Robert Gautney: Small field appears wide open for Kern County Amateur
| Wednesday, Oct 07 2009 09:17 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Oct 07 2009 09:17 PM
It appears the Men's Kern County Amateur golf championship will be a wide open tournament with one of the smallest fields in recent history.
As of Wednesday afternoon, only 45 players had signed-up for the 59th annual event, which will be played Saturday and Sunday on the Mifflin-Buena Vista and Haggerty-North Kern golf courses. And with the defending champion unavailable to play, the field, although small in numbers, appears to have quality.
Defending champion and tournament record holder Bhavik Patel will be competing for his Fresno State University golf team this weekend in the Cal Alister McKenzie Invitational in Fairfax. That also means that his teammates -- Grant Doverspike and Bryan Hogan, will also not be able to compete. Hogan is a two-time winner of the KC Amateur.
"It's too bad that I won't be able to defend the title," Patel said. "It's a great tournament with a tough field."
Patel, who was a semifinalist this summer in the United States Amateur, just finished second in the first fall tournament for FSU. The Bulldogs finished fourth as a team in the Wolfpack Classic in Reno, and Patel shot 71-67-70 to finish at 8-under 208. Doverspike was 21st and Hogan was 32nd.
With Patel, Hogan and Doverspike not playing, the spotlight might be on current high school and college players and players currently in the top five of the points standings for the Sports Authority/Michelob Ultra Player of the Year title.
Currently, Scott Anderson leads with 78 points and Patel is second at 56. But with Patel not playing, Ron Kilmer with 48 and Nick Vallejo with 47 are the only other players with a mathematical chance of overtaking Anderson, but that's highly unlikely.
Anderson, Kilmer and Vallejo, along with 2002 winner DJ Fernando are in the field as are long-time top-10 finishers Bill Frankhouser, Jr., two-time City winner Dan Hogan and 1985 winner Hank Hoss.
Centennial High's Manav Shah, the 2009 Californian All Area Golfer of the Year, and Gunner Kirschenmann lead a contingent of high school players while CSUB's Kyle Morrison, Eric D'Amato and Kirk Harper and BC players Rich Gilkey and Tavares Tripplett will lead the college ranks, among others.
Last year, Patel shot a 7-under 135 which equalled the tournament record first established by Arnold Kirschenmann in 1966 and tied in 2007 by Justin Pitts. Stephen Hale, who will also be competing at the college tournament for Cal, owns the opening-round record with a 65 in 2007 while Brady Baguio has the final round mark of 66 he set last year when six players broke 140 making the 2008 the lowest scoring KC Am ever.
The tournament has always been played in conjunction with daylight savings time, but with the early October date, the time change and darkness will not be a problem as it has been a few times in the past.
Players can still sign-up to play, but will need to call the BV pro shop at 398-9720 ASAP.
COX, BELL FINISH 31ST IN 4-BALL
Joe Cox and Bryan Bell teamed to shoot consecutive rounds of net even-par 72 to finish equal 31st in the SCGA 4-Ball Net Championships last week in Fallbrook.
Cox and Bell played both courses at the Pala Mesa Resort, but couldn't quite get anything going like they did when they qualified back in early September with a 64 Simi Hills GC.
The tournament was won by a team from Indian Wells CC with rounds of 65 and 61 for a 126 total, four shots clear of the field.
COLLEGE UPDATE
Ellen Krausse shot a 9-over 152 to win the North/South Cup for the Bakersfield College Women's golf team this week on the Central Coast.
The event was played on the Dairy Creek and Morro Bay golf courses and Krausse shot 76 on both to win by three shots over Santa Barbara's Asaka Sim and her BC teammate Katherine James. BC finished second as a team to Sacramento City College.
Levi Garcia shot a 5-over 218 to tie for 13th to lead the CSUB Men's golf team in the Firestone Grill College Invitational in Nipomo, while Jennifer Davison led the CSUB women with a 15th-place finish. Ashley Neal, who won the Women's Kern County Amateur three weeks ago, was 19th for CSUB.
Tee to Green appears weekly at Bakersfield.com/sports. You can reach Gautney at: rgautney@bak.rr.com.
