Wotherspoon, Harrison win Two Person Scramble
Matt Wotherspoon and Dylan Harrison captured the 28th annual Lake County Two Person Scramble Golf Championship at Buckingham Golf and Country Club this past Saturday by shooting a -6 under par 66. Wotherspoon, a recent graduate and member of the golf team at California State University San Bernardino, and Harrison, a resident of Mount Hannah, gutted out a one stroke victory by making par over the course of their final five holes.
Wotherspoon and Harrison opened play with a -3 under par 33 to find themselves tied for the lead with the Hidden Valley Lake team of golf course superintendent Billy Witt and Ashley Mayhew. On the short par four 10th hole, Wotherspoon and Harrison made birdie three while Witt and Mayhew struggled and made a bogey five, resulting in a two shot swing at the top of the leader board. Witt and Mayhew would make up one of those shots over the course of the back nine, but it turned out to be too little, too late. Wotherspoon and Harrison had a clean scorecard with 12 pars and six birdies. They made birdies on holes the 4th, 7th, and 9th holes on the front nine to go alongside birdies on the 10th, 12th, and 13th holes to card a -6 under par 66. It was the third time that Wotherspoon and Harrison have won the Two Person Scramble, having captured previous titles in 2018 when Wotherspoon was still a student at Kelseyville High School, and again in 2020.
Witt and Mayhew finished with a -5 under par 67. It put them in a two-way tie for second place with the duo of Max Huff of Kelseyville and Bruce Erkenbrack of Clearlake who also posted a 67.
Juan Lopez of Finley and Mike Patterson of Kelseyville came in third place with a -3 under par 69 and the partnership of Pete Wotherspoon of Buckingham and Jeremiah Valador of Kelseyville rounded out the top five with a -1 under par 71.
In the senior flight for golfers aged 50 and above, Lopez and Patterson were atop the leader board with their 69. Rick Easter of Lakeport and Todd Colbrandt of Middletown turned in a score of +1 over par 73 while the Hidden Valley Lake team of George La Fave and Wayne Kelley carded a 78.
In the net flight for golfers with handicaps of 10 and above, Dr. Bob Jolin of Lakeport and Ted Knowles of Kelseyville survived a tightly contested leader board with a net score of -12 under par 60, good enough for a one stroke victory over the team of Brian Castro of Upper Lake and Tom Merriman of Kelseyville who came in with a net 61. Darren Hostetler of Ukiah and Jimmy Hale of Kelseyville finished with a 69.
A total of 40 golfers competed in this year's Lake County Two Person Scramble Golf Championship. It was the first real day of spring-like weather on the links although the swirling winds at Buckingham made scoring somewhat higher than usual.
Following the tournament, Buckingham's PGA professional Mark Wotherspoon, recognized the four golfers who received season-long honors on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit in 2023. Matt Wotherspoon was the On the Links golfer of the year, Juan Lopez was the senior golfer of the year, Rick Easter was the net golfer of the year, and Dr. Bob Jolin was the senior net golfer of the year based on accumulating the greatest amount of player performance points over the course of the 10-tournament 2023 campaign. The aforementioned golfers received plaques and shirts commemorating their outstanding seasons.
The Lake County Match Play Championship is the next tournament on the local circuit calendar. It will be contested at Buckingham on Saturday, April 6. The field will be filled on an invitation only basis depending on how golfers finished on the Lake County Circuit's points list in 2023.