Sunday, June 24, 2001
Local Golf Notebook
Heritage Club set to host Ohio Am
By Jack Murray
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Ohio Amateur Championship, minus two-time defending champion Ben Curtis, who turned pro after graduating from Kent State, is July 10-13 at Heritage Club in Mason.
The field has been pared to 144 from 468 entries after six sectional qualifiers.
Forty players are from the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.
Sponsored by the Ohio Golf Association, the Ohio Amateur is a 72-hole stroke-play competition.
Past champions include Arnold Palmer in 1953 and 1954, John Cook in 1978 and 1979 and Heritage Club member Taylor Metcalfe in 1976.
The 7-year-old Heritage Club has hosted the 1998 Women's Western Amateur Championship, won by current LPGA player Grace Park, and the 2000 Southern Ohio Open.
XU coach can play, too
Xavier University coach Doug Steiner won the Hamilton City Championship for the second straight year, last week at Potter Park Golf Course. He will try to cap off a tremendous year by trying to win the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Amateur Championship this week at Traditions Golf Club in Hebron, Ky.
On June 1, he became Xavier's first full-time golf coach.
One of the competitors he could meet along the way is one of his top players, Tim Donovan, who led XU to its first NCAA Tournament berth this year and finished runner-up to Jim Herman in last year's Met. Herman since has turned pro and is ineligible to defend his Met title.
When Steiner took over as the part-time men's golf coach at XU 13 years ago, he had no money for scholarships and an opening budget of about $5,000.
But he has guided the Musketeers to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference title four consecutive years (1991-94) and two Atlantic 10 Conference crowns, including this spring, since they joined the A-10 in 1996.
Despite the success, Steiner kept his job as a teacher at Winton Woods High. “About three years ago, they (the Xavier administration) made a commitment to support the program,” Steiner told Golfweek magazine last month. “The last two years, we have been fully funded as far as scholarships and now have the full 4 1/2 to offer, just like all the Division I schools.
“And we now have a competitive budget so we can travel and play a better schedule. We played in 12 tournaments this season, encompassing 11 different states.”
The Xavier men's team, ranked 111th overall entering postseason play, was one of the Cinderella stories in college golf. Now, if Steiner and Donovan, the A-10 Coach of the Year and A-10 Player of the Year, could reach the final four of the Met this week, that would be aces.
“This is a crazy game,” Steiner often said, “and strange things sometimes happen.”
Chip shots
Rachel Quinlan-Waters won the 13-15 agate group junior tournament Thursday at Valley Oakhaven Golf Club in Delaware. She shot 86. More than 120 junior golfers competed in the event for boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18. In its third year, the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association sponsors the series of 12 tournaments throughout Ohio.
• Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky., advanced to the third round of the Women's Western Amateur at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Ill. Leach is ranked 12th nationally in the latest Golfweek/Titleist amateur rankings.
• The ninth annual Anthony Munoz Million Dollar Shootout tournament is July 16 at Beckett Ridge Country Club. The Shootout is an annual fund-raising event for the FreeStore/FoodBank. Information: Marilyn P. Smith (513-482-7545); chairman Tom Kneer (513-339-9879).
Tristate golf guide
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Local Golf Notebook
