Jeff Knox and Tripp Kuhlke, both of Augusta, Ga., teamed up to win the Charlie Coe Invitational on May 31 at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colo. The pair claimed a one-shot victory over runners-up Brooks Ratzlaff and Tyler Leon.

Knox and Kuhlke posted a final-round 3-under 69 for the victory, their second in this event, and had to battle a strong wind to do it. The team won wire-to-wire, and got the edge on Ratzlaff and Leon in the first round. The winning team shot 66 to the runner-up team’s 67. Both teams matched scores the rest of the tournament.

Jonathan Marsico and Ben Hayes were another shot back in solo third. In the senior division, Jim Crane and Hunter Nelson, both of Houston, shot 10-under 206 to claim their second Coe title.

The tournament is played as a tribute to Charlie Coe, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion and a seven-time member of the U.S. Walker Cup team.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Rick Cloninger of Fort Mill, S.C., won the Chanticleer Senior Invitational, finishing the 54-hole event with a 1-over 223 on the Chanticleer course at Greenville (S.C.) Country Club.

Cloninger shot a final-round 73 to move from fifth to first on the final day of the tournament. With the victory, which comes in only his second national event of the year, Cloninger move from No. 72 in the Golfweek Senior Amateur rankings into the top 30.

Starting out seven shots behind second-round leader Matt Grandy, Cloninger’s final-round 73 was enough to give him a one-shot victory over Bill Leonard of Dallas, Ga.

Cloninger might be the only player in history to represent three states –Florida, Georgia and South Carolina – in the USGA State Team Matches. He has also competed in the United States Amateur Championship and the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.

Although Cloninger has the game to turn professional he said, “I’m happy with the way I’ve done it and wouldn’t change it.” He said didn’t much like the idea of giving up a job with a steady paycheck for the gamble of pro-golf.

In the Super Senior Division, Mike Weiner ...

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Full scores here

CARMICHAEL, Calif. – In the 16-year history of the Memorial Amateur, no golfer has broken 200 for 54 holes at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course.

That still holds true, but on a cloudy Memorial Day, Stockton’s Joshua Stone came as close as any player has come to breaking that number by shooting three consecutive rounds in the 60s to post 10-under 200 and win by five strokes.

“It feels really good to put three really good rounds together,” Stone said. “I converted par 5s and took advantage of the short par 4s where I had birdie opportunities.”

Stone – who entered the day with a two-shot lead – made just one bogey on Monday, cruising to victory for his second career win at Ancil Hoffman.

He also won the Sacramento County Amateur Championship in 2009 after posting 69-68.

This weekend’s rounds of 67-66-67 broke the tournament record by two. Stone eclipsed two-time champion John Catlin’s three-round total of 202 from 2012.

“It’s just a real classic layout,” Stone said of the par-70, 6,689-yard host course. “You have to keep it in the fairway and I hit it straight, so I like that.”

Matt Cohn of San ...

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Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake has been named the site of the 2019 Walker Cup. The 47th Walker Cup will be contested in 2019, which aligns with Royal Liverpool's 150th anniversary.

Hoylake was the venue for a 1921 match between the United States and Great Britain. The inaugural Walker Cup was played the following year, at National Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York. The matches return to National Golf Links in September.

The Walker Cup previously was contested at Hoylake in 1983, when Jay Sigel's Americans overtook Charlie Green’s GB&I team, 13.5 to 10.5. The Open Championship will return to Hoylake in 2014, and in 2012, the club hosted the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Hoylake has hosted The Amateur Championship 18 times, and hosted the Curtis Cup in 1992.

“The Walker Cup is one of the most historic and prestigious events in golf. We are delighted to be taking the match back to Royal Liverpool in its 150th year,” said executive director of championships Johnnie Cole-Hamilton. “Hoylake will provide an outstanding challenge for both teams. It is one of the finest tests of links golf to be found anywhere, and has ...

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It’s been said that all good things must come to an end. Such will be the case in the leadership role this summer at the Northeast Amateur.

After two decades of running one of the world’s most respected and prestigious amateur tournaments, Denny Glass is hanging up his hat.

Glass, who has been tournament chairman for the Northeast Amateur in Rumford, R.I., since 1994, announced his retirement from that post this week. His last hurrah will be this year when the 52nd Northeast Am takes place June 19-22 at Wannamoisett Country Club.

“It will be 20 years and I think that is enough,” Glass said. “I feel I have accomplished a lot and now is the time for some new blood to come in and take over. This was strictly my decision. I just decided it’s time to move on.”

Glass is also the tournament director for the Terra Cotta Amateur, held each spring in Naples, Fla., where he and his wife Tanya also have a home. He said he would continue running that event.

Joe Sprague Jr., a longtime official with the Rhode Island Golf Association and currently executive director of the Massachusetts Golf Association ...

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If Tiger Woods’ first Players Championship victory, in 2001, is remembered best for his better-than-most birdie putt on the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, then Sunday’s victory might be known for his dustup with Sergio Garcia after the third round – and then Garcia’s final-round collapse on No. 17 that ultimately sealed a two-shot victory for Woods.

