Author: Golfers Network Contributors Updated: Tue 9/22/2009 11:44 am

Storylines For 2009 USGA Men’s State Team Championship

 

Oldest player in the field: Paul Simson, 58, of Raleigh, N.C.

Youngest player in the field: Lorens Chan, 15, of Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Here are some individual storylines for players in the field (sorted alphabetically by state):

 

ALABAMA

Steve Hudson, 51, of Birmingham carded a 66 in the final round of the 2005 Men’s State Team Championship to help Alabama earn the silver medal behind champion Texas. Hudson also played on the 2007 bronze-medal Alabama squad.

 

Dr. Victor Kyatt III, 33, of Hoover, owns shot a pair of course records, both with a torn ACL in his left knee.

 

ALASKA

Tyrone Paulsen, 33, of Anchorage was born in South Africa to diminutive parents (father 5-foot-7 and mom 5-foot-4, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. He is 6 feet, 7 inches tall. Paulsen’s father is a former horse racing jockey.

 

Hal Bret Willardson, 23, of Palmer is in his final year of school at Brigham Young and hopes to enter medical school next year. He also is trilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) and has lived at least half is life outside the U.S. and claims to have produced a rap album in high school.

 

ARIZONA

Chris Kessler, 38, of Scottsdale used to caddie for PGA Tour player Bill Glasson. He is currently the vice president of Home National Bank.

 

Michael Wog II, 27, of Scottsdale earned his spot on Arizona’s team by winning the Arizona Golf Association Public Links Championship by nine strokes, shooting rounds of 67-66-66 for an 11-under-par total of 199.

 

ARKANSAS

Ron Mangold, 39, of Pocahontas claims on his bio form that he hit a driver 275 yards from his knees.

 

Neal Westbrook, 39, was a golf pro for 13 years before regaining his amateur status in 2006. He now works as a poultry broker for Adkins & Associates.

 

CALIFORNIA

Tim Mickelson, 32, of San Diego is the younger brother of three-time major champion Phil Mickelson and currently serves as the head men’s golf coach at the University of San Diego. His most memorable golf moment was playing Augusta National with his father, also named Phil, and brother Phil.

 

COLORADO

Michael Harrington, 37, of Colorado Springs got married in front of 18 million viewers on the Lifetime television network in a ceremony at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., that was closed to the public.

 

CONNECTICUT

Jeff Hedden, 46, took off 10 years in the 1990s to race cars at a local track. He has five children ranging from 4 months to 23 years of age.

 

Ryan Leahey, 24, of Orange is a Type 1 diabetic who plays golf with an insulin pump to keep his blood-sugar levels normal. He recorded the first of his three holes-in-one at 12 two weeks after being diagnosed with diabetes.

 

DELAWARE

Greg Wolfe, 37, was captain of the Princeton golf team in 1993-94.

 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Christopher Connolly, 31, of Washington won’t be the only golfer from Chevy Chase Golf Club in Bethesda, Md., at this week’s Men’s State Team. His D.C. teammate Kevin McDonnell also is a member and his father, Brian, will be captaining the Maryland squad. He is the president of the Maryland State Golf Association.

 

Kevin McDonnell, 40, of Washington says he might be the only player in this week’s field who actually knows who St. Albans was since he attended St. Albans High School in Washington.

 

FLORIDA

Timothy Hume, 47, of Tampa is playing in the Men’s State Team for a second time, but for an entirely different squad. He represented New York in 2001.

 

Tom Murray, 25, of Orange Park, works as a caddie at The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, site of the annual Players Championship. He won the 2009 Florida Open.

 

GEORGIA

David Knoll Jr., 37, of Dalton is a four-time Georgia Player of the Year recipient and he garnered the 2008 Tommy Barnes Award, given by the Georgia State Golf Association’s overall best player, male or female.

                    

Mark Strickland, 40, of Woodstock is a reinstated amateur who won the 1992 Lakewood Classic on the NGA Hooters Tour. He won the 2007 Tommy Barnes Award.

