In advance of the first Golf House Kentucky tournament of 2020, Dave Nicholas, President of the Kentucky Golf Association said, “We’ve never worked so hard to get a tournament off the ground.” It’s a true statement, as the amount of work that went into making sure the KGA, KPGA and Kentucky PGA Junior Tour could have tournaments safely and successfully was no small undertaking.

On June 1^st, Bardstown Country Club was the site of a strange day for players and tournament staff. Staggered warm-up times, socially distant golf, a different scoring process, and lift-devices on flagsticks gave this season-opening tournament a strange feeling. But it was tournament golf! It was the Kentucky Senior Team Championship, a two-day tournament where players played in teams of two under the four-ball format in the first-round while playing alternate shot in the final round. Buddy Bryant and Scott Ray took the top honors as the gross champions by way of recording 133 (-11). Kevin Auton/Rusty Dyer (Senior-Net), Gary Backlund/Tom Scheuerman (Masters-Gross), Tom Baggett/Jay Dietrich (Masters-Net), Rick Cain/Terry Bowman (Legends-Gross), and Jerry Edwards/Vernon Denham (Legends-Net) also took home first-place prizes in the first Kentucky golf tournament in the era of COVID-19.

One week later, professional competition got back underway with the Pro-Am Championship at Big Spring Country Club. A beautiful day at the 1952 PGA Championship host site produced a winning squad of Grover Justice/Evan Davis/Justin Tereshko/Alex Martin, who won by three strokes with a score of 131 (-13). Also of note from this day was the round of amateur Andy Roberts, who was -5 through 10 holes. He eventually finished with a 67 (-5), quieting down after the simmering start, but it was one of the top rounds to start off the season on all forms of competition.

The KPGA and KGA double-dipped on June 22^nd with the KPGA staying in Louisville to complete the Taylormade Bill Long Mega Pro-Am at Wildwood Country Club while the KGA trekked north to Summit Hills Country Club for the first Am Series event of 2020. The father-daughter duo of Richard Schmitt and Alaina Schmitt won the team competition at Wildwood with a round of 63 (-9) which beat a whopping seven teams by one stroke. There was a three-way tie for low professional of the day, as Grover Justice, Tom Walters and Host Professional Blake Watts each shot 69 (-3).

The Am Series competition saw the low round come from the previously-mentioned Andy Roberts, who shot 68 (-2) which took the first-place prize in the Open-Gross ranks. Paul Jackson (Open Net), Tony Wise (Senior Gross), Darin Oneil (Senior Net), Scott Pottinger (Masters Gross), Charles Martin (Masters Net), Joe Cantrell (Legends Gross), and Bruce Walters (Legends Net) collected the other titles in their respective divisions.

The final week of June began a stretch of poor weather luck for golf tournaments as the 2x2 Pro-Am presented by Sun Mountain saw two separate delays throughout the day render the event at Persimmon Ridge Golf Club to just a nine-hole competition. Blake Watts/J.M. Butler/Logan Watts/Jeff Kelso swept both the gross and net team titles with Blake Watts sharing the low pro award with Chad Douglas after both submitted front-nine scores of 32 (-4).

The poor weather also intervened in the first junior competition of the season an hour and a half east at Gibson Bay Golf Course, site of the Kentucky Boys Junior PGA Championship. It was a start date three months later than planned for the Kentucky PGA Junior Tour, which had been following state government orders to not hold any youth sports competition until the end of June because of the pandemic. But once underway, Warren Thomis got off to a torrid start on Tour by dominating the field to a seven-shot victory after posting a total score of 137 (-7). In a more traditional year, that performance would have easily gotten Thomis into the Junior PGA Championship, but that event was canceled for the year because of the pandemic. A similar performance next summer, however, will qualify Thomis for the national tournament, scheduled to be hosted by Kearney Hill Golf Links in July.

It was a light month of competition for June compared to what’s usual, but we were fortunate to be having any golf tournaments at all. It was a good month of kick-off events that got the 2020 golf season moving, paving the course for the state’s major championships. Those championships will begin to get touched on with our July recap tomorrow.