FORT WORTH, Texas (Sept. 26, 2014) — Only
three
players in a field of 144 managed to break par
Friday
at historic Shady Oaks Country Club during the
first
round of the 77th Texas Senior Amateur
Championship. For their efforts, they share the
lead at
the Texas Golf Association’s final major
championship
of the year.
Fort Worth’s Gary Wayne Hardin and Hollis
Sullivan, a
Shady Oaks member and TGA Board Member,
and Ken
Coutant from Dallas each posted 1-under-par 70.
They hold a one-shot lead over a group of five
players
in the 54-hole, individual stroke play event.
“I putted really well,” said Sullivan, 57, who has
been
a Shady Oaks member for 11 years. “I only had
one
three-putt, and I left myself a lot of short second
putts. That’s the key around here. You have to
be a
good lag putter.”
Among the five competitors one stroke back at
even-
par 71 is Wichita Falls’ Bill Holstead, who in 1970
held
off World Golf Hall of Famers Ben Crenshaw and
Tom
Kite to win the Texas Amateur at age 23. A
former
Champions Tour player, Holstead is a three-time
West
Texas Amateur champion. He also won the West
Texas
Super Senior Division title in July.
Defending Senior Amateur champion and
reigning TGA
Senior Player of the Year Mike Peck from Irving
had a
rough day. He posted 7-over 78.
Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened
for
play in 1958, Shady Oaks played host to the
2008
U.S. Senior Amateur won by George “Buddy”
Marucci.
The club was built by legendary Fort Worth
benefactor
Marvin Leonard, who also built famed Colonial
Country
Club. Shady Oaks is most commonly known as
the
home club to Ben Hogan, the iconic nine-time
major
championship winner who is generally regarded
as the
greatest ball-striker of all-time. As it was in
2008, the
surprisingly hilly and tree-lined course is in
perfect
condition for the State Senior Amateur. It
measured
6,780 yards for the Senior Division and produced
a
first round scoring average of 77.15.
Twenty-six players are within five shots of
Hardin,
Sullivan and Coutant with 36 holes to play.
Shady Oaks also got the best of the Super
Senior
Division in the first round. Playing from 6,435
yards, it
wasn’t necessarily the length that that kept all
48
players out of red numbers. Rather, it was the
tricky
putting surfaces that defended par. Unusually
large
and sloped, the billiards-table-smooth bentgrass
greens average 7,700 square feet in size and
registered a speed of 11.2 feet on the
Stimpmeter.
For much of the day, Super Seniors struggled to
match the right line with the necessary speed to
sink
many birdies. There were 101 double bogeys or
worse
on Friday compared to only 59 birdies. The
Super
Senior scoring average was nearly 10 shots over
par
at 80.67.
Marshall Utterson from Houston and Harold
Speer
from Mansfield turned in scores of 2-over 73 to
share
the first round lead in the Super Seniors
Division.
Horseshoe Bay’s Jess Claiborne is one shot
behind at
3-over 74. Three players tied for fourth place,
including Aledo’s Jody Vasquez, one of Hogan’s
former
range ball shaggers who in 2004 penned the
book,
“Afternoons with Mr. Hogan.”
Vasquez shares fourth place at 4-over 75 with
Fred
Clark from Kingwood and L.D. Clopton from
McAllen.
View results for Texas Senior Amateur
ABOUT THE Texas Senior Amateur
The State Senior Amateur is the second oldest
event of all the TGA tournaments, having first
been played in 1937.
Eligibility: Entries are open to male amateur golfers
with a
GHIN Handicap Index of 6.4 or less and who are 55
years
of age or older as of the tournament start date (first
round
of tournament play). All players will be competing in
one
division from the same tees and yardage.
Format/Field Size: Play will be contested over 54
holes of
stroke play. All players will be competing in one
division
from the same tees and yardage. The field is limited
to
144 players. At the completion of the 36 holes the
field will
be cut to the low 54 players and ties.
View Complete Tournament Information