[Matt_Cohn]

On Monday October 9 and Tuesday October 10, the Alister Mackenzie Invitational will be played at the Meadow Club in Marin.

I'd love to go watch; as usual, my lack of car ownership is an obstacle.

For those of you in San Francisco, are any of you interested in driving up to the Meadow Club *early* either Monday or Tuesday and returning to the city by noon or one-ish?

Message me, or post on here and maybe a few of us can meet up there.

[Aaron Katz]

FYI, the golf coach at the University of San Francisco -- the tournament host -- is, if I recall correctly, the president of the Alister MacKenzie Society.  I'm sure if you follow the lead USF players you'd have a minute to ask him a few questions about the Meadow Club course.  I think he took the lead in the restoration project.

[John_Conley]

In a small world story, and maybe you already know all this, Sean Tully that posts here is their Ass't Supe and the golf pro is the same Jim O'Neal that is the driving force behind ballyhooed Ballyneal.

Sorry I can't help you with the ride.  I'm actually in SF now for work.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I would love to hear how the event turns out. The participants are lucky young men. Jim is a great guy who I mentioned how envious I am that he is getting to pursue his dreams with Ballyneal.

[Sean_Tully]

Aaron

That would be Dr. Nelson. He is in fact the coach at USF, but they are not the tournament hosts, that would be California(UC Berkeley). As I understand it, Dr. Nelson was one of the founding members of the society and a past president, but not the current one. He is building a strong team at USF and it does not hurt that they get access to some of the best in the Bay area to practice on.

Regarding the tournament, they keep hitting it along way and I can only watch so much of that. Our field is not as strong as in years past, partially due to another tournament. It should still be fun and the kids have a lot of fun playing at Meadow Club. We did get a little rain early in the week, but by the time they start on Monday it should be pretty good.

Tully

[Matt_Cohn]

Is the Meadow Club not that hard a course?

More than half of the field is under par, and it's a good but not stellar field.

There are 13 individual players at -3 or better which is pretty unusual for a college tournament of that type.

I'm not judging the course for producing low scores, of coures, but I haven't seen the course and it's not what I expected.

Any thoughts?

Link to scores: http://usfdons.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/recaps/100906aad.html

[Tom Huckaby]

Meadow Club is a great course, a fun course, a brilliant course in many ways.

It's just not overly difficult outside of some fiendish putts one might face...

Great players can and do tear it up, score-wise.

Heck, the numbers from the tips are "only"

Black    71        72.6     135      6686

And that 6686 isn't like Pastiempo, playing longer...  It plays pretty short for the bombers, and since these great players also place their shots well, they won't face the fiendish putts.  Oh I'm sure if the club wanted to they could give some pins that would keep the scores higher... but that would be sadistic.

TH

[Sean_Tully]

Is the Meadow Club not that hard a course?


It can be hard. The conditions this week for the tournament were conducive to low scoring. We recieved a half inch of rain coming into the tournament and did not dry out in time as we were rather cool and overcast. We have some nice run out on the fwys, but the greens are not as firm as we had hoped for, they are native push ups that can get heavy in a hurry!

More than half of the field is under par, and it's a good but not stellar field.

That is true as there is a bigger tournament elsewhere. The scores tend to be lower for the the first two rounds for a variety of reasons.

1. they get some of the best weather conditions ie. very little wind. Todays round has some gusting winds so they will have some interesting shots into some tougher hole locations.

2. The hole locations are not as hard as they could be. They need to finish 36 holes the first day and one way to allow that is to have easier pins

3. The scores are not too out of line with the years past there is still room to score and these guys take advantage of some of our shorter holes. The leader after the first round was Cal and they were lights out. Even one of their back ups shot back to back 68's.


There are 13 individual players at -3 or better which is pretty unusual for a college tournament of that type.

Yes, there are some low numbers, but there are also some pretty high numbers as well. Once again Cal is playing really well and have a nice ten shot lead.