It was an unforgettable finish, as Woods pull away early Sunday before hitting his tee ball into the water at the par-4 14th. Then on the 17th green, facing a difficult two-putt, he watched as Garcia buried a birdie across the water on No. 16 to grab a share of the lead. But in the end, and three water balls by Garcia later (two on No. 17, one on No. 18), Woods had his third career victory at TPC Sawgrass.

Yes, three.

Woods’ first victory at TPC Sawgrass came at the 1994 U.S. Amateur. That was before the majors, before the 78 career PGA Tour victories, and before he solved Pete Dye’s Players Stadium course twice more en route to winning a pair of Players titles.

That tournament could be remembered most for Woods’ dramatic comeback in the championship match ...

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Colby Harwell charged from the back of the pack with the low round of the final day to claim the eighth annual Carlton Woods Invitational at The Woodlands, Texas, in a playoff over second-round leader Randy Lance.

Harwell shot 2-under 70 to come from three shots down on the back nine. Lance lipped out the potential winning putt on the final hole. Robert Funk and Nicolas Cristea just missed the playoff when both players made bogey on the last hole.

In the senior division, Mike Booker opened the final round looking for his third consecutive championship, but Doug Pool had one too many answers for him.

Pool carded three birdies on the back nine to surge into the lead, but a bogey on No. 18 dropped him into a playoff with Booker.

After one playoff hole wasn’t enough, the two players headed back to the tee again. Booker just missed the green to the right and was not able to get up and down, while Pool hit two solid shots and tapped in for par to win his first Carlton Woods title.

The inaugural Hullender Trophy, named after legendary senior amateur Bob Hullender, was raised high for the first ...

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Beginning with the upcoming NCAA postseason and stretching through the U.S. Amateur Championship in mid-August, things should get extremely exciting in men’s amateur golf.

After all, it’s a Walker Cup year.

Expect tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic to be filled with players who have high hopes – or perhaps just a dream and a prayer – of landing one of the 10 available spots on either the American team or Great Britain & Ireland squad.

In Walker Cup summers, there’s a lot more grinding, a lot more tension. Every drive, every putt, every shot could mean the difference between being selected to represent your country and being left out.

The 44th Walker Cup will be played Sept. 7-8 at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y., site of the inaugural event in 1922. Though the U.S. leads the biennial competition 34-8-1, GB&I has won six of the past 12 and currently holds the Cup, defeating the Americans 14-12 in 2011 at Royal Aberdeen (Scotland) Golf Club.

Because of the U.S. Golf Association’s announcement that a minimum of two mid-amateurs (age 25 and older) will be selected for the American side ...

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TCU sophomore Julien Brun, California sophomore Michael Kim and Washington senior Chris Williams are the finalists for the 2013 Ben Hogan Award, the GCAA and its partners announced Wednesday.

Brun, an all-Big 12 selection and last year's NCAA runner-up, has won three times this year with eight top-10 finishes and a 70.45 scoring average. The Frenchman also won the European Challenge Tour's 2012 Allianz Open Toulouse.

Kim, the Pac-12 player of the year, has won four times this year with no finish lower than 11th and is No. 1 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. The Californian also reached match play at the 2012 U.S. Amateur.

Williams, an all-Pac-12 selection, has seven top-10 finishes this season, including three runner-up finishes and a 71.06 scoring average. The Idaho native swept the Western Amateur match-play and stroke-play titles and is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

In conjunction with Friends of Golf, Colonial Country Club and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, the GCAA will present the award May 20 before the start of the PGA Tour's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial at a banquet featuring keynote speaker Corey Pavin. The award includes an exemption into ...

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Blair Scurlock withstood a final-round surge to win the Mid-Amateur Division at the 2013 Timuquana Cup.

Scurlock led the division after a Saturday 72 and shot 75 on Sunday to win by two.

In the Senior Division, David Anthony clipped Doug Hanzel by one shot.

Hanzel was in the lead after the first round of action but Anthony shot a second consecutive 72, besting Hanzel by two shots Sunday.

Mike Vallencourt and former PGA Tour member Steve Melnyk were tied for third after identical rounds of 74-72.

The Timuquana Cup is an invitational tournament with a field consisting of 40 of the top mid-amateur players in the country, together with 20 of the top senior amateurs.

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ACES WILD AT AMATEURGOLF.COM TWO- MAN LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

Cinco de Mayo wound up as Cinco de Uno for Steven Bobus during the first round of the amateurgolf.com Two-Man Links Championship. An easy winner of the "shot-of-the-day" compeititon that takes place each day, Steven Bobus made a hole-in-one on the 170- yard 8th hole, a downhill par-3 with a huge redan green.

The two posted 1-over par 72 on the day, five behind leaders Dieter Dammeier and Chris Lawton (67). A stroke back ...

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Albert Eckhardt became the first Finnish player to win the Lytham Trophy when he survived a playoff against Jack Hume of Ireland on Sunday.

