2020 Season Underway in Los Angeles
Mission Viejo, CA—The Golf Channel Amateur Tour got the 2020 season underway on Sunday at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club. An absolute picture perfect day with excellent pace of play and glorious, 85-degree temperatures with no wind. Congratulations to Monty White for winning $360 in the 50/50 Raffle as well! Scores were as good as the perfect weather with players taking advantage of soft greens and absolutely perfect playing conditions. Thank you to all the players for arguably the best pace of play the LA Tour has ever seen with rounds between 4 hours 10 minutes and 4 hours 44 minutes! A reminder to all players to make sure to sign-up for 2019-2020 events well in advance of the registration deadline. Ten (10) players were placed on the waiting list early in the week and did not get into the field on Sunday.
Andrew Skjonsby of Newport Beach continues to impress after getting called up from Palmer Flight. Skjonsby, a talented player who played at Arizona State before taking a long hiatus from golf, is continuing to improve and win at the highest level of the Golf Channel Amateur Tour. Skjonsby did not have his best stuff on the putting green but hit the ball beautifully and actually hitting 16 greens in regulation. 2-under par thru 11 holes, Skjonsby bogeyed #12, #16, and then the reachable par-five 18th hole but was still able to take the clubhouse lead at 1-over par 73. Kotaro Noda, son of past Golf Channel champion Kazuo Noda, is now in the U.S prepping for a year of junior college golf with the goal of landing a scholarship to a top university. Noda, playing in his first Tour event with Golf Channel, got off to a rough start but played his last five holes in 1-under par to make a run at Skjonsby who played his last five holes two-over par. Noda had an opportunity to tie Skjonsby, but had to settle for a par on the par-five 18th hole and second place at 2-over par 74. William Tompkins of Huntington Beach is back to playing competitively on Tour. He showed some rust early and a triple bogey on #12 saw him out of contention. But, like the champion he is, Tompkins finished 2-under his last four holes to shoot a respectable 4-over par 76 and a 3rd place finish.
Palmer Flight did a great job on pace of play and the scoring showed that you can play fast and play well! Maykel Ghorbanzadeh, a past LA Hogan Player of the Year who got promoted to Palmer Flight about 12 months ago, is back in action on Tour after taking most of last year off due to work and family. Ghorbanzadeh secured his 3rd win in Palmer Flight over the past year by shooting his personal best score in Palmer, a wonderful 3-over par 75 to take home the trophy on Sunday. The personal best score saw him do his work on the back nine. After going out in 40 strokes, Maykel birdied 10, bogeyed 11, and then birdied 14 amongst all pars to finish, closing with a solid 1-under par 35 on the back nine to come-from-behind and take home the win. Scott Henrikson of Laguna Niguel, a 56-year old rookie on the Tour, started his career in a very solid manner firing a 5-over par 77 for 2nd place. Henrikson had the lead at the turn after going out in 38. On the inward nine he did card two more birdies (3 total on the day) but also posted six bogeys. Still, a great start to the season. Paul Anderson of Newport Coast and Tom Trainer of Westlake Village both had good starts to open up the LA season. After a tough starts, Anderson played his last twelve holes in even-par while Trainer played his last thirteen holes in just 2-over par. Both players tied for 3rd place at 6-over par 78. David Lee of Marina Del Rey and Kenton Howerton of Hermosa Beach (playing his first round of golf since June) broke 80 to finish in the money and a tie for 5th place at 7-over par 79.
Hogan Flight saw one player really take advantage of the conditions and that player was Soheil Aval of Newport Coast. Aval fired a personal best round of 6-over par 78 to win the first Hogan Flight event on the Los Angeles Tour in 2019-2020. Aval mitigated his mistakes and kept the ball in play and made no score worse than bogey on the day. In the end, seven bogeys, ten pars, and a lone birdie produced the win on Sunday and a great start to the new season. Michael Terry of Newport Beach played well. Terry finished with four consecutive pars and that solid finish saw him secure 2nd place at 9-over par 81. Brian Baker of San Clemente survived four double bogeys on his card to still tie for 3rd place at 83. Also at 83 was Brian Davidson, who birdied the final hole to tie for 3rd place.
Senior Hogan Flight played from the same tees as Hogan Flight and as a whole the group performed beautifully and would have held the three of the top four positions on the leaderboard had the flight been combined which they sometimes are. Steven Gill of Irvine, who got in last-minute from the waiting list after a withdraw, had two deuces on his card and was only three-over par heading into the final hole and held a tenuous 1-stroke advantage. A bogey on the 500 yard par-five 18th hole saw him in the clubhouse with a beautiful round of 4-over par 76. Mike Fumagalli of Lancaster was even-par thru eleven holes and held a two stroke advantage on Gill heading into the heart of the back nine. After bogeys on 12, 13, 14, and 16 he fell a shot back and into second place, however, thanks to the Gill bogey on 18 and a solid par finish by Fumagalli the two headed back on the course to settle things with Fumagalli having the momentum. That momentum would stay into their opening tee shots, as Gill topped his tee shot on the relatively short par-four 1st hole. Gill would right the ship however and get up and down for par and the victory. Great playing by both of these competitors and congratulations to Gill for taking home the trophy in the playoff. Deepak Kulkarni of Mission Viejo was in the lead group of the day and did a great job setting the wonderful pace enjoyed by the entire field. Kulkarni birdied #18 to break 80, finishing in 3rd place at 7-over par 79.
