Greg
Newport Wins His
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Greg Newport playing in the 2000 PPA
National Championship.17 May 2001 - Burlington, N.C. - With the PPA National Invitational just less than 36 hours away, the North Carolina tour hosted one of their tournaments in Burlington, the Howard Loy Memorial. A field of 64 professionals came out on Course 1, and 17 amateurs participated on Course 2 in the largest turnout for a North Carolina event in the modern era. On the Proputters website earlier in the week, Greg Newport was picked as the odds-on favorite to win this weekend. He tested his skills early by winning his third tournament of the season in North Carolina, and amazingly, his fourth Howard Loy crown. Newport had to fight off a fierce field and made up seven shots on Neumann before posting a 21 in the final round to head in the clubhouse at 74. Neumann had tied Kevin Garrett for the opening round lead at 24, and another seven players were one back. It appeared it would be anyone's contest until Neumann busted a 22 in the second round for a four-shot lead on four other players, including defending champion Greg Ward.
When the tournament began, temperatures were in the high 50's and was chilly throughout the night with overcast conditions. During the third round, play was stopped twice due to rain. The first delay lasted five minutes, where Newport was on 11 after making eight of the first ten of that round. When play resumed, Newport continued his incredible streak shooting making seven of the last eight to finish the round at 21 and went into the house at 74.
Another batch of rain set in causing play to be stopped again for about 10 more minutes. By that time, Neumann had played 12 holes and had struggled. Half of the field had not completed their play when the rain let up once again. Neumann only managed to shoot 28 in the final round to tie Newport for the lead at 74.
After a four-plus hour marathon, both Newport and Neumann faced off for a playoff. Despite the long awaiting delay, Newport shot 23 in the playoff to win by five over Neumann. This would turn out to be his fourth win in the annual Howard Loy Memorial, named in the memory of the originator and first owner of the Burlington course.
On Course 2, Todd Trent picked up his first career victory in the APA Division. Trent had been contending for victories this season and let a couple slip by. This time around, he led wire-to-wire after opening play with a 24, including a perfect back nine, to lead by two shots over Steven Jones. Trent would continue to lead as he shot 29 to go in the house at 53, but the lead on Jones was trimmed to just one shot.
Trent would come through in the final round as he shot 27 to place his first win of his career with a final score of 80. Jeff Brown, 1998 APA National Champion, came in second at 81, while Jones ended up tied with Bear Landin for third at 82.
Andy Coradini, 1993 National Champion, ended up finishing third on Thursday with a final score of 76. Ward wound up fourth at 77, and Ken Hastings, from Pittsburgh, finished in fifth at 79.
There were 30 spots paid out from this tournament with the score of 85 receiving a five-way split for the final spot. The APA's reimbursement line was 82 as four spots were taken there. Neumann took the State Qualifying and Match Play spots from this tournament. No APA Qualifying spot came from this tournament.
This weekend, Burlington will be the host of the 2001 PPA National Invitational, beginning at 9:00am on Saturday, May 19. The second day will be Sunday, May 20 at the same tee-off time. The North Carolina tour resumes play on Saturday, June 16, 2001, in High Point for the Wayne Hancock Memorial. Tee-off time for that event is 12:00pm. Then, the tour will head to Asheboro on Sunday, June 17, starting at 10:00am.
Scores and tournament recap provided by Opie Roberts.
Professional Division of Howard Loy Memorial
(Burlington, N.C. - 17 May 2001)
Round Prize Player 1 2 3 Total Money 1 Greg Newport** 26 27 27 74 $150.00 2 Peter Neumann 24 22 28 74 $110.00 3 Andy Coradini 26 24 26 76 $90.00 4 Greg Ward 25 25 27 77 $85.00 5 Ken Hastings 25 25 29 79 $80.00 6 Brad Lebo 25 25 30 80 $75.00 Lee Witcofski 25 26 29 80 $75.00 8 Michael Hitt 29 27 25 81 $68.00 Jay Klapper 28 28 25 81 $68.00 Dave Nutini 26 26 29 81 $68.00 Vance Randall 28 26 27 81 $68.00 12 Tommy Barbour 28 27 27 82 $58.00 Vince Batten 25 29 28 82 $58.00 Robert Johnson 27 28 27 82 $58.00 Tony Varnadore 26 28 28 82 $58.00 16 Darrell Britt 29 28 26 83 $50.00 C. L. Jones 25 31 27 83 $50.00 Lee Messinger 27 28 28 83 $50.00 Randy Reeves 27 26 30 83 $50.00 20 Bill Baus 26 29 29 84 $43.00 Mike Brown 29 27 28 84 $43.00 Chris Bunting 27 30 27 84 $43.00 Jim Engel 30 28 26 84 $43.00 Kevin Garrett 24 32 28 84 $43.00 Ed Haggerty 25 28 31 84 $43.00 Bill Kirby 29 28 27 84 $43.00 John Napoli 28 28 28 84 $43.00 Rick Rybaczek 26 28 30 84 $43.00 Larry Simpson 27 28 29 84 $43.00 30 Billy Caudle 31 27 27 85 $8.00 Daryl Freeman 29 29 27 85 $8.00 Rich Gillooly 26 30 29 85 $8.00 Gary Hester 27 30 28 85 $8.00 Cliff Matthews 26 28 31 85 $8.00 35 Lewis Burton 31 28 27 86 Tom Gross 27 30 29 86 Thomas Rawles 29 29 28 86 Jeff Smith 30 28 28 86 John Ventura 28 30 28 86 40 Todd Barfield 28 29 30 87 Bart Bason 27 29 31 87 Bryan Boyd 27 29 31 87 Ed Grajewski 28 30 29 87 44 Rick Baird 29 31 28 88 Bob Haizlip 28 28 32 88 Bo Luthie 28 30 30 88 Jimmy Mott 30 29 29 88 Mike O'Rourke 29 27 32 88 49 Charlie Greenwalt 26 34 29 89 Ray Guthrie 28 27 34 89 51 Randal Smith 27 33 30 90 Manfred Stewart 30 26 34 90 53 Peter Ansbacher 31 30 30 91 Robert Ward 30 32 29 91 55 Bob Davis 33 30 29 92 Mark Hasty 27 33 32 92 57 Rodney Ashley 33 31 29 93 58 David Abshire 30 30 34 94 Glenwood Arrington 31 34 29 94 Michael Cardwell 29 31 34 94 Karl Moe 30 31 33 94 62 Hank Mersereau 31 35 31 97 63 Jody Comer 27 32 39 98 64 Barb Mingo 38 32 33 103 ** Won in playoff over Neumann 23-28.
Amateur Division of Howard Loy Memorial
(Burlington, N.C. - 17 May 2001)
Round Expense Player 1 2 3 Total Reimbursement 1 Todd Trent 24 29 27 80 $20.00 2 Jeff Brown 29 26 26 81 $20.00 3 Steven Jones 26 28 28 82 $20.00 Bear Landin 27 29 26 82 $20.00 5 Amy Smith 28 27 28 83 6 Jimmy Comer 28 31 27 86 Kenny Goin 29 30 27 86 8 Chuck Nance 28 29 30 87 9 Tyler Proffitt 28 31 31 90 10 Danny Holcomb 32 30 29 91 Robin Ventura 35 28 28 91 12 Karen Hastings 30 35 27 92 13 Chuck Cyr 29 31 35 95 14 Russell Sigmon, Jr. 33 31 34 98 15 Walter Kolb 36 31 32 99 16 David Gregor 32 37 31 100 17 Nick Cook 33 40 35 107