Echhardt arrived at the Open Championship venue well under the radar at 430th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, yet he upset a star-studded field to win one of the most prestigious events in British amateur golf.

Rounds of 73-72-69-73 for a 7-over total of 287 earned him a playoff with Hume, ranked No. 700 in the world. Eckhardt won the playoff to follow in the footsteps of European Tour player Mikko Ilonen who won the 2000 British Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool.

France’s Julien Marot and Kristian Johannessen of Norway finished in third place, four shots out of the playoff.

Northern Ireland’s Reeve Whitson improved his Walker Cup chances by finishing fifth. Whitson won the Spanish Amateur earlier this year, and many expect him to play in this year’s Walker Cup. Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup captain Nigel Edwards was at Lytham with his team of selectors, and Whitson’s performance will be duly noted.

English amateur Nathan Kimsey also did his Walker Cup chances the power of good with a sixth-place ...

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By Ron Gaines, Golfweek.com

If it’s true that an organization takes on the personality of its leadership, nobody should be surprised that USGA President Glen Nager is putting slow play at the top of his list.

Five-hour rounds are unacceptable for Nager, a partner at Jones Day, a high-profile, fast-paced law firm in Washington, D.C.

“The cry that pace of play has become one of the most significant threats to the game’s health has become only louder over the last year," Nager said recently. ". . . This problem touches every golfer, from the professional to the elite amateur to the collegiate player to the millions of recreational golfers at both public and private facilities.”

In its recent announcement, the USGA has commited to making the game more welcoming, enjoyable and sustainable and is directing resources toward this new research.

The first step will be an initiative to identify challenges and solutions regarding pace-of-play issues in the game of golf.

The USGA will look at golf facilities and analyze factors such as course design and setup, along with player management and the effectiveness of player-education programs.

For players, the USGA will continue to look at the Rules of Golf ...

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Setting a record by more than 750, the U.S. Open will feature 9,860 entrants trying to qualify for the 2013 championship at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., the USGA said Thursday in a news release.

Local qualifiers are set for 111 sites May 3-16. Sectional qualifiers are set for 13 sites May 27 and June 3. Registration closed April 24, when 643 registrations were accepted – including the final one from Joseph Bush, 45, a professional from Scotch Plains, N.J., just eight seconds before the 5 p.m. EDT deadline, the USGA said.

“The fact that we have a record number of entries, from across the world, is a testament to both the great appeal of the U.S. Open and the historic nature and grandeur of Merion Golf Club,” USGA Executive Director Mike Davis said.

Other years in which the U.S. Open attracted more than 9,000 entrants: 2012 (Olympic), 2010 (Pebble Beach), 2009 (Bethpage; previous record, 9,086) and 2005 (Pinehurst).

Fifty-two players among the entrants are exempt. That number will grow to include the winners of two May tournaments, the PGA Tour's Players Championship and the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship ...

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(This roundup is compiled by Ben Larsen of amateurgolf.com)

Pardon Christopher Petefish if he looked more relieved than jubilant in the aftermath of his big victory in the Arizona Stroke Play Championship on Sunday. Petefish, a Scottsdale Christian Academy junior, blew a three-shot lead on the final hole at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course, then emerged victorious from a three-hole, sudden-death playoff over Cory Bacon.

Petefish, who had trailed Bacon by one shot entering the final round on the Champions Course at the TPC Scottsdale, closed with a 4-over-par 74 for a winning total of 2-over 282. Bacon, 23, a recent graduate of the Colorado School of Mines who works as a club designer at Ping, carded a final-round 75.

Petefish’s bogey on the third playoff hole was good enough, as Bacon needed two shots to get out of a bunker en route a triple-bogey 7 – the same score that that Petefish had absorbed on the 72nd hole.

“I’m just thankful that I won the playoff,” Petefish, a Georgia Tech commit, said. “Obviously, if it hadn’t worked out that way I’d have been kicking myself."

Only three players among the 65 who had made the ...

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British Amateur champion Alan Dunbar has turned professional. The Northern Irishman signed with Chubby Chandler’s International Sports Management in July 2012, when he was believed to be the first golfer to take advantage of a new rule that enabled amateurs to sign to a professional management company.

Dunbar, who turns 23 next week, missed the Masters cut after rounds of 83-77. He also won the 2009 St. Andrews Links Trophy and was a member of Great Britain & Ireland’s victorious team in the 2011 Walker Cup with a 2-1 match record.

Dunbar will begin his career with consecutive starts on the Challenge Tour: this week’s Challenge de Madrid and the following week’s Montecchia Golf Open in Italy. He also has a start in the European Tour’s Madeira Islands Open on May 16-19 and Nordea Masters on May 30-June 2.

“We are delighted that Alan has agreed to let us help, encourage and guide him at the start of his professional career,” Chandler said in a statement. “I am convinced he will go a long way in the paid ranks after a glittering amateur career.”

By turning professional, Dunbar gave up an invitation to this year’s ...

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