Bear Den ‘holds own as course’

LITTLE ROCK — Southern Golf Association officials praised Chenal Country Club’s performance as a first-time host of the Southern Amateur Championship, even as they stood sweltering in the sun Saturday for a fourth consecutive day.

On Monday, that first impression still lingered.

“Things couldn’t have gone better,” said Wyn Norwood, a SGA board member and former UALR golf coach who was instrumental in bringing the tournament to Little Rock. “You couldn’t have asked for a better finish.” That finish - a three hole sudden death playoff victory by Peter Williamson on a 25-foot putt against Bobby Wyatt, the first playoff finish since 2008 - in front of approximately 300 spectators went a long way toward building that good impression.

But it was the overall performance of the Little Rock golf club’s staff, ranging from the groundskeepers who maintain the Bear Den course to the organizers of the welcoming banquet for the 171-player field, that could put Chenal in the the regular rotation of hosts for the 106-year-old tournament, which typically schedules events eight to 10 years in advance.

Next year’s tournament will be hosted by The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, followed by The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 2014. Other regular hosts include Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club, Bay Hill Country Club in Orlando, Fla,, and The Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C.

The biggest factor in getting selected as a regular host is course recognition, said SGA Executive Director Tommy Culp.

“These courses have a name for themselves,” Culp said.

But Bear Den might have taken a step in that direction.

“We weren’t sure about it,” Culp said of the course’s public reputation. “But they will know about it after this. It holds it own as course, I can assure you of that moving forward.”

Chenal isn’t masking its desire for another chance at hosting duties, General Manager Aaron Dawson said Monday.

“What we’ll do from here is sit down and evaluate the job we did,” Dawson said. “We love the Southern. We love everything it stands for, and certainly there’s interest to do it again. And I think there’s interest from them about doing it again.”

The club’s attention to detail - from its manning of aid stations to providing spotters for errant drives on the fairways, to providing iced towels for players dealing with four days of 100-degree heat - pleased SGA officials, who were able to take on other duties as rules officials and official scorers.

“They pulled it off to perfection, and that’s what impressed the SGA directors,” Norwood said. “It was like, ‘Hey, just get out of the way and officiate and do director stuff. We’ll take care of everything else, if there’s anything else you need, just tell us.’ ”

Dawson said his staff was dedicated to going beyond the typical demands and responsibilities placed in the hands of the tournament host, putting little accents on the players’ experience, from custom bag tags and locker plates to caddie bibs featuring the players’ names.

“We were absolutely dedicated to being meticulous in our planning, down to every detail,” Dawson said. “We did everything possible to make them feel like they were playing in a PGA tournament and give them that experience.

“That’s a lot of what this tournament is about. It’s to help the better players prepare for whatever is next.”

Another Southern Amateur or an event put on by the United States Golf Association (USGA), such as a Junior Amateur or Mid-Amateur, could be in the offing for Chenal. The fact Chenal features another 18 holes - The Founders Course - meets a USGA preference for all players to tee off from the first hole and can accommodate a field of more than 200 players.

Norwood, who served two stints on the USGA executive committee, said the regional diversity of the board creates a push-and-pull effect that makes the process of landing such a tournament more complex.“They’ve got a lot of courses to choose from,” Norwood said. “It doesn’t hurt when you get a good tournament with great response from the participants that they really enjoyed the event and it was well run. That’s all I heard from everyone I spoke to this weekend.”