 

HAWAII

Lorens Chan, 15, of Honolulu became the youngest player in history this past January to qualify for the PGA Tour’s Sony Open (missed cut). He got to meet PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and played practice rounds with Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker and Hawaii’s Parker McLachlin. His fellow competitors for the first two rounds were 2002 U.S. Amateur champion and 2009 U.S. Open runner-up Ricky Barnes and 1998 U.S. Amateur Public Links runner-up Jason Dufner.

 

Ryan Perez, 23, of Ewa Beach is the oldest player on his team and loves playing the ukulele and singing.

 

IDAHO

Norris Dancer, 57, of Meridian didn’t take up golf until his 40s. He loves to hunt and has been to such exotic locales as Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Alaska.

 

Eric Peterson, 39, of Nampa always marks his golf balls with the number “4” and the letter “K” to represent his four children whose names all start with that letter (Kortney, Keegan, Kobe and Kai).

 

ILLINOIS

Todd Mitchell, 31, of Bloomington is a former minor-league baseball player who was in the New York Yankees farm system for a couple of years. He was selected in the 14th round of the 1999 Amateur Draft. The insurance agent was the runner-up in last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur.

 

INDIANA

Randy Nichols, 56, of Brookville has competed in more than 30 USGA championships and was a semifinalist at the 2008 USGA Senior Amateur. This will be his fifth time representing Indiana in the Men’s State Team Championship.

 

Bob Stephens, 52, of Indianapolis made the cut at the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor.

 

IOWA

Gene Elliott, 47, of West Des Moines was the stroke-play medalist at the 1999 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.

 

Mike McCoy, 46, of West Des Moines is an eight-time Iowa State Player of the Year who advanced to the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur before losing to eventual champion Steve Wilson. Last month, he caddied for his son at the U.S. Amateur.

 

KANSAS

Dodge Kemmer, 22, of Wichita plans to pursue an MD or PhD if golf doesn’t offer a fruitful career. As a player on Stanford University’s team, Kemmer got a chance to attend a barbecue at Tiger Woods’ Windermere, Fla., home during the annual Isleworth Invitational. He also got to visit the White House after the Cardinal won the 2007 NCAA title.

 

Bryan Norton, 50, of Mission Hills was the runner-up at the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur when he was forced to default after 8½ holes due to torn calf muscle sustained while playing an awkward approach shot from above a fairway bunker. Norton is a reinstated amateur who will be competing in his sixth different USGA event this week, following the U.S. Junior Amateur (2), U.S. Amateur (2), U.S. Open (4), U.S. Mid-Amateur (4) and U.S. Senior Open (1). He also made the cut at the 1990 British Open at St. Andrews and was second-low amateur at this year’s U.S. Senior Open.

 

KENTUCKY

Jesse Massie, 22, of Richmond claims he is one of the all-time best corn-hole players.

 

MARYLAND

Christopher Baloga, 26, of Baltimore won’t swim in the ocean because he has a fear of sharks.

 

Matthew Bassler, 23, of Catlinsville is the program director for The First Tee of Baltimore.

 

MASSACHUSETTS

John Hadges, 49, of North Easton grew up at the same golf club (Thorny Lea) as legendary golf writer Herbert Warren Wind, who received the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1995 and remains the only journalist to have been given the Association’s highest honor.

 

Frank Vana Jr., 47, of North Andover is one of two players in the field (Virginia’s Keith Decker is the other) to have participated in all eight USGA Men’s State Team Championships. Vana is a nine-time Massachusetts Player of the Year and was named his state’s player of the decade for the 1990s.

 

MICHIGAN

Greg Davies, 41, of Bloomfield is a seven-time Michigan Public Links Player of the Year and was named the Golf Association of Michigan Player of the Year in 2006.

 

Tom Werkmeister, 41, of Kentwood carries a 225 average in bowling and has rolled six 300 games. He won the 2009 Michigan Amateur and Michigan Mid-Amateur.

 

MINNESOTA

Sammy Schmitz, 29, of Minneapolis had an interesting moment during the 2002 NCAA Division III Championship at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb. He fell off a bridge at the 17th hole into a pond, but he did help St. John University finish eighth. Schmitz tied for 10th overall.

 

MISSISSIPPI

Clay Homan, 37, is the head men’s golf coach at Mississippi State University.

