With the year almost over…it’s time for the Golf Arizona Show’s Top 5 golf stories of the year….
Number 5…The Cologuard Classic signed up for another 5 year extension. The Champions tournament, played at Tucson National, raised over $600.000 for charity and means about $25 million to the various businesses that get involved. Mark O’Meara won this years event and Sabino HS grad…Willie Wood finished second.
Number 4…The U of A golf teams….both the men and women had great first halves of their season. The men are ranked 11th in the nation and the women are 7th. Former Salpointe star, junior Trevor Werbylo has the lowest stroke average on the Cats squad. The men’s team resumes play later next month here in Tucson….at the Arizona Intercollegiate at Tucson National.
Number 3…The survival of The El Conquistador golf courses. After months of haggling with the town’s taxpayers…the city council eventually decided to keep subsidizing the courses, instead of turning the land into parkland or open space. It would have been a big loss for Tucson golfers had they voted the other way.
Number 2…The formal announcement that the two U of A golf teams will move over to the Randolph Golf Complex…which means they do not have to take the 30 minute bus ride to Sewailo on the far south side of town. Both the city of Tucson and the U of A have agreed to a deal which will see Randolph North turned into a championship caliber course….good enough to host pro events. In addition, initial plans have the men’s and women’s teams using what is now the 9th fairway at the North course as their practice facility.
And the top story last year…was the touching partnership between Gary Woodland and Amy Bockerstette at the Phoenix Open. It was also on every top 10 list of every golf publication in America. We had them on the Golf Arizona show the following week. Rick and I weren’t sure exactly how many folks had since seen the video of them on the 16thhole. It became the most watched golf video of all time, by far. As of yesterday, over 40 million people have watched the video of the two…and that number is growing and I’m sure will grow by a few million more when the Phoenix Open kicks off next month.
Honorable mention was the great interview we had with Woodland’s caddie, former Tucsonan Brennan Little, leading up to his historic shot to win the US Open….and Catalina Foothills Maya Benita winning the State high school golf championship. The U of A bound prospect won it at home…at Tucson National. And another honorable mention… we said good bye to a very unique southern Arizona golf course in 2019…Turquoise Valley Golf Course…the course with the famous 747 yard, par 6 hole called “The Rattler.”
by Mike Boyd
