See Day 1 photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94048172@N04/
NGA ProAm Day Flickr Photostream link
A link to photos from the NGA ProAm and the Putting Contest on Wednesday at Savannah Lakes Village.
NGA ProAm Day Flickr Photostream link
Savannah Lakes Village Classic Up Next for NGA TOUR
McCormick, S.C. – (April 30, 2013) – Large galleries? Check. Pristine course? Check. Engaged community? Check. Top players from around the world? You bet.
Each year, nearly a month after the PGA TOUR players have finished their first major of the season in Augusta, Ga., the next generation of the PGA TOUR stars gather about an hour north in McCormick, S.C., for their version of a major, the NGA TOUR’s Savannah Lakes Village Classic.
Since its inception in 2005, the player-favorite event has become a staple of the NGA Pro Golf Tour and shows no sign of losing its title any time soon.
“When I joined the NGA TOUR, the players always talked about how it was one of the best tournaments of the year,” said Will Wilcox, the 2010 SLVC winner and most recent Web.com Tour victor. “Words couldn’t even describe how I felt after winning there.”
Given the caliber of fields that gather for the Savannah Lakes Village Classic every year, the winner typically leaves the event with a little extra confidence that comes for beating the best in the business.
Since 2005, six champions of the Savannah Lakes Village Classic have advanced to the PGA and Web.com Tours. McCormick winner’s Camilo Villegas (2005), Kris Blanks (2006), Michael Connell (2007) and Kevin Kisner (2008) went on to earn PGA Tour cards after tasting victory at the long-running event, while SLVC winners Matthew Harmon (2009), Wilcox (2010) and 2011 victor Philip Pettitt Jr. have status on the Web.com Tour in 2013.
A slew of top-10 finishers in the SLVC have also gone on to the secure their PGA TOUR cards, including Scott Piercy, Russell Knox, Billy Hurley, Casey Whittenberg and Steve LeBrun. Many more top 10-finishers have gone on to earn their Web.com TOUR cards.
After finishing T4 last season, Danny Ellis went on to secure his PGA TOUR card for 2013, while Nick Rousey and Jonathan Hodge, who both finished T6, earned status on the Web.com Tour in 2013. Zack Sucher, who finished third last season in the SLVC, earned his Web.com Tour status last week by finishing T2 in the South Georgia Classic.
Even with so many competitors moving to the upper echelon of the game, there will be no shortage of talent on display this week in McCormick with all but one golfer in the top 10 in NGA earnings teeing it up the Savannah Lakes Village Classic on Thursday.
Nearly 30 NGA TOUR winners will be in the field this week, but none enter the event with more momentum than Justin Lower, who earned his second victory of the season at the Mountain Lakes Village Classic in Seneca, S.C. The former Malone University All-American from Canal Fulton, Ohio, has five top 10s in eight starts and leads the NGA TOUR in earning with nearly $67,000 winnings.
A pair of golfers competing in this week’s event will be making a return to the NGA TOUR after spending last week on the PGA TOUR. Current members Jon Curran, who is second on the NGA money list, and Ken Looper, a 2012 NGA TOUR winner, both competed in the Zurich Classic a week ago. Looper nearly shocked the world in the Zurich Classic, flirting with the lead before finishing in a tie for 21st in the PGA TOUR debut.
Defending SLVC champion Chas Narramore, who carded a 22-under 266 total last season, will be in the field this week as well as 2009 winner Matt Harmon. The duo will be looking to do what no other winner has done in the history of the event – win again. Over the last 10 years, no player has been able to win the prestigious event more than once.
The 2013 field will also include: 2013 NGA TOUR winners M.J. Daffue, Clayton Rask and Daniel McCarthy; David Skinns a former University of Tennessee All-American and 3-time 2012 NGA winner; Jeff Corr, a 2012 Web.com Tour member; Hunter Hamrick, a former University of Alabama All-American who earned over $115,000 on the PGA TOUR in 2012; Rick Cochran III, the nephew of PGA winner Russ Cochran and a Middle Tennessee State alumnus; Jonathan Randolph, a 2010 All-Nicklaus team member and All-American selection from Ole Miss; Tyson Alexander, a former University of Florida All-American and 2012 NGA winner.
