Alameda Commuters: St. Marys Stealing Show

22 Apr 2007
see also: Alameda Commuters Golf Tournament, Corica Park - South Course
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ALAMEDA, Calif. (April 22, 2007) -- The guys from St. Mary’s College have made the 80th Alameda Commuters Championship their personal playground through the first two rounds.

Freshman Robert McRae of the Gaels tied for the lead in the first round, with Martin Trainer, with a 66 on the Earl Fry Course. Robert stumbled with a 76 in the second round on the tougher Jack Clark Course, but his older brother took command.

Mike McRae grabbed a two-stroke lead at the halfway point of the Commuters shooting 68-66 for an 8-under-par 134 total. In his rear-view mirror, in fourth place, is a name quite familiar to the older McRae – his coach, Scott Hardy, who shot 72-66.

“We know coach can play,” Mike McRae said. “And we also know he wants to beat us.”

Chris Marin (68-68) is in solo second at 6 under par. Billy Moon (69-68) is solo third at 137. Sam Smith (71-67) and Jojola Domingo (68-70) are tied with Hardy for fourth at 138.
Mike McRae was recently named to the All-WCC team for 2007. The 20-year-old junior won his first intercollegiate title this year, the USF Intercollegiate at Pauma Valley. He also won the Utah State Amateur Championship in 2005.

“The Commuters kind of reminds me of home,” McRae said. “It is very well organized, a pleasure to play in.”

The over-the-hill gang (St. Mary’s College is in Moraga, just over the hill from Alameda) has taken the limelight away from Rick Reinsberg, who won three of the past four Commuters titles (his only failure a runnerup finish).

Reinsberg, who then lived in Moraga, claimed at the awards ceremony last year that the 2006 title would probably be his last since he was moving to Santa Barbara.

But like most every golfer who plays the Commuters, he came back.

“It’s always good to see your old buddies,” Reinsberg said, packing his clubs into his car for the 5-hour trip home. “And they’re always here at the Commuters.”

Reinsberg shot even-par 71-71, but does not like his chances.

“I haven’t played a lot since I’ve been down there,” he said. “We had our second child, that’s kept me busy.”

Before the Reinsberg era, the Commuters was known as “The Bob Blomberg Invitational” to regulars. The Alameda native has won six times, and always seems to be in the hunt.

But not this year. For the first time in anyone’s memory, Blomberg missed the cut, by but one stroke, shooting 74-72. Maybe he’ll play in the Senior Championship next weekend.

Alamedan Mark Merrigan gets the nod for comeback player of the weekend. After a 79 on the Clark Course, Merrigan rallied for a 67 on the Fry. Unfortunately he came up one shot shy of the cut, joining Blomberg at 146.

The Commuters has one of the toughest cuts in stroke play, to the low 50 of some 225 golfers.

Michelle Wie has nothing on the Commuters. This championship has quietly allowed girls to play for the title for decades. They just have to play from the same tees as the guys.

This year Emily Childs proved the best of the bunch, shooting 76-77. The Hirano sisters, Jennifer and Christina, famous for their nationally-televised play in the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, also played, Jennifer shooting 77-78, Christina 81-76. Mia Kabasakalis shot 76-80. All are junior golfers, members of the Alameda Junior Golf Club.

But St. Mary’s golf coach Scott Hardy will not be scouting junior golfers next weekend. He’ll be out to beat his team.

Ron Salsig won two national golf writing awards this year. He can be reached at rsalsig@pacbell.net.

36-hole results follow:

