The Sweet Spot: 8 with Wisconsin ties in U.S. Open final qualifying; winners in MDGA Match Play, WSGA Four-Ball
Eight with Wisconsin ties in ‘golf’s longest day’
It’s a 36-hole grind formerly known as U.S. Open sectional qualifying and now known as final qualifying, but often referred to as “golf’s longest day.”
Eight golfers with Wisconsin ties will tee it up Monday in hopes of advancing to the U.S. Open, June 15-18 at Los Angeles Country Club.
Six of them are at the final qualifier at Springfield (Ohio) Country Club: 2020 State Amateur champion Thomas Longbella of Chippewa Falls, University of Wisconsin rising senior Cameron Huss of Kenosha, amateur Jack Anderson of Brookfield, Blake Jens of Madison, Emmett Herb of Middleton and former UW player Jordan Hahn of Spring Grove, Ill.
Former Vanderbilt star Harrison Ott of Brookfield is at Lakes Golf & CC and Brookside Golf & CC in Columbus, Ohio. Former Marquette University standout Mike Van Sickle of Wexford, Pa., is at Woodmont CC in Rockville, Md.
Schultz wins MDGA Match Play title
In an epic duel that wasn’t decided until the 22nd hole, Garrett Schultz of the Brown Deer Men’s Club outlasted Jack Anderson of North Hills Country Club on Saturday to claim the title in the 96th Milwaukee District Golf Association Match Play Championship.
The tournament, which was held at Chenequa Country Club, brings together top players from private clubs in southeastern Wisconsin and Milwaukee County Parks courses and is among the oldest in the state. Past champions include Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame members Pat Boyle, Mark Bemowski, Dave Miley, Skip Kendall, Archie Dadian, Dick Sucher and Bob Brue.
To reach the final, Schultz beat Bruce Henning, 5 and 4; Will Harned in 19 holes; and Jack McKinney, 3 and 1. Anderson, the low stroke-play qualifier with a 64, beat Austin Thyes, 4 and 2; Adam Garski in 19 holes; and Blake Jenkins, 5 and 4.
In the Senior Division, John Uekert of West Bend Country Club beat John Kestly, 2 up, for his second consecutive title.
DuChateau-Magoline win WSGA Four-Ball
The fifth-seeded team of Joe DuChateau of Fond du Lac and Jared Magoline of Lebanon, Ind., beat Charlie Maleki and Robbie Morway, 4 and 3, in the title match Sunday to win the Wisconsin State Golf Association Four-Ball Championship at The Bog in Saukville.
Maleki and Morway, who played collegiately at Marquette and Wisconsin, respectively, battled their way through their half of the bracket, needing 21 holes to beat Jeff Glisch of Middleton and Brian Markle of Verona in the opening match and 27 holes to beat Michael Addie of Sussex and Sebastian Kasun of Elm Grove in the semifinals.
In the other semifinal, DuChateau and Magoline beat the No. 1-seeded team of Kevin Van Rossum of Hartland and Jack Schultz of Whitefish Bay, 2-up.
Get up, get up, get out of here!
The Sweet Spot would bet his weight in Titleists that not even the biggest golf fanatic could name the player who has hit the longest drive in PGA Tour history.
Hint: it’s not Tiger Woods or Dustin Johnson.
The answer is … Carl Cooper. At the 1992 Texas Open, Cooper was credited with a 787-yard drive. The record comes with a caveat: his ball rolled hundreds of yards down a steeply inclined cart path.
The second-longest drive was Mike Austin’s 515-yarder at the 1974 U.S. National Seniors Tournament. The number is an estimate, because Austin’s drive bounced over the green on a 450-yard par-4 and was found on the next tee box. Players in his group determined that the ball traveled 515 yards. Though he was aided by a 25 mph tailwind, Austin used a persimmon driver with a 43½-inch steel shaft and a balata golf ball. He was 64 years old at the time.
Woods’ longest recorded drive was 498 yards at the 2002 Mercedes Championship, while Johnson’s longest was 489 yards at the 2018 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Shocker: Poll reveals slow play is a problem
According to the latest Golf Power Poll, slow play is a significant problem and nobody is doing enough to fix it.
A hearty 94% of poll respondents think slow play is a problem that needs to be fixed in tournament golf. And 79% heap most of the blame for slow play on the shoulders of the players and tours. (Full disclosure: The Sweet Spot is a member the Golf Power Poll panel.)
Among Golf Power Poll commenters, Steve Habel, the owner and publisher of GolfDaily.com, put it succinctly:
“There is nothing worse than slow play on the golf course, even at the high-handicapper level,” Habel said. “It can literally sap the fun out of a day on the course and break a player's rhythm.”
More than one-half of the respondents (54%) said more penalties would be the most effective way to speed up play in tournament golf.
Tap-ins, lip-outs and double-breakers
One of the most notable aspects of the pandemic-driven rise in golf participation over the past three years is the influx of women and girls. According to the National Golf Foundation, there are about 6.4 million female golfers in the U.S., up from 5.6 million in 2019. … What are the odds of winning Masters Tournament tickets through the annual lottery, which opened Friday and closes June 20? Bookies.com pegged the chance of winning a single-day tournament ticket at 0.55 percent. … Thanks to a partnership between First Tee — Southeast Wisconsin and Milwaukee County Parks, junior golfers are invited to play at Noyes Park Golf Course at no cost for the 2023 season. Noyes Park is a nine-hole par-3 course located at 8235 W. Good Hope Road in Milwaukee. for more information. … TaylorMade Golf has been named title sponsor of the Whistling Straits Pro Am, scheduled for Aug. 8-13. The TaylorMade Pro Am at Whistling Straits is part of the 2023-’24 Troon Events Tournament schedule. … In her fourth start on the Epson Tour, Bobbi Stricker of Madison finished T-50 with a 1-over 217 total in the Champions Fore Change Invitational in New Bern, N.C. She earned $786. Emily Lauterbach of Hartland, making her second Epson Tour start, missed the cut, as did Madison’s Tess Hackworthy. … Former UW golfers Sam Anderson and Griffin Barela missed the cut, as did Kaylor Steger of Mount Pleasant, in the Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship, a PGA Tour Latinoamerica event in Bogota, Colombia.
