Daniels Captures Senior Men’s Title, Pumfrey Victorious at Super Senior Men’s
Black Butte Ranch, Ore. (June 9, 2011) – Larry Daniels of Seattle, Wash. put together one of the most spectacular final rounds in PNGA history to win the 47th Annual Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s Senior Men’s Amateur Championship at Black Butte Ranch – Big Meadow Golf Course in Black Butte Ranch, Ore. Noel Pumfrey of Victoria, B.C. made a late charge to win the 2nd Annual Super Senior Men’s Amateur Championship. Made up of 144 players in all, the field featured many of the top senior amateur golfers in the Pacific Northwest.
In the Senior Men’s Championship, Daniels started the day one shot back of leaders and playing partners, Chris Maletis of Portland, Ore. and Carey Watson of Sunriver, Ore. Daniels would make his presence known early by producing birdies on the first three holes of the day to gain the lead and added one more on the par 5, 7th hole to shoot a flawless 4-under par front nine of 32. Daniels kept the pressure on with another birdie on 10 and when asked when he felt that his round might be a special one Daniels said, “When I made the 40-footer on 12 for birdie I thought I might have a shot.”
He would add another birdie on the very next hole and cruise to an eight shot victory posting an unblemished 7-under par round of 65 that consisted of not one bogey. This is Daniels’ first PNGA Senior Men’s Amateur title after coming close as the runner-up in 2009 to Maletis.
“This scenario happened before in 2009 when Chris had the 36-hole lead on me and I tied him at the turn on the OGA Course and I couldn’t hang with him,” said Daniels. “This time it was nice to put a round like that together to win.”
Tom Carlsen of Bend, Ore. shot a 1-under par 71 to tie for runner-up honors with Bob Burton of Everett, Wash. who shot a final round even par 72 bringing the 54-hole total to 2-over par 218. Watson would end up posting a 5-over par 77 to put him in a tie for 4th place with Kent Brown of Colville, Wash. who shot an even par 72 to bring their final total to 5-over par 221 for the championship. Maletis ended with a 7-over par 79 and would drop into a tie for 6th place with Mike Jonson of Sammamish, Wash. who posted a final round 2-over par 74 to bring their final total to 9-over par 223 for the championship.
In the Super Senior Championship, Pumfrey started the final round one shot behind 36-hole leader Gay Davis of Portland, Ore. The two would be deadlocked heading into the back nine after Pumfrey turned at even par 36 and Davis posted a 1-over par 37. Pumfrey would go up by one shot after making birdie on 10, but would find himself one shot back of Davis after a two-shot swing on the par 3, 13th hole that saw Davis birdie and Pumfrey bogey. The stage was set after Pumfrey birdied the 17th to draw even with Davis heading into 54th hole of the championship where Pumfrey would make one final birdie to win his first PNGA Super Senior title.
“It was a thrilling round, to see both of us have the lead, lose it and then gain it back again – it was a lot of fun,” said Pumfrey when asked about the win.
Also a part of this week’s competition was an Open Division. 46 contestants are competed in the Open Division which consisted of an individual and a four-ball competition (gross and net) and play from a shorter yardage. Mark Wilson of Oakland, Ore. won the individual gross portion of the Open Division after posting an impressive 54-hole total of 5-under par 211. Wayne Fisk of Delta, B.C. won the individual net portion with a 54-hole total of 18-under par 198. Glen Clark of Medford, Ore. and Wilson won the team competition, gross portion, with an 15-under par 201 while Gary Belvoir of Eagle, Idaho and Fisk won the net portion with a 36-under par 180.
Black Butte Ranch – Big Meadow Course was built in 1970 and remodeled between 2005 and 2007. The Big Meadows course is a Robert Muir Graves designed golf course that features views of the Oregon Cascades. With numerous elevated green complexes and varying styles of bunkers, the Big Meadows course will prove to test golfers of all abilities. Greens are “deceptively fast,” as General Manager Scott Huntsman said.
