Randy Reeves' Fifth Round 23 Secures His First Carolinas' Open Title

17 April 2005 - Columbia, S.C. - The field of 33 pros and 18 amateurs participated on a gorgeous Sunday morning in Columbia. The 21st annual Carolinas' Open held on Course 2 was determined to be one of the best outcomes in Open history. It was decided after the fifth round, but three players had a shot at the win.


Randy Reeves
2005 PPA Carolinas' Open Champion

Greg Ward led the way as the defending champion, but got off on the wrong foot. Ward shot 33 in the opening round and was only beating four players in the 33-player field. Opening the tournament with the lead at 25 was Andy Coradini. In search of his first Open win of his career, the Loganville, Georgia product dominated the morning session and was leading by two shots at 77 after the first half of play.

Coradini was leading by one shot over local favorite Rick Culverhouse after the first round. Culverhouse returned the favor in the second round by firing his second consecutive 26 of the tournament and grabbed the lead at 52, with Coradini falling into second at 53. Coradini took the lead right back when he shot 24 to head into the afternoon at 77. Culverhouse was two back at 79. Next in the clubhouse was Tony Varnadore with a score of 82, and Reeves was alone in fourth, a stroke back of Varnadore.

Ricky Schults dominated play in the APA and would win his first Open title of his career after he shot 82 in the final three rounds. Tied with Chris Alley for the lead at 25 through the first round, Schults moved ahead of the field and posted rounds of 27, 28, and 27. Schults held on to win the Carolinas' Open in the APA Division by three shots over Dennis Biesma. Schults would win his second tournament of the season and his first major win since he won the Virginia State Championship. Schults has won four major titles spanning the last two-plus seasons. He has won the Carolinas' Open, last year's Virginia State Championship, last year's APA National Championship, and the 2003 South Carolina Championship held on Course 1 in Columbia in dominant fashion.


Ricky Schults
2005 APA Carolinas' Open Champion

Biesma finished in second with a score of 110, including a final round 25 to hold off Chris Hudson. Hudson finished alone in third at 112. Alley was fourth at 115, and Barry Moore ended up in fifth at 116. Biesma clinched the two-day low amateur spot for North Carolina from this weekend.

Action resumed in the Pro Division and not much movement was involved in the rankings. Coradini still maintained the lead, but would be trimmed down to one shot as Culverhouse fired a 27 to finish the fourth round. The fifth round was the round that made the difference. Coradini found trouble and Culverhouse capitalized. A 31 by Coradini put him in at 136, and Culverhouse put together a 28 in that round to move ahead of Coradini at 134. Culverhouse did not see himself leading at this point.

Reeves came out of nowhere to shoot 23 and made up five shots on Coradini and took the lead. Reeves entered the final round at 133, with Culverhouse one back, and Coradini and Varnadore tied for third and three back of Reeves.

There was no room for improvement in the final round for Coradini. Another 31 put him out of contention as he had to settle for a top five finish. Varnadore tried to rally in the latter stages and shot 26 to finish at 162. Culverhouse shot 28 to finish tied with Varnadore. But it was Reeves who had just enough in the tank to match Culverhouse's final round score to edge out a one-shot win.

Reeves completed the day as the 2005 Carolinas' Open champion, his first title. Reeves finished with a score of 161 and earned $300 from the event. Reeves also accepted spots into the South Carolina State Championship, and the North Carolina State and Match Play Championships. Culverhouse and Varnadore both finished tied for second at 162. 2003 Open champion Vince Batten rebounded to finish fourth at 165, while Coradini and Robert Johnson, who posted a tournament best round of 22, rounded out the top five at 167. Greg Ward finished strongly after the disappointing start and would finish in a three-way tie for seventh at 169.

Other spots were handed out from this event. Varnadore won the two-day NC State spot after defeating Batten in a playoff. Johnson took the two-day SC State spot after a playoff victory over Rick Rybaczek. Batten and Varnadore also received the two World Match Play spots from this event.

Special thanks goes out to Hubert Robertson, the course manager at Columbia, for providing the event this weekend. The South Carolina tour will play their State Championship on this very course in the first weekend of October.

Both of these tours will be in action again in two weeks. They will play at one of the tour's most popular destinations, White Lake, on April 30 and May 1. Two tournaments will be played on April 30. Both tours will play the first event at 11:00 a.m. and North Carolina will play a sole tour event at 4:00 p.m. Then, the two tours will play again on Sunday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m.

Tournament results provided by Opie Roberts and Frank Warren.

Professional Division of 2005 PPA Carolinas' Open
(Columbia, S.C. - Course #2
- 16 April 2005)

    Round   S.C. Prize
  Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Points Money
1 Reeves, Randy 25 27 31 27 23 28 161 40.0 $ 300.00
2 Culverhouse, Rick 26 26 27 27 28 28 162 36.5  $ 185.00
  Varnadore, Tony 28 27 27 26 28 26 162 36.5  $ 185.00
4 Batten, Vince 29 27 28 27 27 27 165 35.0  $ 150.00
5 Coradini, Andy 25 28 24 28 31 31 167 33.5  $ 118.00
  Johnson, Robert 26 34 30 28 27 22 167 33.5  $ 118.00
7 Ward, Greg 33 28 28 27 29 24 169 31.0  $ 100.00
  Summey, Matt 30 27 28 25 31 28 169 31.0  $ 100.00
  Orr, Randy 29 30 28 25 29 28 169 31.0  $ 100.00
10 Klapper, Jay 28 31 30 26 28 28 171 27.0  $   80.00
  Guthrie, Ray 29 29 28 31 25 29 171 27.0  $   80.00
  Warren, Frank 26 32 31 27 27 28 171 27.0  $   80.00
  Lebo, Brad 31 27 30 26 28 29 171 27.0  $   80.00
  Rybaczek, Rick 27 30 27 30 27 30 171 27.0  $   80.00
15 Jackson, Tony 28 28 31 28 33 25 173 24.0  $   65.00
16 Kirby Jr., Bill 29 25 30 31 33 26 174 22.5  $   30.00
  Comer, Jimmy 26 31 32 29 29 27 174 22.5  $   30.00
18 Rawles, Thomas 31 28 32 30 31 24 176 20.0    
  English, Gary 32 27 29 28 30 30 176 20.0    
  Wall, Allen 31 27 26 28 34 30 176 20.0    
21 Carter, Randy 34 26 27 29 30 31 177 17.0    
  Freeman, Daryl 30 30 31 28 29 29 177 17.0    
  Hutchins, Brian 32 28 26 32 31 28 177 17.0    
24 Hitt, Michael 34 29 26 32 29 29 179 15.0    
25 Britt, Darrell 27 31 28 32 30 32 180 13.5    
  Caudle, Billy 34 31 27 30 29 29 180 13.5    
27 Baird, Rick 32 28 31 32 30 28 181 12.0     
28 Moore, Gary 33 30 32 33 29 27 184 11.0    
29 Jackson, Bob 30 33 31 30 32 29 185 9.5    
  Comstock, Tom 27 33 32 31 31 31 185 9.5    
31 Cardwell, Michael 29 31 34 35 32 32 193 8.0     
32 Barbour, Tommy 34 30 33 35 36 29 197 7.0    
33 Ward, Robert 37 35 32 29 38 34 205 6.0    
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