Sarazen Flight saw Marcelo Bernardo of San Juan Capistrano play beautifully at a course he really enjoys. Bernardo won his first Golf Channel Amateur Tour event 5-6 seasons ago at Arroyo Trabuco which is special to him and he played a special round of golf to win in the 12 – 15.9 handicap bracket on Sunday. Bernardo was playing well, 7-over par thru 12 holes on Sunday, but his finish was spectacular. Bernardo birdied the par-three 13th hole (a difficult hole) and then rode a bogey-free clean card into the clubhouse, securing the win by four shots at 6-over par 78. A very special round and score in the Sarazen Flight and we are certain the Marcelo’s Monday is off to a great start! Great round and win. The very good scoring continued on into 2nd place. Dwain DeLoach of Valley Center, who is moving to Senior Sarazen, has seen his Tour Index plummet from 16.1 all the way to 13.1 in a matter of three months with his third consecutive posted round of 82 on Tour. DeLoach struggled mightily on holes 11 – 15 with two triples and three bogeys. Outside of that he played more like a Senior Hogan or even Senior Palmer Player, with the remaining 13 holes played in just 1-over par. A birdie on the final hole helped him into a tie for 2nd place at 82. Also at 82 was Steve Henry of Los Angeles. Henry was only four-over par thru 12 holes. Not the finish he wanted, but still overall a great score at 82 and 2nd place as he limited his mistakes and only carded one double bogey, eight bogeys, and the rest pars on a fairly consistent day.
Senior Sarazen Flight took advantage of playing the forward white tees and as a whole played much better than their handicap suggests, with five players really taking advantage of the benign conditions and shooting scores of 81 or better. 70-year old David St. Onge of Redondo Beach confessed he is playing the best golf of his life at 70 which is awesome to see! St. Onge finished like a champion and separated himself from the top of the leaderboard thanks to his wild finish. St. Onge made par on 15, birdied 16, par on 17, and then a beautiful birdie on 18 to secure the win by playing his last four holes in 2-under par. The late charge absolutely made a difference as he took home the title at 7-over par 79 and did so by finishing like a champion! Just a stroke back were three players who simply could not keep pace with St. Onge’s torrid run down the stretch. John Komer of Sun City West was only 4-over par heading into the final four holes at Arroyo Trabuco. While Komer would par 15 and 18, consecutive double bogeys on 16 and 17 saw him tie for 2nd at 80. Donald Bebout of Laguna Beach was also tied with Komer at 4-over par heading into that final four stretch. A triple bogey on 15 and a bogey on 17 saw him also settle into a tie for 2nd place at 80. John Olson of Mission Viejo was having a day. Olson was just 3-over par thru ten holes when he did the unthinkable – rattling off three consecutive birdies on 11, 12, and 13 to get back to even par which is unheard of in (Senior) Sarazen Flight! After a bogey on 14 Olson unfortunately made a “10” on the 336-yard par-four 15th hole. After righting the ship with solid pars on 16 and 17, Olson had an opportunity to tie St. Onge but a bogey on the par-five finishing hole also saw him in the three-way tie for 2nd place at 80. Satish Joshi of Palos Verdes Estates finished in 5th place at 81. Joshi bogeyed 15 and 18 but still managed a great score on Sunday. Congratulations again to St. Onge for a wonderful finish and to all players in the top five for their very good scores produced on Sunday.
Jones Flight wanted in on some of the great scoring and they also took advantage as a group of the great scoring conditions. In the end, Darrell Prescott, the 2019 Senior Jones Flight Player of the Year in Los Angeles, said goodbye to the flight the way you would expect him to – with another solid score and win on Sunday. Prescott, who won 5 times on Tour last year, including the Southern California Tour Championship, fired a great 83 that will see him earn a Journey To Better Performance Promotion to Senior Sarazen Flight in a few weeks. The popular and affable player will take his improved game to the next level of competition after a great 2019 in Senior Jones flight. Gabriel Soto Campa of Los Angeles barely made his starting time and was fortunate not to be assessed a two-shot penalty for being late to the tee. He overcame those early jitters by closing his back nine in 41 strokes to finish in 2nd place at 85. Soto Campa, who has a goal of playing professional golf on the Champions Tour, is looking at Prescott with admiration as he is hoping to get to Sarazen Flight also this year. Ilyas Ahmed of Irvine was hoping for a Journey To Better Performance Promotion also to Sarazen Flight after this event as this was one of his stated goals. Although he played well, Ahmed will have to wait a little while longer and produce some better scores to earn the promotion. He played well, tying for 3rd place at 14-over par 86. Jonathan Mayes struggled early in his round, making his first par on hole #8, but played much better down the stretch and on the back nine to also fire a good score of 86 to tie for 3rd place.
Thanks to the rest of the field who did their respective job on pace of play, the Snead Flight not only finished well before sunset but even had time for a playoff! Monty White of Dana Point, who won the 50/50 raffle, is back on Tour after a hiatus. White loves the Tour and even brought donuts out for players to enjoy back in July at Monarch Beach Golf Links. Making his first start in quite some time, White showed little rust and shot a round of 92. Also at 92 was Robert Randles of Pomona. The 92 by Randles was a personal best and the two headed to the treacherous par-four 17th hole for the playoff. Randles would prevail, earning his 1st ever tournament victory and he did so like a champion, making a solid par in the playoff to earn the win. Congratulations to both players on nice rounds and to Randles for his personal best score and victory! It was good to see Joe Strong of Wildomar back out on Tour. Strong came out of retirement and continues to improve and impress that he can compete in Snead. Strong, one of the most popular players on Tour, still has it at 87 as he finished in 3rd place and just three strokes out of the playoff at 95.
The Los Angeles Tour returns to action on Sunday, December 15 with the Pacific Classic at Pelican Hill – Ocean North. Please register early if you intend on playing as this event will sell-out. Thank you again to all the players who contributed to the raffle and produced great pace of play in the first LA event of the new season!
