Vince Batten Wins in Lynchburg with Opening Rounds of 23 and 25
Vince Batten
Winner of 2004 PPA Virginia State Tour Event in Lynchburg, VAConditions were much different on Sunday as opposed to the rainy weather on Sunday. The winds shifted to the northwest and brought some blustery conditions out to the Hill City. Nonetheless, the course continued to play fits for several of the players, despite about a 1 1/2 stroke per player per round average better than Saturday. One of the most brutal holes of the weekend was hole 17, a very challenging double up-hill hole where a lot of players were trying to play it front door and left it short enough to catch the drop pocket that sent the ball back down to the second tier, and to many down to the third tier. This resulted in a lot of bogeys played by both the Pro and Amateur field.
Lynchburg, VA
Course 2 - Hole 17Batten, though, was one of those who had no trouble with 17. In the first round, he aced it to sum up his impressive opening round of 23 to lead by two strokes over Rick Rybaczek. Great Lakes Tour player Tom O'Brien jumped out to a good start himself by firing a 27 to enter the second round in third place, and a group of players were tied for fourth at 28. Lebo, the defending champion, jumped out to a horrific start by going par-par-par-bogey on the first four holes and finished the front nine at even-par 18.
Scores started to improve in the second round as the sun was trying to poke through the clouds. There were a pair of 24's reported, a trio of 25's, and three 26's by the leaders coming in the clubhouse. Those scores were offset by some high scores in the low to mid 30's by nine different players. Batten shot 25 in the second round to gap his lead to four strokes over Mike Brown. Batten was in the house at 48, with Brown in at 52, Rybaczek at 53, and five different players, including Lebo, all tied at 54 for the fourth position.
Batten tried to led the lead slip out from under him with Lebo mounting a late charge. After starting the final round with par-par-bogey, Lebo would close out the round and tournament by acing 13 of the last 15, including the final six to finish the round with a 24 and would go in the clubhouse at 78. Batten, who was playing a few groups in back of Lebo, started to lose it midway through the round. A potentially costly bogey on 12 by Batten almost gave the tournament to Lebo for the second straight day. But Batten would find a way to win and finished with a final round 29, enough to clip Lebo by one shot.
Batten would grab his first win of the season with a score of 77. Lebo would have to finish alone in second at 78, while third went to Matt Summey at 79.
Although Lebo's attempt at a sweep was not to be the case, local APA player Conway Coffey's opportunity was much easier than anticipated. Coffey blitzed the APA field and cruised to a nine-shot win for his second consecutive win to start the season.
Coffey opened the tournament with a 24 to lead by one stroke over Malcolm Shumaker and by two strokes over Lynchburg JPA player Jason Paljug. After a second round 25, Coffey's lead was extended to six shots over Shumaker and was in the clubhouse at 49. The lead grew to a decisive nine strokes after he fired a final round 26 to finish with the low score of the day (75). Shumaker tied Bonnie White for second at 84.
Rounding out the top five for the Pro Division were Brown and Rybaczek, finishing in a two-way tie for fourth at 80. There were once again 12 cash spots paid back out to the Pros, and the score of 87 was good for a two-for-one split. The APA's fared better with their cash line as 86 was the fifth and final spot on the board.
Special thanks go to Joe Aboid for hosting the opening weekend in Lynchburg. Joe will be hosting another weekend in June as the PPA Virginia State tour will be playing in conjunction with the PPA North Carolina State tour.
The next weekend on the Virginia tour is scheduled for the weekend of April 24th and 25th in Richmond. Two events that weekend will be played on separate courses. The April 24th tournament will be played on Course 3 at 12:00 p.m., while the April 25th tournament will be on Course 1 starting at 10:00 a.m.
Scores and Article provided by Opie Roberts.
APA Recap (by Chuck Dibbs)
Sundays weather was beautiful. Clear skies and sixty degree temperatures were welcomed after Saturdays rain. The course was expected to play somewhat easier and it did with the average APA score dropping over three strokes. Conway Coffeys score, however, dropped a little more than three strokes. The Lynchburg native shaved ten strokes off of his Saturday score and gave new meaning to the phrase local knowledge as he destroyed course #2 for a 75. His putts were almost all true and in my opinion he was putting well enough to dismantle just about any course he played on Sunday. With scores of 24, 25, and 26 his 75 total would have been good enough to win the pro division by two strokes. He beat National Champion Bonnie White and Malcolm Shumaker by nine strokes, each tying for second place. Coffey led wire to wire and embarrassed the field. If Sundays tournament had been a horse race, Conways performance could have been compared to Secretariats domination of the Kentucky derby. Another Lynchburg native, Jason Paljug, finished fourth with a score of 85, and the final APA Andrew Jackson went to Amy Smith, a Virginia State Tour Hancock Cup team member last year.
Professional Division of Lynchburg, VA Tournament
(Lynchburg, VA - 28 March 2004)
Round Prize Player 1 2 3 Total Money 1 Vince Batten
23 25 29 77 $ 200.00 2 Brad Lebo 29 25 24 78 $ 140.00 3 Matt Summey 30 24 25 79 $ 120.00 4 Mike Brown 28 24 28 80 $ 87.50 Rick Rybaczek 25 28 27 80 $ 87.50 6 Tom O'Brien 27 29 26 82 $ 75.00 7 Gilbert Sharpe 29 29 26 84 $ 62.50 Rusty Taylor 31 25 28 84 $ 62.50 9 Darrell Anderson 28 26 31 85 $ 55.00 Steve Shively 28 26 31 85 $ 55.00 Randal Smith 28 26 31 85 $ 55.00 12 Bill Baus 30 29 28 87 $ 25.00 Gil Logan 30 29 28 87 $ 25.00 14 Wayne Cheatham 32 30 27 89 Russell Sigmon, Jr. 29 33 27 89 Jeff Spainhour 30 28 31 89 James White 28 33 28 89 18 Daryl Freeman 32 31 27 90 Ed Grajewski 33 29 28 90 Jonathan Moore 28 32 30 90 21 Gary Moore 29 34 28 91 22 Opie Roberts 32 33 28 93 23 Gary Hinshaw 33 32 31 96 Manfred Stewart 31 33 32 96 Amateur Division of Lynchburg, VA Tournament
(Lynchburg, VA - 28 March 2004)
Round Expense Player 1 2 3 Total Money 1 Conway Coffey
24 25 26 75 $ 20.00 2 Malcolm Shumaker 25 30 29 84 $ 20.00 Bonnie White 30 29 25 84 $ 20.00 4 Jason Paljug 26 32 27 85 $ 20.00 5 Amy Smith 27 29 30 86 $ 20.00 6 Chuck Dibbs 28 32 27 87 7 Dennis Biesma 32 31 26 89 Bill Garrett 30 31 28 89 9 Walter Kolb 30 34 28 92 Mike Mathews 29 32 31 92 11 Ryan Carter 34 34 27 93 Barry Moore 31 31 31 93 13 Wade Driskill 31 30 33 94 Jonathan Koo 32 30 32 94 15 Liz Shumaker 31 33 33 97 16 John Petrie 28 37 33 98 17 James LeBrun 40 34 32 106
