It will be four-ball galore over the next two weeks, both locally and nationally.
Between now and May 13, four big four-ball championships will be contested in Colorado or by the USGA, with Colorado competitors involved. First up are the separate CGA Four-Ball and Senior Four-Ball tournaments, the first CGA championships of 2015, set for Friday through Sunday (May 1-3). Then the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball will be held May 2-6 in San Francisco. Last but not least, the first U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball will be played May 9-13 in Bandon, Ore.
(It should be noted that though the CWGA won’t have a four-ball event in the next couple of weeks, it holds three four-ball tournaments annually: the Mashie, Brassie and Niblick.
The men’s and women’s U.S. Four-Balls are the first additions to the USGA championship schedule since 1987.
Here’s a brief rundown of the four-ball events — which are essentially two-person better-balls, either in stroke play or match play — that are set for the next two weeks:
— CGA Four-Ball at Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster and CGA Senior Four-Ball at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton, each 54-hole event running Friday through Sunday (May 1-3).
A total of 92 players (46 teams) are registered for the Four-Ball at Legacy Ridge. While 2014 champions Keith Humerickhouse and Jared Bickling won’t return as a team — Humerickhouse is in the field for the U.S. Four-Ball — Bickling will play at Legacy Ridge with new partner Stephen Baxter.
Other former champions in the field are Jon Lindstrom (2002 and ’12), Steve Irwin (2004 and ’09), Alex Buecking (2009), Dave Johnson (2006), Jim Doidge (2005) and Pat Diaz (2004). Irwin will team with Diaz again this year. Doidge will partner with Michael Harrington, the 2014 CGA Player of the Year.
In the Senior Four-Ball at Todd Creek, 102 competitors (51 teams) 50 and older are signed up. Included are defending champions David Delich and Bruce Hogg, who prevailed by three strokes last year. Also back are 2013 winners Kelly Crone and Larry Netherton, who also claimed the title in 2009.
Other former champs in the field are Daniel Dymerski (2012), John Applegate (2011), Sean Forey (2003 and ’08) and Scott Radcliffe (2003). Forey and Radcliffe will team up again this year.
To access scoring over the weekend, click on the following: OPEN DIVISION, SENIOR DIVISION.
— U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at the Olympic Club in San Francisco May 2-6.
A total of 4,468 golfers (2,234 teams) submitted entries, and qualifying was held at 51 sites from last August through March.
The field at the Olympic Club will feature 128 teams, which will play 36 holes of stroke play, with the top 32 teams advancing to match play beginning on May 4.
Five teams in the championship include at least one Coloradan:
Robert Polk of Parker and Bill Fowler of Lakewood
Alex Kephart of Colorado Springs and former Colorado Springs resident Nick Tarasiewicz
Keith Humerickhouse of Eagle and Tom Abell of Oregon, Wis.
Jeff Chapman of Denver and Andrew Tapia of Raton, N.M.
Gus Lundquist of Parker and Trevor Sluman of Rochester, N.Y.
Polk and Fowler, both 50-somethings, shared medalist honors in qualifying at Colorado Golf Club with Kephart and Tarasiewicz last September. (The four are pictured together above.) Polk, 59, will be the oldest player in the field at the Olympic Club.
Lundquist and Sluman are University of Louisville teammates, playing for coach Mark Crabtree, a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer. Sluman is a nephew of Champions Tour player Jeff Sluman. They were medalists in an Oct. 8 qualifier in Mason, Ohio.
Humerickhouse and Abell were medalists in an Oct. 1 qualifier in Hartford, Wis.
— U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes in Oregon May 9-13.
Qualifying for the inaugural Women’s Four-Ball took place at 28 sites from August through March.
Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster and Gillian Vance of Lakewood (left) will take a break from the high school season to play in the national championship. They shared medalist honors last October in a qualifier at Heritage at Westmoor in Westminster.
Kupcho, the 2014 CWGA Player of the Year, will play college golf at Wake Forest in the fall, while Vance will be on the University of Colorado roster.
All told at Bandon, 64 teams will play two rounds of stroke play, with the low 32 teams advancing to match play, which begins May 11.
