Pittsburgh Tour seeks revenge on the Castle... Olde Stonewall Recap

Ellwood City, PA- The Golf Club at Olde Stonewall was the venue this weekend for the Pittsburgh Golf Channel Am Tour once again as a fall event was added to the schedule.  Those players who attended the spring season opener were looking to better their scores or seek revenge on the course as they prepare to close out the season and look forward to nationals.  A dreary morning of heavy fog blanketed the area and at times only allowed players who would have been playing early morning rounds just limited visibility on the hilly course.  The fog would subside however before our event started and play would be held in beautiful weather and moderately warm temperatures.

In the Hogan Flight, Michael Yates shot an 86 to win the flight.  He was playing with David Faller, a guest at the event, who's wife is a regular in the Sarazen Flight.  Faller also shot an 86 on the very challenging course. 

The Sarazen Flight saw Nora Faller shoot a great medalist round of 79 to take the win coasting over her male counterparts.  Daniel Woods was 12 shots back in 2nd place with a 91.  Matt Blum finished in 3rd place with a 98.  Faller was very consistent in her round making 10 pars and had a streak of 5 pars in a row during her front 9 leading to her 3-over 39. 

And in the Jones Flight, Peter Gitnik proved that home course knowledge paid off as he took the title in his flight.  Gitnik, a member who plays Olde Stonewall many days a week, shot an 85 and won by 11 strokes over Charles Burger who shot 96.  Ronald Shoemaker and Jerry O'Brien tied for 3rd place shooting 97's.  The key to Peter Gitnik's round was his back to back birdies on the par-4 8th hole and par-5 9th hole to close his front nine in 42.

Thank you to all the Pittsburgh Tour members who have played this season on tour.  We have really enjoyed your support.  We close out our season on Saturday, August 27th at Avalon Lakes Golf Club in Warren, Ohio.  The course at Avalon Lakes is a very popular course which use to host the LPGA when they came to Northeastern Ohio.  It is another challenging layout that is a great warm-up for those who plan to attend the 2011 National Championships.  The highest placed finisher in each flight who has not already qualified for the 2011 Nationals will earn a spot in the Championships from this event. 

A Grand Time at Greenbrier...

White Sulphur Springs, WV-18 players on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Tours of the Golf Channel Am Tour went to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to test their skills against other amateurs and the PGA Tour.  The Old White TPC and Greenbrier Courses at the Greenbrier Resort hosted the Greenbrier Open Major the weekend of August 13-14th.  It was just 2 weeks after the PGA Tour came to town for the Greenbrier Classic, and the course showed no wear.  Players were anxious to see how they compared versus the Tour. 

In the Hogan Flight, Jeff Mast and Michael Yates competed and it was Jeff Mast who was consistent in his 2 rounds shooting a pair of 78's (156) from the blue tees and winning the Greenbrier Open in his flight!  Jeff had previously qualified for nationals with a 3rd place finish at the Swan Lake Major in the Sarazen flight, but now further validated his move to the Hogan flight with this win.  Michael Yates shot rounds of 85-88 (173) to finish in a tie for 12th. 

In the Sarazen Flight, Christopher Casto and Matt Blum were competing and although both had bad rounds on one of the 2 days of the tournament they still had lots of fun.  Casto shot rounds of 103-90 (193) for an 18th place finish and Blum shot 93-107 (200) for a 22nd place finish. 

In the Jones Flight, Jerry O'Brien competed and was tied for the lead after day 1 with a 91.  He couldn't hold on to the lead as he played the more difficult Greenbrier Course and shot a 2nd day 100 (191) which was still good for 5th place. 

In the Snead Flight, K Steven Wiley and Ben McDonald competed.  Both fared well on the courses and Wiley shot rounds of 106-94 (200) which was good enough for 3rd place earning him an automatic qualifying spot in the 2011 National Championship.  McDonald wasn't far behind as he shot rounds of 107-108 (215) as he finished in 9th place.

In the Senior Hogan Flight, James Huber shot consistent rounds of 89-88 (177) to finish in a tie for 8th place.

