County well represented at City Amateur
The Augusta City Amateur golf championship was held last weekend at Forest Hills Golf Club, and several Columbia County residents and natives performed well.
On the final day of the three-round event, two former Evans High School players battled for top honors.
Chip Whitaker, a 1987 Evans graduate, opened with rounds of 72-71 to take a three-shot lead into Sunday's final round.
After a bogey on No. 10, however, he found himself trailing Chris Kuhlke, another Evans High product - Kuhlke, a member of the class of 1990 at Evans, played his first 11 holes at 7-under par Sunday to surge to the top of the leader board (at 2-under for the tournament).
Subsequently, Kuhlke suffered costly bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16, while Whitaker finished strong and held on for a one-shot win. Despite the late bogeys, Kuhlke's final round 67 was the lowest round in the City Am by three shots.
Other scores and finishes from Columbia County golfers at Forest Hills included: Brendan O'Connell (83-73-72, tied for 10th); Will Rogers (74-77-77, tied for 10th); Kenan Yount (76-80-73, tied for 12th); Paul Trotter (80-74-78, tied for 14th); Zac Tilton (80-80-74, tied for 21st); and, Alex Abate (78-77-82, tied for 28th).
Pro's experiment featured
In April, Gregg Hemann, teaching professional and tournament director for The Club at Jones Creek, helped The News-Times conduct an experiment which compared different styles of drivers. The goal was to see how much technological improvements have changed the way golf is played off the tee.
Hemann hit a number of shots with three cubs - a persimmon driver from the 1950s; a titanium model from 1995; and a thin-faced driver which was touted for its distance benefits.
The experiment was prompted by an ongoing debate that technological advancements have allowed top professionals to hit the ball so far that traditional golf courses are becoming obsolete.
As expected, the persimmon driver came up short, while the hot driver went great distances.
Now, Hemann's findings will be detailed during the August episode of Golfing Augusta, which airs on Comcast Channel 4. The segment will air on Tuesdays' Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.