111TH WESTERN AMATEUR

Rough and ready: Alotian Club will provide test for best

Grounds crew members prepare the 14th green at The Alotian Club in Roland on Thursday in preparation for the 111th Western Amateur tournament, which begins Tuesday. A total of 156 amateurs will compete in the tournament which ends Aug. 4 with semifinal and final rounds of match-play competition.
Grounds crew members prepare the 14th green at The Alotian Club in Roland on Thursday in preparation for the 111th Western Amateur tournament, which begins Tuesday. A total of 156 amateurs will compete in the tournament which ends Aug. 4 with semifinal and final rounds of match-play competition.

The Alotian Club may be ranked among the 100 greatest golf courses in America, but don’t be surprised if it’s a little rough around the edges for next week’s Western Amateur tournament.

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Observation seating has been set up in several locations, including the 16th green, on the course at The Alotian Club for spectators at this year’s Western Amateur golf tournament.

Tournament organizers are busy putting the final touches on the 7,480-yard course that will play host to 156 of the best amateur golfers in the world, beginning Tuesday. It figures to be a grueling test, with a layout that features several elevated tees that wind down to rolling fairways that lead to greens that play back uphill.

Alotian PGA professional Jon Zieske said the club has been readying the course for some time for one of the premier amateur tournaments. A few final touches will be made in the coming days, but Zieske said the course will be ready to take center stage when practice rounds begin Monday.

“Preparation for the Western Amateur began a year ago when we started growing the rough,” said Zieske, whose course was ranked 15th in Golf Digest’s 2013-14 edition of America’s 100 greatest golf courses. “Now it’s just about upkeep, final mowing and marking the course for hazards.”

Crews have been busy erecting tents and observation seating locations for the tournament, placing seating areas around the outside of the clubhouse and adding signs to help navigate players and caddies where to drop their bags among other assignments. Electronic scoreboards will need some maintenance once they arrive and will be placed around the 14th and 18th greens.

Greens are being rolled and tee boxes are being covered, leaving a small area for practice rounds leading up to Tuesday’s opening round, the first of four days of stroke play.

Then there is that rough Zieske takes pride in discussing.

Players who hit the ball off the fairway during the tournament may find themselves in a primary cut of rough 2 ½ inches deep, which could get interesting.

“You can get a good lie or a questionable lie, where you don’t know how the ball is going to come out, or just a real bad lie,” Zieske said. “It’s going to be, more or less, luck of the draw.”

Players can only hope that if they don’t hit the fairway they land in the primary cut. If not, a 4-inch secondary cut awaits. Zieske calls it the “savior cut.”

“It’s there to save balls,” he said. “It’s mean. We’ll have markers on hand, but if a ball is real off line there’s going to be a tough time finding it.”

The course’s 86 bunkers also have been whitened, where the top inch has been taken off and replaced with a fresh white topping of sand.

“The course is in great shape,” Zieske said. “We’ve worked extremely hard to have a course that’s fair and one we think these guys will appreciate.”

This will mark the first time a Western Amateur tournament has been played west of the Mississippi or south of Chicago since 1970, when it was held in Wichita, Kan., and won by Lanny Wadkins.

The tournament was played at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill., in 2009, at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., in 2010, at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., in 2011 and at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Ill., in 2012.

Before that, from 1971 to 2008, it was played at Point O’Woods Golf and Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Patrick Lee, 41, of Centerton won the Western Amateur in 1995 at Point O’Woods. He also worked in the pro shop and as a caddy at The Alotian Club in 2004-05 and will return for the first time since then to play in the prestigious tournament that dates back to 1899.

“I’m real excited to play in the Western Amateur and come back to play Alotian,” Lee said. “I’m hoping my overall knowledge of the course can pay off, but I’m not sure about much until I can get out there.”

At a glance

WHEN Tuesday-Aug. 4 WHERE The Alotian Club, Roland

FIELD 156 invited players, including 55 of the world’s top 100 amateurs. Top-ranked Cory Whitsett of Houston, No. 3 Justin Thomas of Goshen, Ky., and No. 4 Patrick Rodgers of Avon, Ind., are included in the field.

ARKANSANS ENTERED Sebastian Cappelen (Fayetteville), Austin Cook (Jonesboro), Joe Doramus (Little Rock), Nicolas Echavarria (Fayetteville), Lane Hulse (Fordyce), Patrick Lee (Centerton), Wes McNulty (White Hall), Joey Nichols (North Little Rock) and Stan Payne (Little Rock.

FORMAT Four rounds of stroke play, with field cut to low 44 and ties after second round and to low 16 after fourth round. Two rounds of match play Aug. 3, with semifinal and championship rounds of match play Aug. 4.

BADGES $100. Available at will-call tent at tournament parking located at The Ranch on Arkansas 10. All badges are transferable.

Sports, Pages 17 on 07/25/2013

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