Zitkovic leads strong Toledo Am field

8/10/2005

Several members of the Toledo Metro Golf Association are having fine seasons entering this weekend's Habitec Toledo Amateur at Detwiler Park Golf Course.

John Zitkovic, who sports a 72.67 stroke average in Metro events, has a lead of about 100 points over Thomas Yeager in the Player of the Year/Scratch competition. Jeff Godzak, Terry Tyson, and Jay Mullett, the 2004 player of the year, round out the top five on the points list.

Tyson recently won the Metro Championship with a 36-hole gross score of 143.

In the handicap division, Gary Joiner has a 70.44 net stroke average and leads Monty Coffman and Bill Ernst in a tight player of the year race. Rounding out the top five are Godzak and Duane Zitkovic.

Coffman took the handicap division of the recent Metro Championship with a 36-hole net score of 134.

Steven Myers scored a double eagle during the Metro Championship, recording a 2 at the par-5 fourth hole at Ottawa Park.

There are 17 Metro players in the scratch division with stroke averages in the 70s, while 42 players in the net division can claim the same.

The 72-hole Toledo Amateur is an open event that will include top competitors from the Toledo Metro, the Toledo District Golf Association and area college teams. Alex Wenzel, who shot a 65 in the final round a year ago, is entered to defend his championship against a field of about 160 golfers in the three-day event at Detwiler that begins Friday and ends with 36 holes on Sunday.

JUNIOR CHAMPS: The Toledo Junior Golf Association completed its 2005 schedule earlier this week with the Junior Invitational at Toledo Country Club. John Powers won the boys' championship in a playoff over Brian Roser after both carded 69s. Kaitlyn VanGunten was the girls' medalist with a 79.

Season-long TJGA awards were presented at a banquet after the event. Jason Crow won the Frank Stranahan Player of the Year award, while Powers took home the Paul Hahn Sportsmanship Award, as voted on by TJGA golfers, for the second straight year.

Jordan Fesh swept the top girls' honors - the Sharon Keil Player of the Year and the Karen Stone Sportsmanship awards.

JR. HIGH TOUR: The TJGA will sponsor a junior high tour for boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades. There will be a qualifying tournament on Saturday, Aug. 27 at Scotch Run Golf Center with five events to follow after school hours during September and October.

Sign-up information is avail

able at ww.toledojuniorgolf.com

or by calling TJGA president Nick Szymanski, the PGA head pro at South Toledo Golf Club, at 419-385-4678.

ACE ODDS: Golf Digest has been tracking hole-in-one trends since 1952. For its September issue, the magazine asked Francis Scheid, the retired chairman of Boston University's mathematics department, to calculate hole-in-one odds.

According to Scheid, the odds of a pro tour player making an ace are 3,000-to-1; a low handicapper, 5,000-to-1, and an average amateur golfer, 12,000-to-1. The latter odds translate into one hole-in-one every 3,000 rounds played.

What's the chance of two average players in the same foursome acing the same hole? Scheid says it's 17 million-to-1.

ACE REPLAY: Tom Purtzer won last weekend's 3M Championship in Minnesota and had a hole-in-one to boot. The last player to score an ace in a Champions Tour event that he won was, well, Tom Purtzer. It happened at the 2003 SBC Classic. No one appears to have calculated the odds on that.

TV TALK: The TNT network will provide 12 hours of live PGA Championship coverage from Baltusrol Golf Club tomorrow and Friday, airing the event from 1-7 p.m. both days. TNT will also show early coverage of the third and fourth rounds (11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) before CBS starts its weekend coverage.

The Golf Channel will televise the Walker Cup Matches on Saturday (11 a.m.-1 p.m.) and Sunday (4-6 p.m.) from Chicago Golf Club. The amateur event pits an American team against one representing Great Britain-Ireland-Scotland-Wales. The U.S. captain, Bob Lewis, and one of his players, Kyle Reifers, are Ohioans.

Contact Dave Hackenberg at:

dhack@theblade.com

or 419-724-6398