2011 Alaska Open Golf Tournament

The 2011 Alaska Open tournament of the Juneau Golf Club was held March 15-18, 2011 at the Francisco Grande Golf Resort in Casa Grande, Arizona. It was organized by co-chairs Tim and Barb Whiting.

110 golfers participated in 4 men's flights, 2 senior men's flights, and 2 women's flights. After the Monday registration, a welcome reception was held that was so generously sponsored by Elaine Canary of Coldwell Banker Excell Realty of Casa Grande. Elaine is a Juneauite who lives in Casa Grande part time, and can help you find a home there!

The first day was a co-ed best-ball scramble format with teams determined by handicap, a great way to get to play with players of different levels of experience and talent. The next three days were tournament play, with Closest-to-the-Pin (KP) and Straightest Drive for the flights. The putting contest qualifications were held each afternoon, with the finalists playing off for the top ten spots on Friday. Ron Shaw won the drawing for a chance to sink a 60 foot putt for $5,000 but alas, it wasn't to be. However, the good news is Jim Williams did get a hole-in-one on hole 13, but the bad news is he didn't buy hole-in-one insurance offered at registration, so it really cost him!

Dinners were provided 3 evenings, with the last one being the Awards Banquet. Francisco Grande Golf Resort did a great job providing these meals. Door prizes were awarded each evening, and the day's KP and straightest drives were also awarded. Once again we had "scores of the day" drawings which are very fun.

You can find scores for all players on the juneaugolf.com website along with a list of the skills winners and scramble team winners. For the 8 tournament flights, winners were:

Men's A Flight:
Low Gross: David George
1st Net: John Lucas
2nd Net: Al Jahner
3rd Net: Jeff Hansen

Men's B Flight:
Low Gross: Randy Moore
1st Net: Pat Cargill
2nd Net: Steve Houlihan
3rd Net: Shane Rear

Men's C Flight:
Low Gross: Bob Hungerford
1st Net: Kim Custer
2nd Net: Harvy Johnson
3rd Net: Dave Hunt

Men's D Flight:
Low Gross: Ken Ward
1st Net: Chuck Cohen
2nd Net: Garry Young
3rd Net Tie: Frank Russell & John Etheridge

Senior's A Flight:
Low Gross: Tim Mitchell
1st Net: Steve Ellis
2nd Net: Bob Shields
3rd Net: Dan Rear

Senior's B Flight:
Low Gross: John Stepp
1st Net: Al Walker
2nd Net: Darryl Adams
3rd Net: Sandy Sturrock

Women's A Flight:
Low Gross: Dot Walker
1st Net: Trina Jones
2nd Net Tie: Brenda Swift & Bell Moore

Women's B Flight:
Low Gross: Linda Selk
1st Net: Laura Beason
2nd Net: Barb Whiting
3rd Net: Judy Lentz

Thank you very much to all those who participated and helped to make this another successful and fun tournament. We hope to see you at the next tournament at the Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, Oregon Monday through Thursday, September 12-15, 2011 with registration Sunday, 9/11.

Here are photos from the 2011 Alaska Open for your enjoyment. Many thanks to Dave Fremming, Laura Beason and Tish Custer for taking photos!

Barb Whiting