Others notable participants include: Stuart Anderson, a 2012 Web.com Tour member; T.J. Bordeaux, a BWS winner and four-time Big West All-Conference selection at the University of Pacific; Major Manning, a 2012 Web.com Tour member; Jack Newman, the 2008 U.S. Public Links champion; and multi-time NGA TOUR winners James Vargas and Mark Blakefield.
The first round of the Savannah Lakes Village Classic is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday. As always, fans are encouraged to come out and enjoy the festivities. Admission is free to the public.
The NGA Pro Golf Tour is the No. 3 Men’s Professional Golf Tour in the United States after the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour and is the No. 1 recommended developmental tour by more PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour Professionals.
The NGA has helped hundreds of professionals acquire their PGA TOUR, Euro, Web.com, and Champions Tour cards. In fact, NGA alumni have won an incredible Fifteen (15) “Major” Championships. On average over 60% of every Web.com Tour field and over 40% of every PGA TOUR field have spent time on the NGA TOUR.
NGA alumni include: 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson; 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley; 2010 PGA TOUR Player of the Year and 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk; 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink; 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover; 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson; 2003 PGA Champion Shaun Micheel; 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis; two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen; British Open and PGA champion John Daly; British Open champion Tom Lehman; PGA champion David Toms; 2003 Tour Championship winner Chad Campbell; 2010 NGA Player of the Year and 2013 Honda Classic champion Michael Thompson; and recent PGA TOUR winners Russell Henley, Kevin Streelman, Scott Brown, Brian Gay, Mark Wilson, George McNeill, Ted Potter Jr., Scott Stallings, Scott Piercy, Gary Woodland, and many, many more!.
The NGA Pro Golf Tour, established in 1988, predates the Web.com Tour as the longest running developmental tour in golf. Since 2010, the NGA TOUR has received twenty Web.com Tour and two PGA TOUR event exemptions, the most in developmental golf, and in 2012 became the “Official Partner of the Reno-Tahoe Open,” one of just 45 PGA TOUR events worldwide, and now the only event on the PGA TOUR calendar with a Modified Stableford scoring format.
Savannah Lakes Village Classic Up Next for NGA TOUR
Shorelines ‘Cover Boy’ Playing in PGA Event This Week
Seneca, S.C. – After seeing an inordinate amount of first-time winners crowned during the first six events of the season, Jon Curran singlehandedly put an end to the streak two weeks ago in the Brunswick-Heritage Oaks Classic by becoming the first two-time winner this season on the NGA TOUR.
However, with Curran competing in the PGA TOUR’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week, the door is open for someone to join him as a two-time winner or another streak of first-timers could begin in the Mountain Lakes Classic presented by Mountain Lakes Convention and Visitors Bureau at Cross Creek Plantation.
Curran is the featured on the cover of May’s Shorelines Magazine Savannah Lakes Classic tournament edition, expected to arrive at SLV homes within the next week.
Although Curran, a former Vanderbilt standout of Tequesta, Fla., will spend his week in Avondale, La., the Mountain Lakes Classic will feature plenty of NGA TOUR standouts, Web.com Tour members, former PGA TOUR members and a slew of the best up-and-coming talent in the country battling for the lion’s share of the $150,000 purse.
After earning their first NGA TOUR Pro Series victories earlier this season, Clayton Rask, Justin Lower and M.J. Daffue have added incentive this week to earn their second victories in the Mountain Lakes Classic. The top NGA TOUR money earner as of July 14, 2013 earns an event exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 15th annual Reno-Tahoe Open.
