New game in town
- Updated: January 17, 2015
Golf pros revive four-club Challenge Cup series to promote fellowship, competition
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
A new golf tournament series is being introduced this season in Calhoun County this season that’s intended to foster fellowship and competition among county courses.
The four-course, four-date series is tentatively called the Calhoun County Cup and is an interclub competition among Anniston Country Club, Cider Ridge Golf Club, Cane Creek Golf Course and Silver Lakes.
It’s basically a reincarnation of the Challenge Cup Matches that were the forerunner to the current Calhoun County Golf Tour.
“I’m fired up about it; it’s going to be good,” ACC pro Jake Spott said. “What’s cool is … all the pros are getting together to promote golf for Calhoun County. It’s not what facility you’re at – we have to get people playing golf. It’s just neat we’re getting together to talk about it.”
Each club will field an eight-man team comprised of seven amateurs and their Class A PGA pro. They will play four-ball matches, scoring points for the front and back nines and overall with three bonus points going to the match’s winning team.
It will be left to the individual clubs to determine the format for the makeup of their teams. Each team will have at least two senior players (65 and older) in their lineup. The pro and A player will play a gross match while the others will play a net-type format.
“It’s the pro’s discretion, so it can be different guys every month,” Spott said. “We want to get some people who don’t normally do stuff like this. That’s why we decided to do the net portion of it; we want to get as many as we can playing.”
The schedule is set so each team plays the other during the series and no team plays a home club more than once. The final event will determine the season-long champion.
Here is the tentative order of events.
May 30 – Anniston CC (ACC vs. Cane Creek, Cider Ridge vs. Silver Lakes)
June 24 – Cider Ridge (ACC vs. Cider Ridge, Silver Lakes vs. Cane Creek)
July 24 – Cane Creek (ACC vs. Silver Lakes, Cider Ridge vs. Cane Creek)
Aug. 21 – Silver Lakes (No. 1 vs. No. 2, No. 3 vs. No. 4)
“I think it’ll be fun,” Cane Creek pro Kenny Szuch said. “The tricky thing is there’s so much going on in the season, when do you do it? Initially we wanted to do a Saturday, but there are no Saturdays. Then we said how ‘bout Friday at 1, Wednesday at 1?”
“We did the best we could not to step on toes,” Spott said. “One of the good things about this area is there are plenty of opportunities to play competitive golf in this county.”
As an outgrowth of the conversations, consideration is being given to have two Calhoun County Junior Golf Days – in April and July – with the county pros conducting three-hour clinics for juniors at Cider Ridge.
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