I'm not judging the course for producing low scores, of coures, but I haven't seen the course and it's not what I expected.

Sounds like you need to see the course as the par fives are all very reachable, the 1st reduced to a long par four by the length of the players off the tee.

These guys should be scoring even lower in my opinion. They hit ball so damn far that I find it downright silly. Nothing like having all three in one threesome hit it 340+.


Link to scores: http://usfdons.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/recaps/100906aad.html

Tully

[Daryn_Soldan]

I talked with some of the Kansas State guys last night and they were hitting a significant number of greens (including most par fives in two) but were very frustrated about not making many putts.

-Daryn  

[John_Conley]

16 shot win for Cal.  I am impressed by their low scores.  

These guys are good too.

[Sean_Tully]

Meadow has some big greens and some interesting hole locations that call for accuracy on approach shots. The greens as noted before were a little soft, but they rolled out very well. The wind today was the most we have had during the tournament in its five years running, +/- 8-15 mph. The scores were definately higher due to the wind and some tougher hole locations. Not nearly as much red on the leaderboard and those that had it deserved it after a long day! Best golf of the day was in the final group with Stallworth's 68 and Wilson's 70 which included a 7 on the final hole!

Here is the final results courtesy of  
http://calbears.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/recaps/101006aab.html

FINAL RESULTS           Alister MacKenzie Invitational
 * Individual            Meadow Club              Fairfax, CA
                         Dates: 10/09 - 10/10     (Today:10-10-2006)
                                   Par:        71
                                   Yardage:  6606
      Fin.   Top 20 Teams             Scores
         1   California, U. of        268  275  283    826
         2   San Jose State Univ.     278  275  289    842
         3   Oregon State U.          284  277  287    848
         4   Fresno State             278  286  289    853
         5   UC Davis                 290  278  289    857
             UC-Irvine                293  277  287    857
         7   Oregon, U. of            290  276  296    862
         8   Santa Clara Univ.        288  280  295    863
         9   Washington State U.      286  278  300    864
        10   Penn State U.            287  274  304    865
        11   San Francisco, U. of     292  281  294    867
        12   St. Mary's (CA)          289  283  296    868
        13   Kansas State Univ.       282  287  303    872
        14   Long Beach State         286  286  304    876
        15   Cal Poly                 288  289  304    881



   Fin.    Top 20 Players         School       Scores
      1    Michael Wilson         California    65   67   70   202
      2    Stephan Stallworth     SJSU          70   66   68   204
      3    Diego Velasquez        Oregon St.    68   69   71   208
           Mitch Gillis           Oregon St.    73   66   69   208
      5    Jay Choe               UC-Irvine     70   70   69   209
           George Gandranata      California    67   67   75   209
           Blair Myers            SantaClara    71   66   72   209
      8    Joey Benedetti         Oregon        70   66   74   210
           Matthew Ryan           Fresno St.    67   73   70   210
     10    Robert Rohanna         Penn State    69   68   74   211
           Andrey Mindirgasov     California    67   72   72   211
          *Kent Yamane            California    69   68   74   211
     13    Phil Huffman           UC Davis      70   71   71   212
           Rosco Valentine        SJSU          69   70   73   212
           Brandon Beck           California    69   75   68   212
     16    Michael Jensen         California    71   69   73   213
           Nick Grigsby           Wash. St.     77   65   71   213
           Kenny Adams            USF           70   69   74   213
     19    Nate Pistacchio        UC Davis      75   69   70   214
           Joshua Kelley          St. Mary's    69   73   72   214
           Brian Edick            UC-Irvine     73   65   76   214

[John_Conley]

Congratulations, Sean, on your part in the club's hosting of a wonderful event.  Today's scores were much higher.  As you mentioned, the hole locations needed to be easier to get the whole field around for 36 holes.

Thanks again for your time on Friday.  Best of luck as you continue to pore over the 'fiche.

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