Vandebilt ousts Dixon after 1 season
April 17, 2014Dixon gone as VCHS coach
April 22, 2014
Golf fans around the world sat in awe earlier this month at the Masters as Bubba Watson muscled his way through Augusta National and won his second-career green jacket.
But did you know that before Watson was famous, he was showing off his craft in little ol’ Houma, Louisiana?
That’s right – Watson was once a member of the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series – a professional golfing circuit for players not quite able to earn their PGA Tour card.
While a member of that tour, Watson annihilated the field at the Hibernia Open in 2005, shooting a 21-under par score at Ellendale Country Club to win by eight shots.
Now called the Fakier Open, the annual local tournament is back at Ellendale this week with the first round under way today.
Officials with the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series tout that the Fakier Open is among the best stops the pro tour makes in its season.
As in years past, the tournament is sponsored by the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center at Terrebonne General Medical Center.
“We love Houma. It’s a really good community that they have on the golf course out there,” said Kris Neal, Tour Director with the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series. “There are so many volunteers and spectators and everything else out there. Your area’s hospitality is just unreal. The support that we get is great. It keeps us coming back. Our partner with Mary Bird Perkins is great. They give us a lot of support to make sure that the event goes off without a hitch.
“And the food isn’t bad either, of course. That speaks for itself.”
For the players on the tour, the Fakier Open is a chance to make some cash. The tournament is the fifth event in the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series’ 15-event schedule, which starts in March and ends in October.
The purse for the Houma event is an impressive $100,000 – a sum that is divvied out among the players who make the cut for the four-round tournament.
With that sort of money up for grabs, the winner of the event is looking at taking home a sum that figures to be around $15,000.
Neal said the field at this week’s event is stacked with all of the best players on the tour slated to play. That list includes 23-year-old Ryan O’Rear – a promising young player that has won once on the four this season. Also slated to compete are solid players like Bill Allcorn and Michael Smith – two players near the top of the money list for the 2014 season.
“We are going to have an excellent field this year,” Neal said. “We’re expecting pretty much all of our best and hottest players to be out there. The course is challenging – it always is. I think it will be very fun for the fans to see our players in action.”
The four-day golf event is structured very similarly to the typical PGA Tour event that one can watch from home. The Fakier Open will feature four rounds of action – the first beginning today and the last on Saturday.
After the second round of competition, the field will be sliced in half, as the bottom-half of the field will be sent home for the cutline.
But one wrinkle that will be on display at the Fakier Open is something Neal described as “Own the Second Shot.”
In this gimmick, every player in the tournament that misses the cut by one stroke will gather in a fairway on Thursday afternoon following the second round’s completion for a shootout.
From there, the player who hits his approach shot closest to the pin will advance and play the weekend.
“The players love that, because it gives them a second chance,” Neal said. “But the fans really enjoy it, too, because it’s super competitive, because everyone wants a chance to make the cut and continue playing.”
For Tri-parish golf fans, the Fakier Open comes at the right price: It’s free.
Neal said that as always, all fans are welcome to attend all four days of the tournament with no charge placed onto any of the days of the tournament.
Food and drinks are available to fans that attend the event, and Neal said the golfers are easily accessible throughout the week to offer golfing tips and whatever other advice that fans might have.
“It’s more laid back than what you’d see at a PGA Tour event,” Neal said. “The people who come out almost always leave satisfied after having a really nice day on the golf course watching some of our players play.”
And who knows? While watching the action, you just might see the next big star in the world of golf.
It happened with Bubba Watson in 2005. Who knows if and when it might happen again?
“Our tour has a lot of really talented players,” Neal said. “You just never know where these players might go from here.”
Professional golfer Bill Allcorn lines up a putt during an event last season. Allcorn is one of more than 100 golfers expected to play in the Fakier Open this week, a professional golf tournament hosted by the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center at Terrebonne General Medical Center. Admission to the event is free, which makes the annual golf tournament popular among fans of the sport.
