By Bob West
News golf columnist
Next month’s PGA Championship was the big loser when Jordan Spieth’s gritty effort came up a stroke short at the British Open. Had Spieth won and been in position to pull off golf’s first grand slam since Bobby Jones, coverage of and attention paid to the PGA Championship would have been unlike anything the game of golf has ever season. So would the TV ratings. Meanwhile, don’t feel too badly for Spieth. The $837,282 he added to his bank account at St. Andrews moved his official 2015 earnings to $9,170,215. That’s more than double Dustin Johnson, who is No. 2 on the money list at $4,355.331. Barring an injury, the Dallas phenom should join Tiger Woods as the only player to top the $10 million mark in one season. Tiger did it three times, with a high-water mark of $10,867,052 in 2007. Eye-opening is that Woods got to that figure in only 16 tournaments. Spieth’s next start will be his 20th of the season . . . It was not an especially good week for Chris Stroud at the Barbasol Championship, but it was extremely encouraging to see him go low on Sunday for the second consecutive week. Seven days after his 63 was the low closing round in the John Deere Classic, Stroud’s 66 was only a stroke off the best closing round at the Barbasol. That enabled him to finish T32, win $21,218,75 and continue his climb in Fed Ex points. The LU ex moved from 91 to 89. He’s playing again this week in the Canadian Open . . . PN-G ex Andrew Landry jumped from 15 to 13 on the Web.com money list with his T37 in last week’s Stonbrae Classic in Hayward, Calif. Landry shot rounds of 68-66-70-71 for a 275 that was five-under-par. For one of the few times, a Web.com winner didn’t go really deep into red figures. Twelve-under was the winning number . . . West Orange’s Michael Arnaud continued his steady play by following an opening 72 with rounds of 67-69-68 to finish a shot behind Landry. He was T48. There is no Web.com event this week. The tour resumes July 30 in Lehi, Utah . . . Former Beaumonter Gary Christopher was part of a unique photo op last Wednesday at the British Open. Christopher, a professional photographer whose late brother Todd played football at Texas A&M, was the caddie for 1981 winner Bill Rogers during a four-hole exhibition played by past Open champions and televised by ESPN. Rogers’ team of Arnold Palmer, Paul Lawrie, and Darren Clarke posed for a group shot on the “Swilican Bridge” that crosses the burn on the 18th hole and Christopher was in the photo. My source on that was another former Beaumonter, Bruce Lietzke, who was good friends with Rogers when the two were playing the PGA Tour . . . The area’s hottest junior player of late has been PN-G sophomore Josh Elmore. A week after finishing second in the STPGA Prestige Tour’s Aggieland Classic in College Station, with rounds of 79-72 (151), Elmore unleashed a scorching, seven-under-par 65 at Brentwood Country Club Monday to win Boys 15-18 in the area’s weekly STPGA Tour stop. Elmore’s second in the Aggieland Classic earned him a spot in the Texas State Junior Amateur Championship at Horseshoe Bay July 29-31 . . . Elmore needed to go low to beat PN-G teammate Tyler Feemster at Brentwood. Feemster placed second with a 68. In Boys 13-14, Collin Todora and Jack Burke tied for the top spot with 81s. Other winners were Karlei Hemler (76 in Girls 15-18) and Elizabeth Townsend (94 in Girls 13-14). In the Little Linksters Division, winners were Micah Depew (38 in Boys 11-12, red tees), Xander Parks (52 in Boys 9-10, 9-hole modified), Chase Peddy and Brady Scott (36 in Boys 9-10, 5 hole modified), Ricardo Cardenas (31 in Co-ed 6-8, 5 hole modified), Foster Cecka (56 in Co-ed 6-8, 9-hole modified), Stephanie Wee (48 in Girls 11-12, 9 hole red) and Annabel Cardenas (31 in Girls 9-10, 5 hole modified) . . . Joseph Wolcik shot rounds of 72-74 at Bayou Din to win Boys 15-18 in the YMBL/STPGA tournament played July 13-14 at Bayou Din. Other flight winners included Burke with a 149 (76-73) in Boys 13-14, Hemler with a 157 (80-77) in Girls 15-18 and Townsend with a 186 (95-91) in Girls 13-14 . . . The team of Harrell Guidry-Joe Gongora shot 68 to win 1st Flight by a stroke over Adam Noel-Cap Hollier in the Babe Zaharias DogFight. In 2nd flight, there was a four-way tie at 73 between Charles Leard-Jeff Rinehart, Gary Hanan-Mark Petry, Bill Jones-Raymond Darbonne and Ray Trahan-Ivory Hatch. There was also a tie in 3rd Flight, with the team of Ron Overstreet-David Arnaud and the duo of Jim Thompson-Dale Richey shooting 74. Closest to the hole winners were Larry Johnson (No. 2), Guidry (No. 7), Rick Pritchett (No. 12) and Jones (No. 15) . . . The Senior Game at The Babe was played in a four-person, three ball format with the team of Earl Richard, Harry Green , Paul Duplantis and Larry Rogers winning at plus 1. On the back the foursome of Roddy Weatherly, Larry Foster, Ray Trahan and Stedman Tahaney won with plus 2. Closest to the pin winners were Weatherly (No. 2), Larry Vicknair (No. 7), Bob Frazier (No. 12) and Pete Reobroi (No. 15) . . . The Super Saturday Game at The Babe was played in a 2-ball format. On the front, the team of Dwayne Anderson, Ivory Hatch, Don MacNeil and Wes McGuire won at minus 5. There was a two-way tie on the back at minus 2 between the team of Bill Hanley, Gerald Huebel, Thad Borne and Robert Lynch and the foursome of Guidry, Hollier, Dillard Darbonne and Paul Brown . . .The Senior 50 Plus Game at The Babe was also played in a 2-ball format. The team of Benny Sharpe, Butch Pitman, Mark Petry and Gene Hardy won the front with minus 4. The back ended in a tie at minus four between the team of Noel, MacNeil, Ed Hetzel and Paul Duplantis and the foursome of Craig Fontenot, Hollier, Gary Hanan and Bob Frazier . . . The West team of Grayson and Bob claimed second low net and in the 19 team Furyk Flight at the National Father-Son Championship in Myrtle Beach. The event, which featured 450 Father-Son teams from all over the United States and as far away as Austria and London, consisted of 18 holes of best ball, 18 holes of alternate shot and 18 holes of scramble, with each flight playing three different courses. It was a blast and something all fathers and sons who play golf should experience at least once.
Golf news should be e-mailed to rdwest@usa.net or faxed to 724-6854.