In the Senior Sarazen Flight, Keith Miller, Nora Faller, and Dallas Kelley all competed.  Miller and Faller had good showings as they finished 5th and 6th place respectively.  Miller shot rounds of 85-94 (179) and Faller was 1-stroke behind at 91-89 (180).  Dallas Kelley withdrew after a 1st round 94.    

In the Senior Jones Flight, Russ Hittle had a stellar weekend as he shot rounds of 89-93 (182) to take 2nd place.  He earns a 2011 Senior National Championship automatic qualifier spot for his play.  Peter Gitnik had solid rounds of 92-97 (189) to finish 6th.  Johnny Owens was 4 strokes back of Gitnik as he shot rounds of 96-97 (193) for a tie for 8th place.  And Jon Neff was 12th with scores of 102-97 (199). 

And in the Senior Snead Flight, Ronald Shoemaker earned a 3rd place finish shooting rounds of 96-107 (203) and earning his 2nd automatic qualifying spot of the year to the 2011 Senior National Championship after finishing in the top-3 of the Swan Lake Major.  Michael Scuro finished with rounds of 100-106 (206) to finish in 5th place.  And Charles Burger rounded out the competition with scores of 113-94 (207) to finish in a tie for 6th place.

A great time was had by all Cleveland and Pittsburgh Tour players at this great facility.  We look forward to finishing the season in the next couple of weeks and wish all those who qualify for the 2011 National Championships good luck as they travel to La Quinta, California in September.

Glengarry Recap...

Latrobe, PA- Across town from Arnold Palmer's house and club lies Glengarry Golf Links.  A course with extremely wide fairways and tall fescue grass to ease the golfers shots stands as this weeks host for the Golf Channel Am Tour of Pittsburgh.  An interesting par-69 layout with a handful of deep bunkers and water comming into play on just 7 holes was a treat for the 13 participants.

In the Hogan Flight, it was a 2-way battle between James Huber and Michael Yates.  Both went back and forth grabbing the lead from each other but never were able to lead by more than 2 strokes.  The match was again tied going into the 16th hole where Yates was steady and finished with 3 straight pars while Huber bogied the 16th and 17th before trying to rally and made birdie on the 18th hole.  This gave Yates the 1-stroke victory shooting a 78 while Huber was just behind finishing with a 79.

The Sarazen Flight saw Christopher Casto pick up his 1st win as he carded an 83.  Casto took the lead away from Jeff Meyers (85) and Mike Trupo (90) on the 13th hole with a par and finished on a streak of 6 straight pars to defeat Meyers by two strokes for 2nd and Bob Swann by 4 strokes (89) for 3rd place.  Trupo finished in 4th.  

And in the Jones Flight, it came down to the closing par-5 18th hole again as Steven Wiley held a 2 stroke lead on Johnny Owens and Jerry O'Brien.  Wiley was able to make par while both Owens and O'Brien weren't able to and took triple bogies to allow Owens to win by 2 over them.  Owens shot an 84 to take the win.  Wiley finished 2nd with an 85 and O'Brien shot 87 which earned him 3rd place.

We hope to see everyone at our last regular season event on Saturday, August 20th at Olde Stonewall.  A good way to finish the regular season back where we started it all on this challenging layout to prepare for nationals. 

Don't forget the Tour Championship is Saturday, August 27th at Avalon Lakes Golf Club in Warren, Ohio.  Please sign up for this event.  The highest finisher not already qualified in their flight will earn an exemption to the 2011 National Championships at PGA West in La Quinta, Californina. 

Mylan Classic comming up very soon... Volunteer!

Look who made the email of the day yesterday!  Looking forward to seeing everyone there volunteering or watching the tournament action.

JDRF Donations Nearing Season Goal!

