Global Golf Post - September 19, 2011

a pat on the back and hearty embrace
from his 59-year-old brother.
Runner-up Pleat, 55, was compet-
ing in his first Senior Amateur and
ninth USGA championship. His best
finish came when he advanced to the
round of 16 in the 1978 Amateur Public
Links. Last month, he caddied for his
son, James, at the U.S. Amateur at Erin
Hills. Pleat has won 13 amateur cham-
pionships in New Hampshire and is a
three-time recipient of the Thomas J.
Leonard Award as Player of the Year in
New Hampshire. The award is named in
honor of his father-in-law.
he lost to eventual champion Simson.
Burda is a three-time California State
Senior Amateur champion.
Things are going better for Brenda
Williams, of Minnetrista, Minn. The
51-year-old fired rounds of 80-77 to
finish at 13-over-par 157 and comfort-
ably made the cut at T26. She then went
on to win her first-round match over
Laurie Steenrod, of Aurora, Colo., 1
up. She would lose her next match, but
then again, anything is better then the
experience she had last year. When try-
ing to enter the U.S. from Canada she
was detained, handcuffed and held at
gunpoint. Fortunately, it was a case of
William Doughtie, 58, advanced to
the semifinals, where he lost to eventual
champion Louis Lee, 5 and 4. Compet-
ing in his fourth Senior Amateur and
seventh USGA championship, Doughtie
advanced to the quarterfinals of the
2009 Senior Amateur where he lost to
eventual champion Giles. He has also
competed in three U.S. Senior Opens
and won the 2008 Texas Golf Association
(TGA) Senior Championship.
not help him at Kinloch, however, as he
missed the cut.
Fred Ridley, the 1975 U.S Amateur
champion, made a rare USGA appear-
ance at Kinloch. Ridley, 59, is a past
president of the USGA (2004-05), and
he played on the 1977 U.S. Walker Cup
team and served as captain of the 1987
and 1989 squads. He had not played in a
USGA championship since the 1988 Mid-
Amateur.
Coincidentally, his U.S. Amateur win
took place just six miles up the road
from Kinloch at the Country Club of Vir-
ginia. Ridley opened with an even-par 72,
but shot 83 in the second round to miss
the cut by four shots.
In his maiden Senior Amateur ap-
pearance, Kilby, 56, advanced to the
quarterfinals with a 3-and- 2 victory over
David Anthony. He is the 2011 Texas
Senior Amateur champion. Kilby is a
graduate of the University of Houston,
where as a senior in 1977 he was an
honorable mention All-American on the
golf team that won the NCAA Champion-
ship. He went down in the quarters to
Doughtie, 4 and 3.
measuring a total of 660 yards that you
play three times, with one par 4. He only
uses a driver if the wind blows more
than 30 mph. The fairways are mowed-
down wetlands grass. At high tide, the
streams crossing some of the fairways
go from a yard wide up to 30-40 yards
wide. He travels four to six times a year
to other golf courses, playing 27 to 36
holes a day. During the winter, he plays
on a golf simulator in his garage.
Gary Van Sickle, 57, a senior writer at
Sports Illustrated since 1996, mostly cov-
ering golf, shot 14-over 158 to miss the
cut. His son, Mike, was a first-team All-
American golfer at Marquette University,
winning the Byron Nelson Award, and is
now pursuing a career in professional
golf.
Casey Boyns, now 55, made his first
Senior Amateur appearance. He has
caddied for over 20 years at Pebble
Beach and twice won the California Am-
ateur there. Boyns survived the Tuesday
playoff before losing to USGA veteran
George Zahringer, 2 up.
In commemoration of Sunday’s 10th
anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror at-
tacks, the traditional USGA hole flags
on Nos. 9 and 11 were replaced with
American flags.
Jeff Burda, 58, advanced to the
quarterfinals with a 6-and- 4 victory over
Richard Marlowe. He lost to Lutz in the
quarters, 1-up. Burda was competing in
his third Senior Amateur and 13th USGA
championship. He advanced to the semi-
finals of the 2010 Senior Amateur where
Cy Kilgore, 58, of Beverly, Mass.,
recorded a hole-in-one on the 185-yard,
par- 3 fifth hole using a 3-hybrid in the
first round. It is believed to be the 16th
ace in USGA Senior Amateur history.
Gary Murdoch, of Juneau, Alaska,
maintains a 3-handicap playing at Men-
denhall Golf Course, in his hometown.
The longest hole on the front nine is 191
yards. The back nine has three holes,
Reynolds tuned up for the champion-
ship by winning the senior division of the
Michigan Mid-Amateur by six shots just
days before arriving at Kinloch. With all
the chatter about long putters, Reynolds
put an old belly putter that he never
used in his bag, and it made all the dif-
ference in the world in Michigan. It did
The 2012 Senior Amateur will be
played at Mountain Ridge CC in West
Caldwell, N.J., Sept. 29-Oct. 4. The 2013
championship will be played at Wade
Hampton GC in Cashiers, N.C., Sept. 21-
26. Hershey (Pa.) CC will host the 2012
senior women's championship. CordeVal-
le in San Martin, Calif., will be the venue
for the 2013 championship. l