Golf column: County Amateur nothing short of magical
| Wednesday, Oct 29 2008 01:14 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:17 PM
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Bhavik Patel tees off during Sunday's Kern County Amateur Golf Championship at Foss-Kern River Golf Course.
Unbelievable! Never in the storied history of the Men's Kern County Amateur Championship had so many players been playing so well and been bunched at the top of the leaderboard with just a few holes remaining.
Sure, there had been two six-way playoffs, one in 1963 and another in 1981, but those were at 3-over and 7-over, respectively. And in 2005, Bryan Hogan won his second title in a playoff after he and four others tied at 4-under.
But this past Sunday at Foss-Kern River, golf in Kern County reached new heights. Not only did the field make another assault on the record books, but the final three holes produced more drama than a season finale of Desperate Housewives.
Bhavik Patel, who announced that he will be attending Fresno State in January, won the tournament with a final-hole 4-foot birdie on Kern River's par-5 18th, a fitting end to a highlight reel tournament.
Patel shot a final round 3-under 67 and, coupled with his opening 4-under 68 at Haggerty-North Kern on Saturday, finished at a tournament record tying 7-under 135. Those scores equaled the marks of Arnold Kirschenmann in 1966 and Justin Pitts just last year.
But three other players finished at 6-under and another finished at 5-under, and, heading into the 17th hole, there were four players (including Patel) at 6-under and current Cal Berkeley sophomore Stephen Hale was leading at 7-under.
As Patel, Hale, D.J. Fernando and John Balfanz played the 221-yard par-3 17th, Brady Baguio played the par-5 18th in the group ahead.
Baguio canned a 5-foot birdie to finish at 6-under and waited for the final group. Meanwhile, the 17th hole proved to be a major factor in the outcome of the tournament.
Patel missed the green but got it up-and-down to save par to remain at 6-under. Balfanz and Fernando also missed the green and each made bogey to drop to 5-under. But the big blow belonged to Hale.
Just last year, Hale had the lead at Mifflin-Buena Vista when he hit his tee ball into a palm tree on the 16th hole at BV. That miscue led to a triple-bogey and a fourth-place finish and misfortune would find Hale again in the 58th edition.
Hale missed the green on the 17th, then, after chipping on with his second, he uncharacteristically three-putted for a double bogey to drop into a tie with Fernando and Balfanz at 5-under.
But in true champions fashion, Hale, who shot the lowest single round ever in the tournament's history last year when he shot a 65 in the first round at KR, came back to make it interesting.
Balfanz missed the 18th with his approach shot after his tee ball went right, but nearly chipped in for birdie as the ball grazed the low side of the cup.
With Baguio watching in the gallery, Hale then canned a 10-foot birdie putt to reach 6-under. Then Fernando, who owns the lowest final-round mark with a 66 in 2002, sank an 8-foot putt for his birdie 4 to finish at 6-under. Suddenly, there were four players at 6-under with only Patel left to stroke his 4-foot winner.
Patel, Fernando, Hale and Balfanz all shot 4-under 68s at NK on Saturday, while John Dunn was a 3-under 69. Baguio was another shot back after a 70 along with Grant Doverspike, Bob Rensel and Kent Richardson.
Fernando and Hale shot final-round 68s while Baguio equaled Fernando's final round record with a 66 and all finished one shot back at 6-under 136. Balfanz was at 5-under for fifth place, Dunn shot 70 to finish at 3-under while Hogan and Bill Frankhouser were equal seventh at 1-under. Rounding out the top 10 were Doverspike at even-par 142 and Bruce Scurlock at 1-over 143.
So, after Harry Harvey set the final-round mark with a 67 in 1961 and Kirschenmann set the opening-round and tournament marks in 1966, Kern County's best amateur golfers have matched and surpassed the longtime records during the last two events.
A total of 73 players entered the tournament, which was a nice number considering there were only 27 signed-up just two weeks ago.
PATEL WINS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
By winning the KC Amateur, Patel won his second Sports Authority/Michelob Light Player of the Year Series title. He won his first in 2006 and joined three other players that have each won the crown twice.
Patel finished with 123 points to outdistance Baguio who had 79 points. Hogan was third with Fernando fourth and Ron Kilmer fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 were Scott Anderson, Balfanz, Frankhouser, Jr., Josh Barnes and Hale.
The top 10 will receive gift certificates from the Sports Authority and they should be available for pick-up by early next week.
Patel will receive the winner's bronze trophy and the perpetual trophy will be on display in 2009 at his home course of RiverLakes Ranch.
CHIP SHOTS
* The 5th Kern County Dinner of Champions will be Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Kern County Firemen's Hall at 6 p.m. Anyone who would like to attend should contact George Culver at 873-1067 or via internet at baseballgeo@bak.rr.com.
* Congratulations to the Garces, Frontier and Stockdale High School girls golf teams, which qualified for Monday's Central Section Championships at Riverbend GC in Madera. Garces and Stockdale will participate in Division I while Frontier will be in Division II. Garces won the Area title with Frontier second and Stockdale third in a card-off over Liberty. The top 15, which includes Area winner Mica Guzman of Garces, will play in the Individual Central Section Championships at The Links at RiverLakes Ranch next Monday. Cassie Clayton was runner-up to Guzman with Deidra Crabtree third, while Tammy Park of Stockdale was fifth with an unusually high score of 86. Malea Miler of Frontier was fourth with an 82 while Gabby Marina and Meghan Shain tied at 86 with Park.
* Patel's win in the Kern County Amateur and Baguio's final round record-tying 66 will most certainly make the list of top performances for 2008. During the first week in December, a list will be derived and readers can vote for their choice for the best performance of 2008. The list will then be trimmed to the top five and will be given to the folks at Pro Shop Golf who will then chose the winner of the 2008 Pro Shop Golf Performance of the Year. The winner, which will be announced in the final Tee to Green column for 2008, will receive a $100 gift certificate from Pro Shop Golf.
Tee to Green appears weekly at Bakersfield.com. You can reach Gautney at rgautney@bak.rr.com.