 

Nobody should serve Ben Snow, 28, of Hattiesburg a drink on the rocks. He says he is allergic to ice. He currently works as a judicial law clerk in the 10th District Chancery Court of Mississippi.

 

Steve Wilson, 39, of St. Martin won the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur and lists competing in the 2009 Masters as his most memorable golf experience.

 

MISSOURI

Skip Berkmeyer, 35, of St. Louis comes from quite a golf family, owning a combined 25 Missouri state amateur titles. His most memorable golf experience was having his daughter, Becca, run onto the green after winning this year’s Missouri State Amateur with his wife, Jamie, serving as his caddie.

 

Darren Lundgren, 26, of Wildwood has earned the nickname of Hollywood from USGA Executive Committee member and St. Louis resident Thomas O’Toole Jr. because he always wears shades on the golf course. While Lundgren has never made a hole-in-one on a par 3, he has aced a par-4 hole and registered three career double eagles, including the 14th hole at this week’s championship venue (Country Club of St. Albans’ Lewis and Clark Course).

 

MONTANA

Jerry Pearsall, 46, of Billings is a reinstated amateur after being a PGA member for 16 years. For 10 years, he was the Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Section of the PGA. Currently works as the Foundation Director for St. John’s Lutheran Ministries and says he plays more golf now than when he worked in the golf business.

 

NEVADA

Brady Exber, 53, of Las Vegas currently serves as the president of the Southern Nevada Golf Association and is a 10-time club champion at the TPC Summerlin.

 

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Daniel Arvanitis, 55, of Manchester had a nice father-son moment in 2003 when he played with son, Matt, in the 2003 USGA Men’s State Team Championship at Charles River C.C. near Boston. He is a postal clerk for the United States Postal Service.

 

NEW MEXICO

The Sun Country Golf Association is well represented as Patrick Hanlon, 30, of Las Cruces is the association’s president and Matt Williams, 30 of Albuquerque is the executive director.

 

Anton Salome, 46, of Socorro played on the same New Mexico State golf team with PGA Tour players Bart Bryant and Tom Byrum.

 

NEW YORK

John Ervasti, 54 of Brooklyn played his father in the finals of the Sleepy Hollow C.C. club championship in 1972 and 25 years later he faced his son, Jack, in the same club championship finals. Ervasti was the runner-up in the 2009 Metropolitan Golf Association Amateur to Cameron Wilson.

 

Jeff Wolniewicz, 23, of West Seneca is half Native American from the Seneca Nation. He won the 2008 New York State Amateur.

 

NORTH CAROLINA

Paul Simson, 58, is not only the oldest player in the field, but he’s also been the stroke-play medalist at the three of the last four USGA Senior Amateurs (2006, 2008 and 2009). He has participated in at least one USGA championship in each of the last 25 years and was voted the 2007 World Senior Player of the Year by Scratch Players/Golfweek.

 

NORTH DAKOTA

Although he is not a southpaw, Mike Huber, 36, of Bismarck once shot a 46 playing left-handed.

 

OKLAHOMA

Alan Bratton, 37, is the assistant men’s golf coach at Oklahoma State University, which just had three golfers compete on the victorious 2009 USA Walker Cup team (Rickie Fowler, Morgan Hoffmann and Peter Uihlein). Bratton, who played on the 1995 Walker Cup team that featured Tiger Woods, helped OSU win the 1995 NCAA Division I title. He also was a semifinalist in the 1989 U.S. Junior Amateur.

 

Michael Hughett, 51, of Owasso defeated his younger brother, Bryan, in the finals of the 1981 Nebraska State Amateur Match Play Championship. He won the 2001 Oklahoma State Amateur at 42 using a putter he purchased when he was 13. The putter was older than all six of the opponents he defeated en route to the championship.

 

OREGON

Jim Dunlap, 37, of Tigard caddied for LPGA Tour player Christina Kim at the recent Safeway Classic held at Pumpkin Ridge. Kim was in the lead with eight holes to go, but finished tied for eighth due to three bogeys down the stretch.

 

PENNSYLVANIA

Sean Knapp, 47, of Oakmont was a semifinalist at the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur and lost to Tiger Woods in the round of 16 at the 1995 U.S. Amateur at Newport (R.I.) C.C., where Woods won the second of his record three consecutive titles.

