Qualifier completes field for AJGA event

The length of Dalhousie Golf Club was a perfect fit for Louis Gleixner during Sunday's qualifier for the American Junior Golf Association's Dalhousie Junior Championship.

"It was a pretty fair test of me since I'm not that long of a hitter," said Gleixner, a 16-year-old from Greenwood, Ind.

He was one of three boys players who cruised the course in even-par 72 and the only one from that trio who will return for this week's tournament.

More than 60 boys and 10 girls participated in the qualifier, with 11 boys and four girls grabbing spots in this week's field. Several golfers -- including co-medalists Brian Bullington and Bennett Lavin -- opted to take a tournament exemption to improve their status for future AJGA events.

The top girls golfer in the qualifier, Natalie Mitchell of Germantown, Tenn., also opted for an exemption because she begins school today.

"My parents aren't letting me skip, which I was upset about," said Mitchell, 16, who shot a 73, "but education comes first."

The 70 golfers were the first to play Dalhousie during this week's AJGA event. A junior-am will take place today, followed by practice rounds, and the 144-golfer field begins three days of competition Tuesday. A cut will take place after the second round Wednesday.

The field this year will play Dalhousie at 6.935 yards, 35 yards shorter than it was listed last year. Almost all of the change can be found at the third hole, a par-4 playing at 387 yards. It was listed at 430 last year.

"No. 3 played difficult for the guys last year," AJGA tournament director Andrew Greenfield said, "so basically we took the caliber of field that we have, and we looked at last year's numbers, which obviously is an advantage because last year you're kind of going in blind."

No. 3 last year played at a stroke average of 4.61, which made it the fourth-most difficult hole behind Nos. 9 (4.77), 17 (4.74) and 10 (4.71).

"We made that change [on No. 3] to ease up on the players due to the difficulty of the second shot being up the hill and knowing how difficult the green was," Greenfield said.

No. 17 plays the longest of the par-4s at 450 yards for the boys and 385 for the girls. It is the only hole on the course without a sand trap, but traditionally is one of the most difficult holes on the course.

Mitchell made her lone birdie of the day there, after clobbering her second shot from 180 yards with a 7-wood. Her ball hit the pin and settled in close.

"There's a grass bunker right before [the green], which kind of psyches you out," she said. "I just said, 'Hit as good a shot as you can and get up there and see what happens.' I liked it the minute I stroked it. I didn't know it was going to be that close, so that was nice."

Gleixner came up with a par on 17, saving par from just off the green after his second shot from 210 yards with a 3-iron did not find the green.

"I hit a really good shot and tried to roll it up. It just ended a little short," he said. "It's long."

The course kept Gleixner from being able to use his short irons very often.

"I never really had anything under a pitching wedge," he said. "I had to hit a lot of long irons. It was fun, but it was tough out there."

Gleixner went to his final tee -- the 18th -- at 2 under, but found sand on his tee shot and came in with a double bogey on the par-5 18th. "I made it took like the hardest hole out there," he said.

Bullington and Levin both birdied the 18th.

Gleixner's round also included a chip-in for birdie on the par-3 eighth hole and a 50-foot putt on 14.

"I really didn't hit the ball all that well," Gleixner said. "I just got up and down from everywhere, and I only had 26 putts today. I made a lot of 15-footers on the first five holes."

Mitchell said confidence with her putter also was important in her best tournament round.

"When I stepped up to a putt, I knew I was going to make it," she said.

She finished five strokes in front of the next-best finisher, Tori Stock, who shot a 78 after a 33 on the front nine.

"I've been stuck on 75," Mitchell said, "so I was pretty happy. I felt like I hit a lot of fairways and greens, which is a key component to defeat this course."

Greenfield agrees that accuracy is more important than distance at Dalhousie, which is why the course stayed under 7,000 yards this year.

"A lot of places are not a golf course like this," Greenfield said. "We could play 7,100 and I don't think the yardage will change that much in players' performances. The priority of playing on this golf course is hitting the fairways.

"We're looking for the course yardage to reflect the challenge to players, but not overwhelm them. We don't want the kids to come out and say, 'Great golf course, but we hated it because we didn't enjoy our experience out there.' We want to be on that line of challenge and fair."

He said the AJGA staff will meet before and after each round to discuss yardage and pin placement.

"We'll look at the stats everyday to see how a hole has played, and we'll look at hole locations and the yardage for the next day," he said. "We'll change on the fly."

If they ask Gleixner, they won't change a thing.

Notes

• One of Mitchell's playing partners, Meghan Mueller of St. Louis, had the shot of the day in her non-qualifying round of 89. On the par-4 16th hole, Mueller's second shot went long, but the ball hit one of the large fans that are located near some greens and bounced back onto the putting surface. She finished with a par.

One of the volunteers said the clang could be heard at the 18th tee.

• Greenfield noted that the course length could be extended next year when the Rolex Tournament of Champions comes to Dalhousie in July, since that invitational event brings in only those players who have won on the AJGA circuit. He said college coaches like to see players working the course from the tips, but other factors also come into play.

"You've got to figure your better players might hit the ball further, not only with their tee shots but with their irons," Greenfield said. "For an invitational, we typically play the golf course as far back as it can go, but this golf course has some tees back there that I don't know if we would use. I don't know if we'd go there. We wouldn't want to set ourselves up to play 6 1/2 hours.

"Obviously, if we're playing in July and you had the rain you had this year, the ball is going to hit and it's not going to roll. So, all of a sudden, the back tees here, which are 7,300, 7,400 [yards] turn into 7,600, 7,700 because their ball is not rolling."

• Two local players took part in the qualifier, but did not make the tournament field. Brett Slaten of Kelso finished with an 81, while Alex Reid of Jackson shot an 83.

The qualifying line was 77, which meant players with that score or better could take a spot in the Dalhousie field or an exemption to improve their tour status. In order to fill the 11 qualifying spots after players opted out, players with 78 were allowed to take up spots in the field. Four of the seven who tied there chose to do so, and Jason Vann won a playoff on the par-3 11th hole to grab the final spot in the field from among players who shot 79s.

• Volunteer committee chair Mark Hogan still is seeking workers for Tuesday and Wednesday. Shifts include starting at 6:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Those interested can reach Hogan, who will be playing in today's junior-am, at 573-803-0055.