The Idaho Golf Association's Match Play Championship is returning to The Valley Club this weekend, June 2-4. Forty-eight players will compete.
Valley Club head golf professional Stoney Brown said, "The course is in awesome shape and it looks like the weather will cooperate. We look at the Match Play Championship as our first event of the year. The players look forward to coming up, and we think it's pretty neat to host it."
Format is 18-hole stroke play for all participants, and that will decide the seedings for the match play portion of the meet.
Men's, Women's and Senior divisions participate in match play pitting the higher seeds against the lower seeds. Each golfer plays one-on-one until a champion is determined.
The men's division features 32 of the top amateurs in the Gem State. The women's and senior divisions are made up of eight players each. The par for all three divisions is 72.
Last June, two young Idaho golfers won match play titles at The Valley Club.
Travis Gibbens of Nampa's Broadmore Country Club edged Todd Points of Caldwell's Purple Sage Golf Course 6 & 4 for the men's title. Kali Quick of Boise's Shadow Valley Golf Club defeated Allison Travis of Banbury GC 4 & 3.
Gibbens is returning to defend his title. Two-time IGA Women's Amateur queen Quick won't be back, but 2004 women's match play champion Jean Smith of Eagle will compete Friday. Smith is a seven-time Rocky Mountain PGA Section "Player of the Year."
Jerome Country Club's Bob Lutz, a former Ketchum resident, won the 2005 senior match play championship and will return to defend his title against the likes of locals Dave Cropper, Nils Badenduck and Walter Littenberg, plus colorful Joe Malay of Weiser.
Former champions in this year's men's field include Brett Smith of Boise (2002). Youngsters Michael Conger, Garrett Goldberg and Tyson McFarland of Rexburg are competing, too. Page Roos of Ketchum is entered in the men's division.
Schedule
Friday, June 2: 18-hole stroke play seeding round, an 8 a.m. shotgun start. And tee times at 12:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 3: Second round men's matches at 8 a.m. Senior and women's semi-final matches at 12:30 p.m. Men's quarterfinal matches, plus senior and women's finals.
Sunday, June 4: Only four golfers will remain in the men's division, and they will have semi-final matches at 8 a.m. Finals immediately following. Lunch and awards, too.
