LITTLE ROCK — For more than 18 months, Aaron Dawson, general manager at Chenal Country Club, has worked parts of each day on this week’s Southern Amateur Championship. Lately it has been much of every waking hour.
He’s had help from Wyn Norwood, the former UALR golf coach and Southern Golf Assocation board member, and others, but the reason this internationally recognized golf tournament, one that is highly competitive and features the next round of golfers for the PGA, is coming to Little Rock was sitting in a corner of the lounge Friday with his friend Jerry Webster.
Ray Dillon was sipping an “Arnold Palmer” (half lemonade, half iced tea) and pumping up all the work everyone else has done, taking no credit for himself.
He talked about all the volunteers, the people who were giving golfers a place to stay and the hands-on work of Dawson.
The closest he would come to taking any credit was when he said how proud “Deltic Timber is to sponsor such a prestigious golf tournament. It is an honor for us, Chenal, the city and state to host this tournament.”
Dillon is the chief executive officer of Deltic Timber, Corp. and the Southern Amateur Championship would not be here if he hadn’t signed off on it.
He’s the quarterback on what has proven to be a great team, but that’s what it takes to host an event as significant as this.
Some of the world’s topranked amateur golfers will be here, starting with the University of Alabama’s Bobby Wyatt, who is No. 3 in the world.
Cheng-Tsung Pan of Taiwan, No. 16 in the world, is also scheduled to compete. Pan qualified for last year’s U.S. Open.
The 171-man field includes eight local players: Alex Carpenter, who won the 2010 Southern Amateur Championship at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala.; Joe Doramus, Matt Mabrey, Bobby Baker, Nick Wilson, Conley Hurst, Joey Nichols, Shawn Reynolds and Tim Hardham.
Incidentally, parking and admission are free.
The atmosphere will be like a PGA tournament complete with bib-wearing caddies and roving officials.
“Really, we want everyone in the state to feel welcomed for this event,” Dillon said.
The planning for this golf tournament actually began in 2007 when Chenal hosted the Southern Junior Championship and members of the Southern Golf Association left with high marks for the way the tournament was run and especially Bear Den course.
The Robert Trent Jones II-designed course opened in 2003, is 7,326 yards long and is designed so that golfers have to use every club in their bag.
This the 106th Southern Amateur Championship and part of its success is that it is steeped in tradition.
Some amateur events try to lure players with lavish gifts and corporate perks but the SGA’s board of directors decided to focus on a true amateur, stroke-play tournament that is like the Masters without the prize money. The biggest prize is having your name engraved on the George W. Adair Memorial Trophy, alongside Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur of all.
“We want this to be a visit to our state and a tournament these golfers will never forget,” Dillon said.
The tournament starts at 7:30 Wednesday morning, with threesomes teeing off the first and 10th tees. The afternoon groups will tee off on Nos. 1 and 10 beginning at 12:30 p.m. There will be a 36-hole cut, and the remaining players will begin on Nos. 1 and 10 at 7:30 a.m, with the leaders teeing off on hole No. 1 between 8:30 and 9:30.
It would be difficult to imagine that one of the most coveted and respected amateur golf tournaments in the world would be played in Little Rock, but having met some of the team, starting with quarterback Ray Dillon, it is easy to see why it is a reality.
Sports, Pages 21 on 07/15/2012