I was just thinking (I know, dangerous right?), what if we had an East vs. West competition among the members of the ASGA for each tournament on the schedule? What would be the result? Where are the better golfers, in the East or the West? So here is the way I would go about creating such an All-Star matchup.
First, I had to have a division line. Who would be on the East squad and who would constitute the West team? So I plotted out the addresses of every 2016 member on a map of the Austin area and began to pour over the results looking for a good division line. And there as clear as a bell was a natural dividing line with only two exceptions. The line was the Lower Colorado River. It transverses the Austin area from a somewhat northern origin to a slightly southeastern journey down to the Gulf of Mexico thus giving a natural East/West regional division to the map.
The membership numbers turned out to be 148 in the east and 104
in the west region. So I made two exceptions to the East/West divisions, I took the members with addresses from Round Rock and Georgetown away from the east (they are northeast of the Lower Colorado) and put them in the west region. Now the count stood at 128 from the east and 113 in the west, not ideal but better.
Second, I had to figure out how to score each tournament considering that there would be different numbers of East members and West members for each tournament. A sum total score of strokes would not do. I came up with a not so unique idea, average the scores for each group to two decimal points (Example: 72.22 to 73.14) and declare a winner. By keeping the number of wins and losses until the end of the season and I could then declare best region of golfers for that year. Sound like a good idea? Well, regardless, here we go.
Starting with the first tournament of the 2016 season, November 24th at Lions, the West team took the first tournament with a tournament stroke average of 71.24 just barely beating the East team who scored a 71. 69. Wow! A win by less than half a stroke. The West had 50 players while the East had 53.
The West was led by five westerners who all shot an amazing net 63. The scores of this quintet of golfers, Tim McGillicuddy, Wally Yousef, Bob Sanders, John Vaeth, and Jesse Ybarbo helped to provide an insurmountable lead that the East could not overcome. While the East's Charles King shot a tournament low of net 62 and was followed by net 64s from Carl Givens, David Buttross, and Paul Redden, it was not enough.
Hancock hosted the next individual tournament with 4 players on the East and 6 on the West. The East turned the tables, albeit a small table, on the West scoring a 71.50 to 72.67 victory and setting the win-loss column at 1-1 for both.
In the comeback victory that evened the early season at one each, the East was led by Dennis Choquette and Travis McWhorter with net 68. The West would claim the lowest tournament score with a 66 by Bobby Johnson but his performance was overshadowed by the East's consistency.
In the final event of the calendar year (the season runs from November to October) at Jimmy Clay on December 29th, the West took back the lead with 70.63 to 72.75 victory. On this cold wintery day, 32 hardy souls played for the East to 30 for the West, but it was a resounding win for the West as the more than 2-shot average proved.
Eddie Nunez, a veteran low handicapper, and Don Akers led the West to the win with scores of net 63s followed closely by Domingo Santos' score of 64. Seventeen of the 30 Westerners shot under par in the big win by the West.
Even though Rufus Stanton's own score of 63 tied the tournament's low score of the day and was followed by Louis Dubuque's 67, the East did not have the kind of support displayed by the West's solid wall of low scores.
At this point in the season the West is 2-1 while the East carries a 1-2 record. The next three tournaments, Morris Williams on January 5th and again on February 2nd with the smaller Hancock tournament rounded out the next series, will have their results and leaders reported in the next East/West article. Stay tuned!