80th - Alameda Commuters' Golf Tournament 2007
CUT LIST (low 50 plus ties)
(Cut is at 145, 53 Players made the cut)
	Place	Player	Rd 1	Rd 2	2-Rd Total
	1	McRae, Mike	68	66	134
	2	Marin, Chris	68	68	136
	3	Moon, Billy	69	68	137
	4	Hardy, Scott	72	66	138
	5	Smith, Sam	71	67	138
	6	Jojola, Domingo	68	70	138
	7	Wagner, Garett	68	71	139
	8	Marin, Nicolas	67	72	139
	9	Sparolini,Stephen	67	72	139
	10	Galletti, Roberto	71	69	140
	11	Wyllie, Mark	71	69	140
	12	Chiappone, Cary	70	70	140
	13	Cocco, Chadd	69	71	140
	14	Mina, Eric	74	67	141
	15	Hamm, Jeffrey	72	69	141
	16	Parker, Todd	71	70	141
	17	Breland, Tim	70	71	141
	18	Pienkos, Shawn	70	71	141
	19	Tessler, Trent	70	71	141
	20	Travis, Taylor	70	71	141
	21	Voip, Arvo	70	71	141
	22	Ichikawa, Adam	68	73	141
	23	Trainer, Martin	66	75	141
	24	Reinsberg, Rick	71	71	142
	25	Enright, John	70	72	142
	26	Murphy, Jeff	70	72	142
	27	McRae, Robert	66	76	142
	28	Synnestvedt, Cory	73	70	143
	29	Zulaica, Bruce	73	70	143
	30	Mormann, Brett	72	71	143
	31	Looper, Jamie	71	72	143
	32	Mulhearn, Michael	71	72	143
	33	Rechedy, Nick	71	72	143
	34	Viboch, Brett	70	73	143
	35	Burda, Jeff	75	69	144
	36	Brown, Tyler	72	72	144
	37	Chung, Steven	72	72	144
	38	Wood, Andrew	72	72	144
	39	Conlin, Richard	70	74	144
	40	Hay, James	70	74	144
	41	Myers, Jay	77	68	145
	42	Healy, Sean	75	70	145
	43	Barkow, Adam	73	72	145
	44	Biggadike, Andrew	73	72	145
	45	Damron, Andrew	73	72	145
	46	McHargue, Jason	73	72	145
	47	Buell, Danny	72	73	145
	48	Harkins, Timothy	72	73	145
	49	Nelson, Jeff	72	73	145
	50	Webb, Ken	72	73	145
	51	Bowdish, Andrew	70	75	145
	52	Oliver, Howard	70	75	145
	53	Swenson, Brian	69	76	145
	54	Merrigan, Mark	79	67	146
	55	Salk, Larry	75	71	146
	56	Blomberg, Robert	74	72	146
	57	Ichikawa, Tyler	73	73	146
	58	Pickersgill, Clayton	72	74	146
	59	Haggen, Andrew	71	75	146
	60	Meeker, Eric	76	71	147
	61	Brown, Gary	75	72	147
	62	DeMeter, Sean	75	72	147
	63	Baxter, Kris	74	73	147
	64	Cone, Dan	74	73	147
	65	Prescott, Michael	74	73	147
	66	Collins, Ryan	73	74	147
	67	Keane, Jonathan	73	74	147
	68	Shimabukuro, Takashi	72	75	147
	69	Ledzinski, Jerry	71	76	147
	70	Morris, Scott	71	76	147
	71	Stone, Jason	76	72	148
	72	Beesley, Andrew	75	73	148
	73	Machi, Anthony	75	73	148
	74	Maurice, Mike	75	73	148
	75	Ayres, William	74	74	148
	76	Warren, Bobby	74	74	148
	77	Hasse, John	73	75	148
	78	Kim, Shane	73	75	148
	79	Knoll, Jim	73	75	148
	80	Nevin, Andy	73	75	148
	81	Whalen, Chris	73	75	148
	82	Hutton, Greg	78	71	149
	83	Robinson, Cody	76	73	149
	84	Chang, Derek	75	74	149
	85	Davis, Mark	75	74	149
	86	Delecce, Giuliano	74	75	149
	87	Mizusawa, Jarrod	74	75	149
	88	Burda, Patrick	73	76	149
	89	Goin, Chris	73	76	149
	90	Hanavan, Bruce	73	76	149
	91	Noonan, Ken	73	76	149
	92	Souza Jr., Rod	73	76	149
	93	Nadir, Sean	72	77	149
	94	Berber, Alex	78	72	150
	95	Goodwin, Robert	77	73	150
	96	Woo, Joseph	77	73	150
	97	Colbrese, Rhett	76	74	150
	98	Granelli, Mike	76	74	150
	99	Kilcoyne, Craig	76	74	150
	100	Vivolo, Chad	75	75	150
	101	Smith, Kevin	74	76	150
	102	Terry, Scott	74	76	150
	103	Warran, A.J.	72	78	150
	104	McClain, Kevin	71	79	150
	105	Reinders, Mathew	78	73	151
	106	Canniffe, Eoghan	77	74	151
	107	Hemenez, Mark	77	74	151
	108	Tsuchiyama, Ted	77	74	151
	109	Gill, Jasper	76	75	151
	110	Fogel, Garrett	75	76	151
	111	Zanassi, Joe	75	76	151
	112	Marcelo, E.J.	75	76	151
	113	Biancamano, Joseph	73	78	151
	114	Tambunting, Justin	79	73	152
	115	Burkard, Jon	77	75	152
	116	Gundermann, Robert	77	75	152
	117	Olson, Hans	77	75	152
	118	Conceicao, Albert	76	76	152
	119	Pence, Steve	76	76	152
	120	Owen, Gavin	75	77	152
	121	Paton, Jack	75	77	152
	122	Pernice, Patrick	75	77	152
