Berry Creek championships complete

Berry Creek Country Club champions have been crowned and the ladies victor is not a surprise. It’s her eighth club championship.

Once again, Susie Teitelbaum won the championship — this time by four strokes.

“This was so special,” she said. “(I) feel so blessed.”

Itwastwoyearsagowhen Susie captured another of her titles. It took a playoff for that to occur. In that 2020 championship run, Teitelbaum and Dorothy Lovett completed three rounds tied with 255. However, Teitelbaum prevailed for the win via the playoff.

Moving ahead to this championship run, Susie registered rounds of 88-89-87 for 264.

Coming in second was Patricia Oleary, with 89-90-89 for the 268.

Linda Pryor (270) finished third with Dede Conner (273) in fourth and Jeri Pack (276), who won the championship last year, in fifth.

Teitelbaum started her Berry Creek championship streak with titles from 1999-2001, 2020 and 2022 and three senior ladies championships in 2008, 2009 and 2022.

Berry Creek men

In the men’s championship flight, Darron Green won the title by threestrokes over Landon Carpenter.

Green posted rounds of 78-76-76 for 230; Carpenter registered totals of 7982-72 for 233.

Next in the highly competitive championship flight were Jacob Rivera (234), Clayton Carnley (243) and Paul McCarthy (244).

Last year’s champion Steve Jorde finished sixth. He posted 80-80-84 for 244.

When he claimed the title last year he shot 234, winning by a single stroke. It was his first Berry Creek championship.

Both women and men played three rounds from October 20-23 to determine the winners.

PGA tour snubs

Four tournaments on the PGA Tour in Texas appear to be shunned under the newly created and revised schedule for 2023. The only event included in the elevated tournament package is the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March at the Austin Country Club. The quartet of other Texas PGA events at present is on the sidelines from the “elevated” category. Those 13 elevated events will have a minimum purse of $20 million.

Meanwhile, the purse at the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge was $8.4 million and the purse at the AT&T Byron Nelson was $9.1 million.

Under the enhanced tournaments, more than half of the purse comes from the PGA Tour’s media right’s deal while the title sponsor picks up the rest.

There is a positive in the change: and that is that the top 20 players will be required to participate each year in a certain number of the “elevated” tournaments. That means better fields and thus greater interest for the fans.

The two other Texas events that remain in a fuzzy status are located in Houston and San Antonio.

They are the Candace Bank Houston Open which comes up in a few weeks at the Memorial Park Golf Course. This event was switched from a spring start date to November a couple years ago.

Finally, the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio next spring has long been a spring event just prior to the Masters in Georgia. Now, the events await some sort of definitive word from the PGA Tour.

Eagle boys tested

The Georgetown High School boys were tested to some challenging golf over the Falconhead Golf Club, a public layout that debuted in 2003. It’s situated among the hilly terrain on the west side of Austin.

Just ask Eagles Head Coach Casey Leatherman about the October 18 tournament.

“The boys had a rocky start, but started to pull things together on the last nine holes,” she said. “The tournament ended up getting cut to a 27hole tournament instead of 36 due to not having enough daylight.”

Sam Stribling posted a 79-35 and Colton O’Dell had 75-39, both for final 114s, in the abbreviated event.

Other Eagles scoring included Cason Hammack 81-39=120, Grant Jansen 81-44=125 and Mason Askey 89-42=131.

Westlake II won the event and was followed by Westlake I three strokes back and Lake Travis I four strokes behind the winners. GHS came in eighth among this elite 13-team field.

“This tournament identified some things we need to work on before the Lufkin Invitational in November,” said Coach Leatherman, who will be bringing the Eagles to her former home town in November. “I’m very proud of how well they handled the wind and elevation conditions, which is not something we play often. “

Regarding the Lufkin event in November, Casey said “There are some really good teams that will be there and Crown Colony is a great course to play.”

Hole-in-one

Legacy Hills GC, September 24: Don Johnson, No. 8 at 132 yards, 8-iron; witnesses were Greg Rackett, Lou Rackett and Brad Brown

Future events

October 26: GHS girls, Hutto Invitational, Star Ranch GC, Hutto October 29-30: Berry Creek CC, The Shorty October 31: EVHS boys and girls, Wildflower CC, Temple November 1-2: Berry Creek CC, Super Senior Club championship November 5-6: Berry Creek CC, LGA Championship November 6: Cimarron Hills, Couples club championship November 8: GHS girls, Cedar Creek Invitational, Wolfdancer GC, Lost Pines