The Hilton Head-Savannah Tour held its third tournament of the year this past Saturday at the Greg Norman designed Savannah Quarters in Pooler, GA. Savannah Quarters is a difficult course on a picture perfect day with its amazingly difficult greens and demanding shot placement. Now add in constant 20-30 mph winds, wind gusts up to 50 mph and temperatures in the high 40’s and low 50’s. That is what 40 golfers dealt with on this particular day. The course played so difficult that only 4 players broke into the 80’s with the lowest round of the day being an 86! Yes, the course was that tough.
The 40 golfers that played on Saturday marked the first time in 3 years that the HHI-Sav tour has hit the 40 player mark. This is a great benchmark for the tour and show great signs of growth for our tour. We are getting more and more new players joining the tour and coming out to play. We are very happy to see that the tour has started to grow and that players are coming out to join us in our tournaments. The outlook for the rest of the season is looking good. Let’s continue to spread the word and bring in more players!
In this particular tournament we had 3 Championship flight players playing from the tips, which were playing at 7016 yards. Ryan Fussell stated that it "felt more like 7600 yards out there with that wind." One of our champ flight players stated that they had to hit "driver, 3-wood, 8-iron into number 14." Which is the #1 handicap measuring at 469 from the tips. That’s a 469 yard par four into 30 mph winds. If it took those clubs for a champ flight player to get there imagine what it took for the rest of the players. When the three players were finished with their round, it was Ryan Fussell winning his first tournament with an 89. Finishing second was Dave Politi (93) followed by Mark English (95). Ryan also had one of the very few birdies. That netted him a flight skin and a super skin. Congrats Ryan on your first victory of the season.
The A flight saw the other three players break into the 80’s on the day. This group of players had 13 golfers competing, which marks the most in the A flight in a very long time. Playing from the 6550 yard gold tees today seemed to be a challenge for the A flighters with scores ranging from 86 to 101. The low round of the day was fired by Art Arns. Art put together a very impressive round of 86 to take home his first win of the season. Following right behind Art was his good friend Dennis Visich (87) who fell one stroke behind Art to take home second place. Finishing third was Tariqah Walikraam with an 88. Tariqah also had one of the few birdies today and it netted her a flight skin and super skin. Congrats to all three of the placers in the A flight today!
The B flight had total of 10 players in their flight today. The B flight also played from the 6550 yards gold tees. The scores reflected the difficulty of the course with 95 taking home the first place trophy today. One of the best things that I have seen on the tour happened in the B flight this past weekend. Thomas Burden and Roger Clark tied for first place with a 95 on the day. Neither player wanted to go out and playoff in the cold and windy conditions. Instead they decided to split the prize money and share the win (see picture above). What a great move on both players part. Finishing third was Darrell Bazemore and Doug Hudock with 96’s on their round.
The C flight consisted of 7 golfers that all could take home the trophy on any given day. With scores ranging from 94 to 109 the Silver tees that measured at 6271 seemed to be a very challenging yardage for the golfers. At the end of the rounds it was a three way tie for first place between Joe Lee, Todd Purcell and Keith Weaver; all with 94’s on their rounds. When it was all over it was Joe Lee that took home the top spot. Finishing second was Todd Purcell and then Keith Weaver. It was a good round for all the golfers and a very competitive tournament.
The 6 players in the D flight also had some difficulty with the silver tees and their 6271 yards today. No player was able to keep it in double digits, proving that the course played very tough. Matthew Kitchens was the low man in the flight today with an even 100 and took home the top spot. Matthew also had a birdie that paid out a flight skin and a super skin. Not too bad for his first tournament of the year. Finishing second was Patrick Jones (101) followed by George Story (104).
I know I have said this earlier but I am really excited about the growth that we are seeing this year on the tour. I know it takes time to spread the word and get players on board but hitting 40 players this past weekend was a big step for the tour. Let’s continue to spread the word and get players to join up. Remember, the more players we get the prizes we win and the more fun we have. I thank you all for playing on our tour and recruiting players to join.
Our next tournament is a combo event with the Charleston tour on March 3rd at Penny Branch. It will be a Major tournament and worth double the points. I hope to see a great HHI-Sav tour representation at the tournament!