With 1 month of tournaments left, JDRF fundraising for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh tours are almost to completion of their seasonal goal.  A goal of $2000.00 was set by tour players and as of August 1st, $1550.00 has been raised which corresponds to 77 percent of the goal.  The donations raised will be given to JDRF of Cleveland during their Walk for Diabetes being held September, 18th at the Cleveland Zoo.  All who wish to attend the walk please contact tour player Matt Blum for more info.

Let's please push to make the goal in this final month and also support the regional majors fundraising efforts as they exceed their large goal of $25,000 towards Orlando, Florida charity Give Kids The World.  Give Kids The World is a local Orlando charity near Golf Channel Headquarters that is similar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 

2 Weeks of Majors have Am Tour Players Ready for Finish.

The last 2 weekends have provided an off weekend for some and for others it was a way to test their game as a higher level of competition as Regional Majors were on the schedule.  On the weekend of July 16-17th 2 players went down to challenge TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, while 4 more golfers challenged 2 courses at the Turning Stone Resort on the weekend of July 23-24th. 

Down at TPC Sawgrass, Sarazen Flight player Matt Blum and Senior Hogan player Kevin Muehring were up for the task of taking on the challenging course and conditions at the Stadium and Valley Courses. Playing in sunny and 90 degree conditions, the courses were in great condition with very thick rough throughout.  The rough made for tough decisions on the course cause many of the errant balls that found the rough did not get good lies.  None the less both had lots of fun playing the challenging layouts.

In the Senior Hogan Flight, Kevin Muehring shot scores of 100 (Stadium) and 87 (Valley) to total 187 and finish tied of 8th place.  One of his great memories on the weekend was probably hitting the famed 17th green and taking his par. 

As for Matt Blum in the Sarazen flight, it was a big celebration for him as he got to celebrate his 33rd birthday by getting the tournament underway on the Stadium Course on Saturday.  His tee shot, which was the first stroke of the tournament, sailed down the right rough about 130 yards away from the hole.  Much of the rest of the weekend was enjoyable, but he felt bad he didn't bring his "A" game to the course.  He shot 105 (Stadium) and 107 (Valley) for a 212 total and finished in 20th place.  Bright spots in his round were that he made a nice 12 footer for birdie on the 13th at the Stadium course and took home a skin as well as nearly driving #16 in two and getting a par.  He also hit the green on #17 in one, but found himself on the wrong section of the green and had to take a 3-putt bogey. 


In upstate New York, the 4 players that went to Turning Stone Resort had a swell time also. Led by the play of Hogan flight player Brandon Wang who finished 5th in his flight.  Wang shot rounds of 84-81 to finish at a 2-day total of 165 and was only 4 shots back of the lead.  He posted the medalist round on Sunday with his 81 in the Hogan Flight. 

Snead flight player Ben McDonald shot 120-107 for a 227 total and finished 18th in his flight.

Senior Palmer John Smallenburg finished with a steady 2-day total of 163 (82-81) and was 6 strokes back of the lead in 8th place.

And rounding out the players who went to a regional event these past 2 weekends was Senior Sarazen flight player Peter Gitnik who shot a pair of 101's to total 202 and ended up in 13th place. 

We hope to see everyone out on tour for the summer finish as we make the final push to qualify for the 2011 National Championships at PGA West in La Quinta, California September 18-27.

Birdsfoot Recap

Freeport, PA-  A small field traveled to Birdsfoot Golf Course July 16th, for the Pittsburgh Am Tour event.  In the Palmer Flight, it was Ryan Longhi who defeated D.J. Shafer in a playoff for he victory.  Both players shot 81's and Dustin Cramer finished 3rd with an 88.

In the Hogan Flight it was James Huber (83) who defeated Michael Yates (87) by 4 strokes.  Huber built a nice lead and held on to down the stretch to take the win. 

In the Sarazen Flight, it was Dallas Kelly (83) taking the victory over 2nd place Jeff Esper (88) by 5 shots.  Peter Gitnik and Jerry O'Brien tied for 3rd place with 93's. 

And in the Snead Flight, it was Michael Scuro who shot a 96. 

We hope to see everyone at our next Pittsburgh event Sunday, August 7th at Glengarry.