201 includes special guests Thomas O'Toole Jr., Vice President of the USGA, plus representatives from the Club Managers Association of America, the Missouri Golf Association, St. Louis District Golf Association, Metropolitan Golf Association, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Midwest PGA and Gateway PGA.

Missouri Golf Day is open to the public. Spectators are welcome to watch the fun for free. There is a scramble golf tournament, with a fee for individual players and 4-person teams. For information, please visit www.Industry.VisitMO.com and click the “Governor’s Conference” tab; and you may email Shari Childs: Shari.Childs@ded.mo.gov.