Our County Am needs a hand. Volusia County Amateur Golf Championship in need of a boost

Posted by Admin October 6, 2024 Golf

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You want symbolism? Just look at the trophy.

The Ralph Pool Memorial Trophy is the perpetual cup honoring the winner of the Volusia County Amateur golf championship every year since 1992.

One of the four golfing figurines on the base’s corners is missing — but safely tucked away inside the cup. The winners’ names from the past few years are also missing. Could use a good polish, too.

It’s a mess.

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And while the actual Volusia County Amateur isn’t a mess, it’s not quite what it once was. And according to folks who care about it, nowhere near what it could be.

“I think, most places you go where they play golf, the County Am is a big thing and it draws a good amount of good players,” says Ethan Wagner, the 2011 champ.

This year’s edition is next Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 12-13) at Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach. The host professional, Ben Herring, is operating the tournament for the second straight year and is among the tournament’s local advocates. He knows what a County Am should be.

“For sure. It’s how you get your amateur golfers, your junior golfers, your high school golfers excited about competing at a higher level,” he says. “If you win your county amateur championship, it carries weight.”

Herring expects about 80 competitors this week in a tournament with three divisions: Championship, Senior (55+) and Super Senior (65+). That would match last year’s number, but remains well below the 120 or so entries the County Am regularly drew in earlier years.

A timing dilemma

Over the years, the County Am was almost always a summertime event. While summer golf in this area has its climate challenges, it’s a time of year when golf courses — especially high-end, private clubs such as Sugar Mill (New Smyrna Beach) and Plantation Bay (Ormond Beach) — are willing and even eager to open their doors to an outside event.

It’s their down season, so they get a weekend of business while many of the competing golfers get to play a quality course they probably don’t get to play very often.

“That’s definitely helpful, getting to play a course you won’t normally be playing,” says 2006 champ Kevin Aylwin.

Problem is, most courses aren’t at their best in the summer. And, of course, there’s the summer weather patterns, which can often alter plans to play 36 holes of tournament golf over two days.

October, however, is generally a great time for Florida courses.

“When you hold it in summer, you’re dodging storms, you’re dodging aeration. Courses aren’t always at their best,” Herring says. “But pushing it back to October, you’re almost guaranteeing you’re gonna get better weather and you’ll get the golf course absolutely at its best going into winter.”

You’re also taking over a course for a weekend before the busy season picks up steam in November and December, and ahead of the January-through-March snowbird invasion.

But yes, there’s a downside to that, too.

“Some of the college kids I know who go off to college, they can’t come back here and play a tournament during their season,” Aylwin says. “So you’re gonna miss out on the college kids if it’s not played when they can play. If you’re trying to miss them, that’s fine too. But you’re not gonna get the quality of player.”

The list of past winners includes many golfers who won while also competing at local high schools or off at the college level.

“There were a lot of guys who played high school, junior and college golf,” says Wagner, who was 16 when he won his County Am. “Everyone played it growing up. It was always a thing you played.”

Wanted: A leader with club assistance

Local car dealer Roger Dean, a familiar face for years on the local golf scene, was a set of boots on the ground when Craig Connors got the modern County Am started in the early ’90s. After a couple of years, Dean took over promoting the tournament, while also playing in it each year, and for a couple of years had help from Randy Helle, the 2005 winner.

“In its heyday, Roger and Randy had such a positive impact on the event and nurtured it. It was seen as one of the premier events,” says Derek Morrison, who has been host pro to the County Am at Plantation Bay and later at Sugar Mill, where he’s the longtime club pro. “With their departure, it created a void.”

“It’s more work than people realize,” Dean says. “We went out and got sponsors. Printed flyers and posted them at all the local clubs. I’d have guys coming by the dealership to pay their entry. I did for at least 10 years, probably longer than that, and it’s a lot of work.”

So the current goal appears to be finding another Roger Dean, because each year’s host professional has enough on the plate without taking on promotion and organization of an annual event.

“That’s what needs to happen. The tournament needs a frontman, or woman, who’s an amateur golfer in the area, to organize it,” says Rod Perry, whose Crane Lakes club in Port Orange hosted the County Am three years ago. (Rod’s brother Brian, by the way, won the County Am in 1996.)

“A lot of us would help support it if someone is spearheading it,” Herring says. “Obviously, we’re all crazy-busy. But if we had someone to champion it, we could get it back to where it was at one point, and maybe take it a lot farther.”

Tyler Gulliksen, the 2010 champ and currently among the state’s top-ranked amateurs, is a recent retiree from the U.S. Navy (and former Mainland High and Naval Academy golfer) who wants to be part of the County Am’s needed upgrades.

“It’s gonna take someone to manage it,” he says. “But it takes more than that. It takes all of the clubs in the area to get involved. I’d love to be involved in that.

Roger Dean agrees with the hope for a group-effort approach.

“It would be nice to get a nice County Am back,” he says. “It might take going to a Sugar Mill or Plantation Bay, to draw the players. It might take a higher-end place they can’t get on easily. That would draw a better crowd, I think.

“But somebody has to get out and promote it.”

And along the way, upgrade that trophy.

Past Winners

Each year’s winner and host club for the Volusia County Amateur:

1992: Bill Bailey, Riviera Golf Club

1993: Jason Pientka, DeBary Golf Club

1994: Ken Staton, Cypress Head

1995: Daniel Hunter, Plantation Bay

1996: Brian Perry, Deltona Hills

1997: Eric Labitzke, Pelican Bay

1998: Brad Schwartz, Plantation Bay

1999: Daniel Hunter, DeBary Golf Club

2000: Johnny Thompson, LPGA International

2001: Brad Schwartz, LPGA International

2002: Eric Labitzke, Sugar Mill

2003: Rick Scott, LPGA International

2004: Daniel Venema, Victoria Hills

2005: Randy Helle, Plantation Bay

2006: Kevin Aylwin, Cypress Head

2007: J.C. Horne, Plantation Bay

2008: Wesley Graham, Plantation Bay

2009: J.C. Horne, Sugar Mill

2010: Tyler Gulliksen, Sugar Mill

2011: Ethan Wagner, Plantation Bay

2012: Don Bell, Plantation Bay

2013: Shane White, Plantation Bay

2014: No tournament

2015: Zach Horne, Crane Lakes

2016: Michael Saccente, Sugar Mill

2017: Brad Schwartz, Sugar Mill

2018: Michael Saccente, Crane Lakes

2019: Ryan Anderson, Riviera

2020: no tournament

2021: Ian Ball, Crane Lakes

2022: Derek Sanderson, Spruce Creek

2023: Bo Howard, Venetian Bay

Want to Play?

Registration for the 2024 Volusia County Amateur continues through Wednesday this week. Here are details:

Host club: Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach.

Dates: Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 12-13.

Cost: $150.

Format: 36 holes, stroke play, no handicaps used.

Divisions: Championship (for overall county championship), Senior (55 and over), Super Senior (65 and over).

How to enter: Call Venetian Bay at 386.424.5775, ext. 1.

Also: All competitors must be Volusia County residents. Senior golfers can opt to play in the Championship Division. Entry fee covers Sunday’s post-round lunch and awards presentation in the clubhouse.