Georgia (GSGA) Senior Tournament

NEWNAN, GA (May 11, 2006) -- Atlanta's John Felker fought off ferocious winds to card 35 points for a 103 total and a four-point victory over Randall Rozier of McDonough at the 3rd annual GSGA Senior Tournament, which was held at Orchard Hills Golf Club, May 9-11. Rozier, playing in the day's final group with Felker, scored 32 points in the final round and finished with a tournament total of 99 Stableford points. Bruce Wood of Duluth, who won the first flight, finished in third place overall with 98 points. Jim Kamis of Marietta, the leader entering the final round, managed to only score 26 points and fell into a tie for fourth place with second-flight winner Christopher Demarco of Acworth. Dalton's Ronald Lowery and Midland's J.C. Jones finished in a tie for sixth with 95 points. Wendell Couch of Athens held his position from the end of round two and would finish eighth. In ninth was Tom Hall of Albany with 92 points overall. Tenth place went to Snellville's Nick Kirkland, who tallied 33 points in both the second and third rounds of play. Felker started the day firing a one-under 35 on the first nine holes, good for 19 points. He carded eight pars and recorded a birdie on the 361-yard third hole. On the second nine, Felker carded a double bogey on the eleventh hole and back-to-back bogeys on 15 and 16. "I knew that I needed to have a strong finish after those bad holes," Felker explained of his mishaps, "but I struck the ball well the past couple of days and only had a couple of bad holes during the whole tournament. I hit some fairways, made some putts, never really did anything great but just stayed out of big trouble." Felker, who celebrates his 59th birthday today, said he never even thought about the special day. "It's funny really. I was so excited to find out that I had won the tournament that I didn't even remember that today was my birthday," Felker said with a laugh. Willis Ward of Warner Robins captured the overall Super Senior honors scoring 98 Stableford points for the tournament. Ward captured the Super Senior crown by one point over Calhoun's Bob Nance. "I played as well as I could have out there," Ward said of his performance in the tournament. "With the wind like it was today, I feel pretty lucky to have been able to score the number of points that I did." Other flight included: Third Flight - Jimmy Rutherford of Cumming (75), Super Senior 2 - Clive Phillips of Peachtree City (92) and Super Senior 3 - Bob Reinhart of Decatur and Jerry Gafford of Mansfield (75). The Stableford format awards points on a sliding scale, with one point for bogeys, two for pars, three for birdies and four points for eagles. In this format, an 18-hole score of 36 is roughly equivalent to shooting even par. The 81-member field was divided into seven flights with three flights making up the Super Senior division. Entries were open to male amateur golfers age 55 and up who hold USGA handicap indexes of 3.0 or higher and are residents of Georgia. Players age 65 and up could choose to compete in the Super Senior division or for the overall title. The par-72 layout at Orchard Hills Golf Club is playing to 6,390 yards for the Championship through third flights and 5,952 yards for the Super Seniors. GSGA conducts 18 statewide competitions for men and women of all age groups, three interstate matches and 17 USGA qualifying events each year. Other services include computerized handicapping, course rating and measuring, a summer-long junior sectional competitions program, Golf Georgia magazine and two college scholarship programs. For complete results, click on the tournament link above.