Lower, a former Malone University stalwart from Canal Fulton, Ohio, won the Spring Hill Classic and enters the Mountain Lakes Classic trailing Curran, the leading money earner on the NGA TOUR, by less than $9,000. With a third-place finish or better, Lower, who has three top-five finishes this season, should move atop the order of merit this week.
Rask, a former University of Minnesota golfer from Otsego, Minn., earned a two-stroke win in the Killearn Country Club Classic and has stayed steady over the past two months, earning three finishes of T26 or better. Rask, who is fourth on the money list, could overtake Curran with his second victory of the season.
Daffue, a former Lamar University standout from Pretoria, South Africa, can’t overtake Curran in earning with a victory, but another victory could put the former Cardinal within striking distance.
While he’s yet to earn his first NGA TOUR victory, Seth Fair could close within earshot of Curran in the money standings with a win this week. Fair, a former All-American at the University of Indianapolis from Brownsburg, Ind., is sixth on the order of merit and has been a model of consistency this season, picking up four top-10 finishes and finishing T42 or better in every start this season.
Although they’ve been shut out of the win column this season, perennial NGA powerhouses David Skinns and Jeff Corr will also be a pair to keep an eye on this week.
Skinns of Lincoln, England, won a Tour-high three times in 2012 and made 11 of 11 cuts en route to earning over $100,000. After a brief hiatus, Skinns, a former University of Tennessee All-American, returns this week to play in the Mountain Lakes Classic, where he posted at T8 finish in 2012.
Corr, a 2012 Web.com Tour member, has earned over $650,000 on the NGA TOUR and will be looking for his fifth Pro Series win this week. Thus far in 2013, Corr’s best finish of the season is a T5 at Killearn.
Blayne Barber of Lake City, Fla., should also be on everybody’s radar this week. After graduating from Auburn in 2012, Barber made some noise late last season on the NGA TOUR, where he won four events in his first nine starts on tour. The former All-American seems to have carried the momentum into 2013, too. In addition to finishing T5 in his only start on the NGA TOUR this season, Barber has made the cut in two PGA TOUR events and one Web.com Tour event.
The field will also feature several players with ties to the upstate. Former Clemson golfers Brent Delahoussaye and Matt Hendrix are in the field as well as past Coastal Carolina linkster Drew Ernst of Seneca.
Also schedule to play this week are 2012 NGA Pro Series winners Rick Cochran, Jay Woodson, Jonathan Randolph, Phillip Choi and Chas Narramore. Others notable participants include: Stuart Anderson, a 2012 Web.com Tour member; T.J. Bordeaux, a BWS winner and four-time Big West All-Conference selection at the University of Pacific; Major Manning, a former Web.com Tour member; Jack Newman, the 2008 U.S. Public Links champion; and multi-time NGA TOUR winners Matt Harmon, Hudson Johnson and James Vargas.
The first round of the Mountain Lakes Classic is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday. As always, admission is free to the public.
The NGA Pro Golf Tour is the No. 3 Men’s Professional Golf Tour in the United States after the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour and is the No. 1 recommended developmental tour by more PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour Professionals.
The NGA has helped hundreds of professionals acquire their PGA TOUR, Euro, Web.com, and Champions Tour cards. In fact, NGA alumni have won an incredible fifteen (15) “Major” championships. On average, over 60% of every Web.com Tour field and over 40% of every PGA TOUR field have spent time on the NGA TOUR.
NGA alumni include: 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson; 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley; 2010 PGA TOUR Player of the Year and 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk; 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink; 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover; 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson; 2003 PGA Champion Shaun Micheel; 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis; two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen; British Open and PGA champion John Daly; British Open champion Tom Lehman; PGA champion David Toms; 2003 Tour Championship winner Chad Campbell; 2010 NGA Player of the Year and 2013 Honda Classic champion Michael Thompson; and recent PGA TOUR winners Russell Henley, Kevin Streelman, Scott Brown, Brian Gay, Mark Wilson, George McNeill, Ted Potter Jr., Scott Stallings, Scott Piercy, Gary Woodland and many, many more.
