Do hangers-on hurt Champions Tour?

Byline: Bill Doyle

COLUMN: BILL DOYLE'S GOLF NOTES

Rick Karbowski, Kirk Hanefeld and other golfers trying to become regulars on the Champions Tour will be glad to hear that the tour is considering making it easier for nonexempt golfers to qualify.

They won't be as pleased to learn that no change will be made before the tour's qualifying tournament at the end of next year.

Seven year-long exemptions were up for grabs in the qualifying tournament at the end of the 2005 season, and Karbowski and Hanefeld earned two of them. When they didn't win enough money last year to stay exempt for 2007, they had no chance of keeping their tour cards by returning to Q-school. The Q-school graduates at the end of last year earned only the right to play in the Monday or Tuesday qualifiers each week. No year-long exemptions were granted and none will be after this year's Q-school either.

The number of Monday or Tuesday qualifiers admitted into the 78-player fields each week was boosted from two to nine this year, but qualifying each week is a difficult task.

"This system," Champions Tour president Rick George said last week at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, "we're evaluating it to see if the players are getting enough opportunities, and we'll look at that as we move forward."

While Karbowski and Hanefeld could beat half the field each week, they don't have the names to sell tickets. If the Champions Tour gave them the chance to play more often, maybe they would. Massachusetts natives Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley became success stories on the tour without any PGA Tour success.

"This tour school now is such a bad deal," Doyle said. "The only way you get on now is you've got to win. In years past, if you got through tour school and you were exempt, you could play well for that year and you could get exempt and keep playing well and stay exempt. I wonder if there ever will be a guy like Dana or myself, the tour school guys who got their card and had a guaranteed year to play out here, played well, and was in the top 30 and stayed in the top 30."

It's understandable that the Champions Tour wants to save room for big-name golfers about to turn 50. But they allow too many of their older golfers to hang around too long when they're no longer competitive. Lee Trevino may have the following to sell tickets even if he can't play, but Hugh Baiocchi and Jim Colbert don't. Jim Albus (13 events), Colbert (12), Baiocchi (10), Isao Aoki (10), J.C. Snead (8) and Dale Douglass (7) have earned less money than the $40,307 Karbowski pocketed Sunday for tying for eighth in the Bank of America Championship. It must bother Karbowski that he has to qualify each week but those old-timers don't.

George said as golfers high on the all-time money list turn 50, they'll bump older golfers off the exempt list.

"We certainly don't think we're a closed shop," George said. "We think there are plenty of opportunities to get in through those nine spots. It's difficult to do, but it's been done and we're looking at that to see if that's the direction we want going forward."

The Champions Tour has no plans to expand its fields beyond 78 golfers or lower its age minimum under 50.

Central Mass. Open returns...

The Central Mass. Open returns to Heritage CC in Charlton this fall after a year's absence.

The event had been held in August, but didn't take place last year because of scheduling problems. This year, the tournament will be staged as a pro-am and will be moved to Oct. 8, a time when most club pros aren't as busy. First place is usually about $3,000. To register, call Heritage at [phone].

A Tuesday junior league begins this week at Heritage. For $80, juniors will receive eight rounds and eight range tokens weekly. Registration begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday and play gets under way at 11.

Greg Farland, pro at Heritage and Quaboag CC, played in the National Club Pro Championship in Oregon two weeks ago and missed the cut.

Heritage's new back tee on the fourth hole is scheduled to open next weekend for the club championship. The new tee, located behind a pond to the right of and well behind the existing tee, will stretch the hole from 360 to 453 yards, but it will actually play closer to 480 yards because it's uphill.

Tee shots will have to travel 218 yards to carry the pond and reach the fairway. The longer hole will become one of the course's most difficult. Heritage owner Bill Plante said 35 golfers played the hole off a mat one day last fall and only two made par.

Plante said the yardages of the par-3 holes have been measured with lasers and exact yardage markers will be erected on each level of the tees.

A photo of Plante and his look-alike, Ernie Els, at the 1998 Masters hangs on Heritage's clubhouse wall. Plante recalls Sergio Garcia saying that day that he could be Els' brother.

Hole-in-one epidemic hits Petersham CC...

Holes-in-one are becoming commonplace for Petersham CC members. Lucas Langelier, 16, of New Braintree carded his second in three weeks Wednesday at Brookline GC at Putterham. Three weeks earlier, Langelier, a senior this fall at Quabbin Regional High, also aced the eighth hole at Petersham with a pitching wedge.

A week after Langelier, Scott Adams carded a hole-in-one on the eighth hole with a 6-iron. Last Sunday, Phil Legare aced the eighth with an 11-wood. Two Fridays ago, Petersham member Rick Wiles had a hole-in-one on the sixth hole at Cyprian Keyes GC. Colin Beaupre, 16, who also will be a senior at Quabbin this fall, shot a 4-under 66 last Sunday. It was the lowest round of the year at Petersham.

Petersham CC opened on July 4, 1922, and to celebrate its 85th anniversary, the club is charging only $85 per foursome to walk on Saturdays.

Near-miss for Carr

Joe Carr, owner of Bedrock Golf Club in Rutland, nearly shot his age while winning low pro honors in a NEPGA pro-am at Cranberry Valley in Harwich on June 8. Carr, 68, sank a 30-footer to end a round of 2-under 69.

Carr also came within a stroke of his age when he was 62, firing a 9-under 63 in a pro-am in Florida. He never has shot his age, but intends to do so at some point this year. He wouldn't mind doing it during the NEPGA Senior Championship Aug. 8-9 at Woodstock, Vt. Carr has won that event a handful of times, but not since 2001.

Bedrock will host the 19th annual Dr. F.H. Carr Memorial Golf Tournament on July 28 to raise scholarship money for a Worcester high school football player. The event is named after Carr's late father.

Last month, Mark Salvatore Jr., 17, of Rutland, hit his tee shot into the water on the par-3, 169-yard fourth hole at Bedrock. Then he re-teed and drove his ball into the cup and turned to his father, Mark Sr., and said, "I made a hole-in-one."

"No," his father corrected him. "You just made a nice par."

With a two-stroke penalty, Salvatore did end up with a par, but a thrill nonetheless.

Family Nights at Green Hill

Sunday Family Nights have returned to Green Hill Municipal Golf Course. At 6 p.m., children and their parents can walk a shortened version of the front nine for $5 each. The tees are moved up to within 150 yards of the greens. The club bills the program as "Tees are up and fees are down."

Green Hill's annual junior golf clinic July 15-19 is sold out with 100 kids aged 8-14 signed up.

Bill Doyle can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) The $40,307 Worcester's Rick Karbowski, above, earned last weekend is more than Champions Tour regular Jim Albus has earned in 13 events. (2) Bedrock Golf Club owner Joe Carr nearly shot his age while winning low pro honors in a NEPGA pro-am at Cranberry Valley in Harwich on June 8. Carr, 68, sank a 30-footer to end a round of 2-under 69.

PHOTOG: FILE PHOTOS