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Because about 30 players were exempt into the championship, the qualifier was canceled. Those who paid $50 for the qualifier were given the option of entering the championship for another $150, since the entry fee for the final 72-hole tournament is $200. "It didn't make much sense to have the qualifier if everyone was going to make it," said JAGA president Don Haws. And it's not so much how many are playing but who isn't. Former University of North Florida All-American and past city amateur champion Steve Carter and former Florida State player Andy Purnell won the state Four-Ball Championship last week and passed on playing in the Hillyer. Also not in the field are recent winners Billy Clements, Scott Smith and Robert Goettlicher. The main reason for some of the missing players has a lot to do with what's good about amateur golf on the First Coast as a whole. Because July is in the middle of a glut of statewide and national amateur tournaments, and the area has a number of players who can compete on one or both levels, some have made the choice in recent years to skip the Amateur. For example, this year's amateur precedes U.S. Amateur qualifying at Hidden Hills Monday and Tuesday. Any player making the JAGA Amateur cut who also entered the U.S. Amateur qualifying will have to play golf six days in a row, at three courses, and only two rounds in succession at any course. "I went with the city amateur and skipped the U.S. Am qualifying," said JAGA amateur defending champion Ken Moody. "Other guys are going the other way." The top college players in the area lately have concentrated on trying to qualify for the U.S. Open, the U.S. Public Links, the Western Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. The best high school players are busy with the American Junior Golf Association and other junior events. "The problems JAGA is having with getting people to enter the amateur is only because we have so many players who are good enough to win state tournaments and qualify for national tournaments," said Mike Ellison, who was in the field this week with his brother, Mark. "It's really no one's fault. JAGA is stuck with this date because there's really no other time they can play, besides July or August." Haws said a late summer date is necessary to give high school and college players the chance to enter. June is out because of the U.S. Open qualifying process. September through April collides with high school and college golf seasons. Also, many of the area's best amateurs have full-time jobs, and the summer is the best time for them to take vacation days to play in the tournament. "We're really locked into July," Haws said. There also is competition from club events. With nearly 100 golf courses in the area, there are a corresponding number of club championships, member-guest tournaments and invitational tournaments sponsored by a club -- many of which fall in the summer. This year, the city amateur dates conflicted with the Deercreek club championship, came a week after the Selva Marina club championship and a week before the Clay County Classic. "A lot of guys, given the choice between playing in their club championship or the city amateur, will play at their club," Haws said. "Maybe it's because they have more friends at the club or they think they have a better chance of winning that." It's not that JAGA hasn't tried to make changes. After years of playing 54-hole events and scrounging for afternoon tee times at area clubs -- and running into weather delays in the process -- the tournament went back to a 72-hole format last year and has been able to start in the mornings at Selva and Queen's Harbour. "I thought that would attract more players," said Ellison, who conducted a letter and phone campaign with clubs to get morning starting times, and to expand the tournament to 72 holes. "I'm disappointed that it has not. But this is still a great tournament. The only thing holding it back is the competition with other amateur tournaments, from club championships to national events. JAGA needs to keep their eye on the ball and keeping working at it." One suggestion has been to open the tournament up to players with a higher handicap (10 is the maximum handicap to enter) and have net divisions. However, Moody said that isn't the answer. "That's not going to bring more good players into the tournament, which is what we need," he said. "Maybe JAGA could have a handicap championship at another time, but you want this tournament to have the best players you can get.'' JAGA took another step this year in dropping its first president, Charles Hillyer, from the tournament name. It had been known as the Hillyer Amateur Championship for the last six years, but officials believed it confused potential entrants. "Maybe some good players who have moved here recently didn't know that Hillyer Amateur meant the city championship," Moody said. "But what we really need is to have this tournament at the best courses we can." More than a decade ago, the tournament was 72 holes, with each round at a different course, ending with the final round at the TPC at Sawgrass. JAGA officials are hoping to work out a deal with the World Golf Hall of Fame courses for the next two-year cycle. This is the final year of the arrangement with Selva Marina and Queen's Harbour. "If we get this on great courses, and can continue to have morning tee times, I think the best players will make an effort to enter," said Al Levene, one of the JAGA directors. Despite some discussion at a recent JAGA meeting about eliminating the amateur, there have been no serious moves in that direction. There is a precedent from other cities in Florida -- Tampa, for example, has no amateur championship. "They can't do that," said Blackburn, who won the tournament in 1971 at the age of 20. "With everything that golf means to Jacksonville, they can't not have a city amateur." July 23, 2005
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| Michael Young Jr. waits to putt on the 17th green
with a towel on his head for shade during play in the Jacksonville
Golf Association Amateur Championship on Thursday . RICK WILSON/The Times-Union |
"I guess age and experience counts for something on the golf course," Henderson said. "Pars were pretty good, with this heat and the greens being as slow as they were. I swear they were running five on the Stimpmeter. I never got the ball to the hole."
McClung, an Episcopal graduate who played at Vanderbilt, said hot weather and difficult greens are part of the equation during a Florida summer.
"You have to play what you get, and everyone's greens are going to be grainy in Florida this time of year," he said. "And the heat saps you. All you can do is drink a lot of water and stand in the shade whenever you can."
With two rounds completed, the field was cut to 22 players at 14 over or better. They will go to Selva Marina today for the third round and return to Queen's Harbour on Sunday for the final round.
If Henderson's short game remains solid, he could be difficult to catch. He got up-and-down for par four times and has some recent history with winning tournaments, thanks to his chipping. He led his team to a victory in the 2004 Henry Tuten Gator Bowl Pro-Am with an up-and-down par on the first playoff hole.
"If I can keep playing this Nick Faldo golf [making mostly pars and avoiding disaster], I've got a chance," Henderson said.
The Orange Park resident can thank his wedge play and putting stroke for that.
"He chipped it close and made everything he looked at," playing partner Mike Ellison said.
Sawicki, a rising junior and walk-on member of the Ohio State golf team, birdied three of his last four holes at Selva Marina Country Club to finish at 1-under-par 71, one shot better than defending champion Ken Moody and Alan Henderson.
They were the only three in the field of 53 to match par or better, playing under intense heat and humidity and tricky breezes. The tournament moves to Queen's Harbour today for the second round, after which the field will be cut to the low 21 players, plus ties.
The tournament will return to Selva Marina for Saturday's third round and finish at Queen's Harbour Sunday.
Sawicki had a spectacular start, holing a bunker shot for birdie at the par-4 first hole, and he was 2-under par through seven holes. But he triple-bogeyed No. 8 after blading a bunker shot into woods behind the green, then bogeyed Nos. 9 and 10 to drop five strokes in three holes.
However, Sawicki rallied when he nearly holed a 65-yard pitch at the par-5 14th hole, then tapped in for birdie. He made a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-4 15th hole.
Sawicki ended the day by making a 10-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 18th hole, after punching his second shot out of the rough and through several palm trees, then pitching onto the green.
"That was the biggest shot of the day for me," he said of the birdie putt. "It got me in red numbers. I figured that with the conditions, anything in red numbers was going to be around the lead. I didn't know 71 would be leading."
Moody, who won last year after four runner-up finishes, had identical nine-holes scores (36) to solidly start his title defense. Henderson had a two-shot lead at the turn but had to settle for a one-shot deficit.
Also in contention are Doug Conkey and Justin Jones, who are tied at 1 over. Ellison, Will Braude, Michael Brice and Ben McClung are tied at 2 over.
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