Published: September 25, 2007 10:51 pm            

KELLEY: Little Kokomo makes a big splash

Locals excel at virtually all levels of golf this summer

The USGA puts on a number of major national championships for different categories of golfers. They offer professional and amateur events, men’s and women’s events, youth, mid-amateur and senior events. It is not unusual for some of these golfers to come from small towns.

But 2007 had to be a record of sorts for our small town.

In total, there are 13 USGA events excluding the team events. There is the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and the U.S Senior Open for the professionals. There is the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Mid Amateur for the men and corresponding events for the women. For the youth the USGA has the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Girls Junior. For the seniors there is the USGA Senior Amateur and USGA Senior Women’s Amateur.

What are the odds that a town of Kokomo’s size would place golfers in not one, not two, but four of these events with five golfers?

It would be a major accomplishment just to do that at the state level. But at the national level? Incredible! Keep in mind that these events usually have state qualifiers where only the top two to four players even get to play in these events.

With a little Kentucky humor, Brian Harris says that “one of the five of us would have a much better chance of winning the lottery without buying a ticket before this would happen again.”

The five players and their events are as follows: Cary Hungate qualified to play in the U.S. Senior Open; Lauren Showers and Kylene Pulley qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which you may recall was played at Crooked Stick; nationally ranked senior Tim Miller qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur and Harris qualified for the U.S. Mid Amateur.

So, of 13 national events, Kokomo was represented in four. Not only that, we were represented in the professional, mid-amateur, women’s and senior categories. We were almost represented in five categories as Ben-Marvin Egel just missed qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur.

Surely by now the state’s top players have taken notice of Kokomo’s fine golfers. One of Harris’ golfer friends from out of town certainly noticed. And it didn’t just start this year. Just last year, Jerry Jackson had to withdraw from the U.S. Senior Amateur. His replacement, Mike Bell from Indianapolis, won the event. In recent past, other KCC players Dan May and Mike Freed have also had success in qualifying for USGA events.

It’s been a great year for Harris. He made it to match play in the British Mid-Amateur and made it to Sectional Qualifying for the U.S. Open. Locally, he won the KCC club championship and the Howard County championship. Next up, Harris travels to the world famous Bandon Dunes in Oregon for the Mid-Amateur competition.

Hey, maybe his year will get even better.

So Kokomo should be proud. The Kokomo Country Club and its 260 members should be proud as well, since most of these players have ties to the KCC.

All in all, it’s been a great year for Kokomo golf.

Jon Kelley may be reached at jpkelley@netusa1.net or through the sports department.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.