The First Tee Quad-Cities Amateur Tour: Newsroom

Youth-heavy leaderboard at Valley Oaks
By Tom Johnston, The Rock Island Argus/ Moline Dispatch
Saturday, May 24, 2003

CLINTON, Iowa -- The morning round of the Quad City Amateur golf tournament belonged to the plus-50 set, but the young guns stole the show in the afternoon of play at Valley Oaks Golf Club in the first round of the annual event.

When a long day of golf finally ended early Saturday evening, two college standouts were sitting on top of the championship flight. St. Ambrose University's Darren Hince fired the day's best round, a 2-under 70. The only other sub-par round at the tricky layout was turned in by Bettendorf's Mike Martin, a junior-to-be at Simpson College who was coming off an individual title in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He carded a 1-under 71.

Tom Miler, who recently turned 50 and could be playing in the seniors division, carded his even-par round in the 7:30 a.m. group. He stood alone at 72 atop the championship flight until being joined by an afternoon foursome of First Tee Tour season points champ Brian Soucinek, Jonas DeWitte, Iowa State's Tyler Swanson from Clinton and Moline's Bruce Allison.

In all, 35 players in the championship flight scored in the 70s.

Chris Klahn was the lone player at 73. At 74 was a threesome that included SAU's Jason McGrane, Peter Strothkamp and SAU alumnus Chris Wilkins.

Saturday's other solid morning round belonged to Tom Wolfe. His 1-under 71 was the top score among seniors playing at Valley Oaks. Butch Stormer's 4-under 68 at Glynns Creek was tops amongst the senior set in the first round.

The Valley Oaks group tees it up today at Glynns Creek for the second round of the 54-hole tournament and plenty of guys are still in contention.

Hince had a chance to create a little gap, but came back to the field on his last hole. Playing the par-4 17th to finish his round, the long-hitter from Carol Stream (Glenbard North H.S.), double-bogeyed the usually benign 370-yard par-4. His trouble started with a tee shot into the right hazard and ended up being the only blemish on his scorecard that included four birdies and 13 pars.

"I hit a lot of greens; I think I only missed two all day,'' said Hince, a senior-to-be. "I didn't get myself in too much trouble. I hit a lot of fairways and had a lot of wedges and sand wedges in my hands'' for approaches.

Hince, like three other SAU teammates were just back from the NAIA National Tournament where the Bees finished 15th. They returned from Florida Friday night so they could play in the Am -- averting travel woes that have kept SAU players from competing in this event in the past.

In fact, Hince was playing only because he thought there once again was a sponsor's exemption into the John Deere Classic being awarded to the championship flight winner. Bee teammate Joe Demory, though, is a member of the First Tee of the Quad Cities Amateur Tour and is gunning for that exemption via the summerlong points chase. He was among three at 76.

In women's play, defending champ D'Anne Gross is again on top of the now five-lady field with a 5-over 77. Soon-to-be United Township graduate Laura Snyder carded an 82, while former QC am champ Patti Lee carded an 83.

Gross' round was a bit of an adventure, including three birdies on four of the par-5s, four bogeys and two double bogeys.

"I hit the ball real well,'' said Gross. "I had one bad tee shot into the water on No. 6 and that led to a penalty stroke.''

Most of her trouble came on the greens where her lack of time to practice really caught up with her as she 3-putted five times, including one on the 236-yard par-4 5th that she drove and proceeded to bogey.

"When I had a wedge or putter in my hand, I was terrible,'' said Gross, who started her round with three straight bogeys. "I just relied on my competitive experience. I knew I had a lot of hole left to play at that point.''

Tom Johnston welcomes your comments at tbone@qconline.com or 757-4969.