By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — The quirky quotient is higher than usual for one of the state’s most prestigious amateur golf tournaments.
Peculiar is part of the Fourth of July Tournament; travesty is the current concern. The latter will be accurate if a gimmicky two-putt maximum is imposed on two new greens. Used to speed up scrambles, the limit is not part of legitimate golf.
Par of 65 says the War Memorial Park course is unusual. It’s always been that way. Originally known as Fair Park to many, the course was scrunched into limited space even before I-630 was built and University Avenue became a major artery.
Despite the humps and bumps and screwy bounces, the best amateurs in the state signed up year after year for the Fourth of July tournament. Most embraced the vagaries of the course. Those who didn’t learn to appreciate the challenge dropped out.
On the back of the registration sheet are the champions since 1937, and the list is a who’s who of Arkansas golf. Former PGA Tour player Stan Lee won three times. So did his brother Louis. Ditto Ken Duke, who banked more than $4 million on the Tour in 2007-08.
A three-time winner when the tournament was match play, Sam Spikes, who is going into the Arkansas State Golf Association Hall of Fame, says the Fourth of July was THE tournament in the state in the 1960s.
The popularity of the tournament is reflected in the ASGA’s Player of the Year competition. The two state tournaments are worth 250 points each to the winner and the weekly designated events carry a top prize of 90 points. In between are War Memorial and the Maumelle Classic with 120 points each to the winner.
More than 100 entered last year in the Championship, Mid-Senior, Senior and Super-Senior divisions.
Early this week, many were still on the fence about paying $135, plus cart. On the clubhouse door was a sign that said holes 13-18 were closed due to construction.
Headed downtown on Markham, the greens for the new 13th and 14th are visible. Ten days ago, they were dirt brown. Now, there is a bit of grass.
Both are now par threes, reducing par to 64. Reconfiguring the golf course, particularly the first five holes, has been done more than once. In fact, No. 1 used to be a par-four and No. 2 was a par-three. Now, it’s the other way around.
The 17th green, the one that used to sit by the ditch near the entrance to the parking lot to the football stadium, is gone.
The latest changes were made to maintain 18 holes while providing more open space in the park for activities such as walking and picnics. The problem is that construction of the greens began about five weeks ago and it takes about twice that long to get a solid growth of bermuda. Moving the tournament to Rebsamen for one year was rejected.
The greens at War Memorial are rarely perfect. Veterans remember using a lob wedge from six inches off No. 4 green and landing the ball as close to the pin as possible, hoping it would stick in all the sand.
As long as officials don’t short-change the players with a maxium-putt rule, participants will deal with the new greens and write it off as another piece of War Memorial lore.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