 

Nathan Smith, 31, of Pittsburgh won the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur and then got paired with fellow western Pennsylvania native Arnold Palmer at the 2004 Masters, which happened to be “The King’s” final competitive rounds in the tournament. Smith also was a member of the victorious 2009 USA Walker Cup team at Merion Golf Club.

 

Mike Van Sickle, 22, of Wexford is the son of Sports Illustrated golf writer Gary Van Sickle and recent graduate of Marquette University, where he was a three-time All-American and first-team selection in 2009. A winner of 11 career college tournaments, he was the recipient of the 2009 Byron Nelson Award and selected to represent the U.S. at the 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills C.C.

 

RHODE ISLAND

Charlie Blanchard, 44, of North Providence played professional lacrosse for the Boston Blazers from 1990-96 and also serves as an assistant lacrosse coach at Bryant University.

 

SOUTH DAKOTA

Brodie Hullinger, 24, of Sioux Falls grew up on a farm in the middle of South Dakota, where the nearest town to his home (Vivian) had a population of 100. He started playing golf on a nine-hole course on which only the greens were irrigated.

 

The first person Ryan Jansa, 36, of Sioux Falls met at New Mexico State was his future wife, Julie, who competed this year for South Dakota in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship earlier this month in Fort Wayne, Ind.

 

Rob Garland, 34, of Nashville gave up competitive golf after graduating from Missouri State in 1995 and didn’t take it seriously again until the spring of 2007. He qualified and participated in this year’s PGA Tour St. Jude Classic in Memphis.

 

Tim Jackson, 50, of Germantown is a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion (1994 and 2001) and two-time USA Walker Cup team member (1995 and ’99). He also held the 36-hole lead at this year’s U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick and finished as the low amateur with his son, Austin, serving as his caddie.

 

TEXAS

John Bearrie, 40, of Arlington caddied for Joel Edwards on the PGA Tour from 1991-93.

 

Steve Galko, 35, of Dallas helped Texas Wesleyan win the 1995 NAIA national title and in 2005 he was on the victorious Texas USGA Men’s State Team Championship squad.

 

UTAH

During a U.S. Amateur sectional qualifier, Dan Horner, 31, of Sandy once lost his honor despite making an eagle-2 on a par 4. His fellow competitor aced the hole.

 

Darrin Overson, 34, of Provo is a former pro (played the Canadian Tour in 1995) who once spent two years in England on a Mormon mission.

 

VIRGINIA

Keith Decker, 49, of Martinsville is one of two players to have competed in all eight USGA Men’s State Team Championships (Massachusetts’ Frank Vana Jr. is the other). He helped Virginia win the inaugural Men’s State Team Championship in 1995 and played on an NAIA national championship team at Elon University. He is a seven-time Virginia Player of the Year.

 

Pat Tallent, 56, of Vienna was the low amateur at the 2004 U.S. Senior Open at nearby Bellerive C.C., and shared stroke-play medalist honors with Paul Simson at the recent USGA Senior Amateur.

 

WASHINGTON

Erik Hanson, 44, of Kirkland is a former major-league baseball player who pitched for the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox from 1988-98, compiling an overall record of 89-84 with a 4.15 ERA. He attended Wake Forest and lived in the Arnold Palmer Dorm with future PGA Tour pros Billy Andrade and Len Mattiace and current Wake Forest men’s golf coach Jerry Haas, but didn’t start playing golf until 1994 when he was pitching for the Reds.

 

WEST VIRGINIA

Patrick Carter, 41, of Huntington was paired with Tiger Woods during the stroke-play portion of the 1996 U.S. Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge, which was his last of a record three consecutive titles.

 

WISCONSIN

Kevin Cahill, 49, of Waukesha, Wis., is a former top-ranked junior and college tennis player who won the Wisconsin state high school title in 1976, ’77 and ’78. He also played briefly as a pro in 1982.

 

Dustin Schwab, 22, of Lodi played on the same Marquette golf team as Pennsylvania team member Mike Van Sickle and is playing to turn pro after this competition.

 

WYOMING

Nathan Wilson, 27, of Sheridan lists his occupation on his media bio sheet as a professional t-shirt folder.

 

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