Shorelines ‘Cover Boy’ Playing in PGA Event This Week
… a continuation of the print edition (unabridged version) …
Lorenzo’s Wine Cellar
By Larry Russo
Definitions…
The mention of “Meniscus” to many of us here in SLV conjures up images of not-much-fun arthroscopic knee surgery. In wine terminology however it translates to something altogether different.
Meniscus in wine parlance is the rim color of the wine, best seen by holding your partially-filled wine glass over a white background. Holding the stem, tilt the glass to about a 45 degree angle. The meniscus can be observed by looking at the very edge of the wine where it comes in contact with the glass. You will see a thin, clear line of liquid at this point. The thinner the Meniscus, the younger the wine.
For red wines, a Meniscus (rim color) that is lighter than the center indicates some aging of the wine. Typically, the color of aged red wine Meniscus runs the spectrum from brick red to orange or even brownish. Younger reds will show purple or pink rims. Young white wine Meniscus color will generally run from colorless to yellow, with possibly a greenish tint. As white wine ages, its color will deepen and become more golden to amber.
The reason for the Meniscus color change is because as the wine sits in the bottle small amounts of air seep in through the cork. When wine comes in contact with air it begins to oxidize and thus begins bottle aging.
Observing Meniscus color is a good gauge of a wine’s age, except for those wines that were never intended to age, such as White Zinfandel, which will retain its natural liquid-pixie-stick color for as long as you have it. (Hopefully, not too long).
Using the Meniscus check to gauge the true age of a wine is particularly useful when ordering wine in a restaurant to verify you’re getting the vintage you paid for (especially wine purchased by the glass)…Doesn’t work so well at home, once you’ve opened the bottle, the rest is academic.
Wine of the Month…
This month’s most enjoyed wine is a 2008 Simi Landslide Cabernet Sauvignon from California’s Alexander Valley in Sonoma. This is a complex, elegant wine that exhibits depth and concentrated fruit flavor. Abv (alcohol by volume) is 14.5%. The color is a deep opaque red.
The unique “Landslide” handle had its origins in ancient geologic activity in the Alexander Valley. A giant landslide and earthquake upheaval created three distinctly different “terriors” that have been developed into three indigenous Landslide vineyard sections that are additionally divided into 44 small blocks. Each of the three sections produces a wine that is markedly different from the others. This particular wine blends in merlot to add softness and suppleness, along with small amounts of malbec, cabernet franc, petite verdot and tannat to enhance the roasted coffee aromas and rich cherry, plum and blackberry fruit flavors. Landslide cab is aged in mostly-new small-oak barrels for 26 months. As you would expect for such a well crafted wine that is rated at 90 points by Wine Spirits, it normally sells for between $40 to $50 a bottle. Our bottle was a gift, but through some research we found that Simi Vineyards will ship it to you at that price plus an additional shipping charge.
Worst Pun of the Month…
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left.
More from Larry Russo’s “Lorenzo’s Wine Cellar”
The bug sculptures created by students in Lander University assistant professor of art Doug McAbee’s advanced sculpture class have been installed at the Lander Art Corner, at the intersection of Edgefield Street and Maxwell Avenue, in Uptown Greenwood. McAbee, who said the assignment allowed his students to “stretch their abilities as public sculptors,” added that he was “pleased with the skills the students were able to demonstrate.” Posing with the mosquito, at left, the work of Haley Floyd, of Greenwood, and the dragonfly, at right, the work of Samantha Brown, of Spartanburg, are, from left: Bethany Murray, of Ware Shoals; McAbee; Floyd; Whitney Price, of Anderson; Jermel Kennedy, of Toronto, Canada; Brown; Whitney Upchurch, of Saluda; Fred Parker, of Baton Rouge, La.; and Danielle Tavernier, of Simpsonville.
Bugs Invade Uptown Greenwood
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