Annual city golf championship returns today
Aside from the expected punch in the mouth from Mother Nature on Saturday, Alo Brodsky is optimistic that this year’s changes to the City of Santa Fe Golf Championship will be a success.
The head golf pro at Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe, he put the finishing touches on the city’s premier golf event Thursday. The opening round of the three-day, three-venue tournament begins Friday with a shotgun start at Santa Fe Country Club.
Brodsky said the businessman’s flight has over 30 entrants, as does the expanded senior flight.
“It’s been a pretty well-received tournament the last few years,” he said. “The turnout’s a little lower this year but maybe that’s partly due to the change in the schedule.”
This year’s tournament was moved up a full month to accommodate the 20th anniversary festivities taking place at the Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe in late July, not to men-
tion an event taking place at Las Campanas.
This is the third straight year that all three of the city’s courses will take part in the tournament. The first 18 holes will be at the country club, with the Links taking over Saturday. The final round will be on Father’s Day at Las Campanas.
“One of the great things about this tournament is every course has its own challenges,” Brodsky said. “Honestly, I think people struggle at Las Campanas because not a lot of people have access to it. They’re not used to it. People struggle at Marty because it’s a challenging course, the roughs are wide and the greens can be tough to read.”
If there was a day for the top players to create some separation, it might come in Friday’s opening round. With heavy rains expected to threaten play Saturday, getting off to a fast start at the country club is a must.
In that respect, Brodsky said the players will be happy with the conditions on that course. He visited the country club on Thursday and spoke with course superintendent Gary Hodge.
“Gary’s a magician,” Brodsky said. “He deals with all sorts of curveballs over there and he always handles them perfectly. He has that course looking great. I mean, great.”
As bad as the forecast is for Saturday, all three city courses could use the moisture. The drought conditions have turned any rain cloud into a welcome sight, city tournament notwithstanding.
“I’d like it a little less ‘monsoony’ for this weekend, but we’ll take the rain for sure,” Brodsky said.
The championship flight has just six players and the women’s field could wind up being even smaller, but back in the mix are the defending champions in both events.
Jonathan Bartlett fired a 6-under 216 last year, outpacing the field by five strokes. The former college player at Ole Miss will get his main competition from Eric Trujillo, last year’s second-place finisher and the husband of the event’s most dominant female player the last few years, Chant Fiorina-Trujillo.
She rolled to her second title in three years in July with a 3-over 219. Her consistent play on all three courses were the product of her steady play off the tee and her ability to avoid any major mistakes in any of her three rounds.
The businessman’s flight favorite is Richard Alarid, a mainstay in recent years at the championship level. He has dropped down a notch to test his wares in much more competitive and evenly balanced pack that could easily produce a number of scores at or below par.
Brodsky said he hoped for 90 to 100 entrants this year but got only 73 players.
“We’re down a little, but I like where this tournament is going,” he said. “We had a pretty good lull in the early 2000s but with all three courses in play, this is one the tournaments people should be looking forward to.”