THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606220099
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAN COOLEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 43 lines
Imagine an amateur golf tournament where the winning score is a 60 - 12 under par for 18 holes - and 50 of the 54 competitors finish under par. The other four are at even par.
Impossible?
The impossible actually occurred at the recent Campus Life/Youth for Christ Golf Classic held at Sleepy Hole. But, there was a catch: The tournament was team play, Florida Best Ball style.
The Chesapeake-based Campus Life group's version of Florida Best Ball consisted of four-man teams, in which every team member took a shot from the closest teammates' opening shot from the hole. The same rules applied to each shot until the ball found the cup.
Add to the concept that each team could purchase up to five ``mulligans,'' or chances to repeat the shot, and there was the making for a wacky, fun tournament.
``It's great fun,'' said George Harter, one of the competitors. ``It allows for the inexperienced to the experienced player to compete on an even level and doesn't put the pressure on one player.''
Many of the tournament ideas came from other successful Campus Life tournaments held throughout the country. Campus Life, based in Chesapeake for six years, is a national organization originally formed by evangelist Billy Graham. Its purpose is to provide fun events for middle school and high school teams, as well as present them to the Christian message.
Chesapeake Campus Life board member Brian Okuley explained the reasons why the local chapter decided to hold the golf tournament.
``The bottom line is,'' he said, ``the tournament's a fund raiser for us. We wanted to make the event as much fun as possible, while bringing about more community awareness to what our organization is about.''
Winning the Campus Life Golf Classic with a 60 was the foursome of James and Todd Butler and Shawn and Brian Sharrett. J.P. Leigh and Don, John and Grey Smith, just two strokes back, won the tiebreaker for second over Ron Fuhrman, Larry Barta, Steve Daley and Paul Kitchen.
A new pair of clubs went to Shawn Sharrett for the longest drive on hole 10 and Fuhrman, who had the closest to the pin on hole 12.
Campus Life will sponsor another tournament at Sleepy Hole in October. by CNB