	123	Bain, John	74	78	152
	124	DeVries, Cameron	74	78	152
	125	Iulio, Iose	73	79	152
	126	Morrison, Stan	73	79	152
	127	Wise, Jared	80	73	153
	128	Pope, Aris	79	74	153
	129	DeGuzman, Andrew	78	75	153
	130	Koika, Aleksei	77	76	153
	131	Skytte, Grahame	77	76	153
	132	Childs, Emily	76	77	153
	133	Noonan, Brendan	75	78	153
	134	O'Regan, Brian	75	78	153
	135	Keehan, Garth	75	78	153
	136	Farynaz, William	79	75	154
	137	Thompson, Simon	79	75	154
	138	Gabbert, Justin	77	77	154
	139	Bauer, Mike	76	78	154
	140	Miller, Mathew	76	78	154
	141	Armanini, Christopher	75	79	154
	142	Kim, Eric	75	79	154
	143	McCall, Mike	75	79	154
	144	Schiebold, Joseph	75	79	154
	145	Nagata, Brian	74	80	154
	146	Prince, Dean	73	81	154
	147	Pruitt, Craig	82	73	155
	148	Hirano, Jennifer	77	78	155
	149	Pence, Craig	77	78	155
	150	Arneson, Mark	76	79	155
	151	Sager, David	76	79	155
	152	Walters, Andrew	75	80	155
	153	Taylor, Derrick	81	75	156
	154	Benson, Richard	80	76	156
	155	Jin, Brendan	79	77	156
	156	DeBellis, Dominic	77	79	156
	157	Kabasakalis, Mia	76	80	156
	158	Schoenfeld, Steve	76	80	156
	159	Williams, Scotty	76	80	156
	160	White, Robert	74	82	156
	161	Hirano, Christina	81	76	157
	162	Killman, Steve	81	76	157
	163	Loui, Paul	81	76	157
	164	Miyazono, T.K.	81	76	157
	165	Woo, Min	80	77	157
	166	Peterson, Jack	75	82	157
	167	Perez, Kenneth	79	79	158
	168	Ouneklap, Ben	77	81	158
	169	Wilson, Russell	77	81	158
	170	Meranda, Sammy	75	83	158
	171	Johnson, Jeffrey	85	74	159
	172	Hamill, Norman	82	77	159
	173	VonSeeger, Stefan	81	78	159
	174	Kastmiler, Erik	80	79	159
	175	Ariga, Zack	78	81	159
	176	Dusi, Marco	78	81	159
	177	Manfrin, Chris	78	81	159
	178	Euan, Miguel	77	82	159
	179	Zywicke, Gregg	82	78	160
	180	Iyer, Wayne	82	79	161
	181	Renaud, Martin	80	81	161
	182	Cannon, Jerry	79	82	161
	183	Kitapan, Somboon	78	83	161
	184	Johnson, Geoffrey	83	79	162
	185	Webb, Nick	81	81	162
	186	DeMonte, Roger	80	82	162
	187	Fischer, Eric	79	83	162
	188	Shumate, Rick	79	83	162
	189	McClung, Mac	88	75	163
	190	Costanzo, Ralph	83	80	163
	191	Blankfort, John	82	82	164
	192	Gill, Phillip	81	83	164
	193	Samuli, Jayson	80	84	164
	194	Serra, George	74	90	164
	195	Donaldson, Brien	85	80	165
	196	Crownover, Chris	86	81	167
	197	Schultz, George	84	83	167
	198	Cheng, Eric	86	82	168
	199	Calonico, Kyle	85	86	171
	200	Ho, Jody	85	86	171
	201	Minatoya, Takao	84	87	171
	202	Shelby, Shawn	87	87	174
	203	Ohkawa, Kenji	85	89	174
	204	Huey, Kyle	83	91	174

ABOUT THE Alameda Commuters

What's in a name? In the case of the Alameda Commuters Championship, the logo of the almost 100 year old tournament would be a dead giveaway. It's a steam ferry, which was the only way to "commute" to San Francisco from the East Bay before the Bay Bridge was built. Started as an informal event -- the original first prize was a bag of nails -- the tournament has grown into one of the top independent events in California.

A dedicated tournament committee prides itself on running the two weekend, 72-hole competition as if it were a PGA Tour event. Two of the best public courses at the city-owned Chuck Corica Golf Complex are prepared with care. Slick greens, Sunday pins, and even that rarity in amateur golf – spectators are all part of the fun. The roped-off scoreboard is a particular area of pride for the "green jackets" who were wearing dark green blazers before they were made popular by another tournament you might be aware of in Augusta Georgia. The 250 player championship division is cut to 50 and ties for the second weekend, at which time the 36-hole senior division tees off to join them.

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