THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140157
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
You've known for a long time that you were the best player at your club or course, but there's always been this one nagging thought in the back of your mind:
How do I stack up against the rest of Hampton Roads?
Gary Jackson of Chesapeake may have the answer for you.
He calls it ``The Hampton Roads Golf Stat Service,'' and he's offering it to area players for $30 per six-month subscription.
Here's how it works:
Jackson has a computer program that is capable of holding information on 1,000 courses, 65,000 18-hole games and 2,500 golfers. He already has programmed information on every Hampton Roads golf course into his computer.
In addition to a booklet describing the service and instructions on its use, subscribers receive a packet of more detailed GSS scorecards, which they fill out in addition to the card they pick up at the course. Assume a subscriber plays nine rounds in a month. On the last day of the month, he or she would mail the GSS scorecards back to Jackson in the envelope provided.
Jackson incorporates the data and, within seven days, returns statistical information covering 41 different categories, many of which the PGA Tour uses to determine its statistical champions.
And you aren't restricted to local courses. You could play a course in Australia, for example, and Jackson could load the score into the computer and correlate the results with those you achieved here.
It's conceivable that if enough golfers became subscribers, Jackson could come up with a true month-to-month ranking of Hampton Roads amateurs - a list that could change as Jackson compiled information.
Jackson has just begun pitching the idea to local club and course professionals. Some like it, some don't.
To learn more about Jackson's GSS, write him at P.O. Box 2142, Chesapeake, VA 23327-2142, or phone him at 482-8163.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, PART V: For those who like golf courses with a quirky little history, Seven Springs in Chesapeake has been Exhibit A. It originally opened as an 18-hole layout, but one of the original two investors owned 10 holes; the other investor owned eight. At one point in its young life, nine holes were open, nine holes weren't.
Now, all that's about to change. In February, Molly Malloy, Jennie Allman and Mark Hall formed Golf Classics, Inc. They closed a deal that unified the property into one 18-hole championship course, complete with clubhouse, pool and restaurant. Ten holes are open now, and the Golf Classics team has been working feverishly to hydro-seed the eight holes that have been dormant for about four years. If their calculations are correct, the full course should be ready to re-emerge in all its glory around the middle of June.
Ultimately, they view it as a semi-private venture, meaning members would be able to reserve tee times seven days a week; nonmembers from Thursday on. There's a reduced initiation membership fee in effect between now and the time the full operation opens. Once that happens, Malloy says, the price will rise.
Seven Springs is open to the public for daily play. It's at 1201 Club House Drive in the Las Gaviotas section of Chesapeake, off Cedar Road west of the city's municipal center. Call 547-1122.
MILLION-DOLLAR SHOT: A prize of $1 million will go to anyone who can score a hole-in-one from 160 yards out during the finals of the Hole-in-One Shootout, to be held May 25-29 at the Golf-O-Rama practice facility at the corner of Indian River Road and South Military Highway in Virginia Beach.
The event is run by a company, American Hole-In-One Inc., that conducts the events nationwide.
Qualifying at the Golf-O-Rama takes place from May 25-29, all day Thursday through Sunday and from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. Monday. The semifinals are Monday at 6 p.m. and the finals are Monday at 7.
In the first round of the contest, participants who hit a ball inside a 3-foot circle on a green 106 yards away qualify to hit one shot to a 160-yard green in the semifinal round.
Anyone who makes an ace in the qualifying round moves to the finals.
In the semis, players hit one shot. The 20 shots measured closest to the pin move on to the finals, also a 160-yard shot. In the one-shot-apiece final, anyone who scores an ace will receive $1 million in 25 years of equal monthly installments.
Local sponsors will provide an as-yet-undetermined number of alternate holes on the green, with varying payments - $10,000 in most cases - for aces. There will be up to 19 such alternate holes.
If there are no aces in the $1 million hole, the golfer closest to the pin will win a $2,000 package of merchandise and cash.
This isn't free. Participants pay $1 per shot, or can buy a bucket with 25 balls for $20, 60 balls for $40, or an unlimited number of shots for an hour for $100. For information on entering and sponsoring the event, call Dave Bishop at 424-1134.
TAP-INS: In case you were wondering, the U.S. Open June 15-18 at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., is sold out. Just 25,000 daily and weeklong badges were sold. However, tickets for the '96 Open at Oakland Hills CC in Birmingham, Mich., go on sale June 20. To order those, call 908-234-9393, or write USGA, P.O. Box 1500, Far Hills, N.J. 07931. . . . The Masters is accepting applications for tickets to 1996 practice rounds at Augusta National. Competitive rounds already are sold out. The club will consider only those applications postmarked on or before July 15. You are limited to four tickets per day, per applicant. Practice-round prices run from $16-$21 per ticket and applications can be obtained by calling 706-667-6700. The '96 tournament will run from Monday, April 8 to Sunday, April 14. Successful applicants will be notified in September. by CNB