Competitors in the GCSAA Golf Championships’ Scramble Tournament get a few swings in before their rounds at Whirlwind Golf Club on Sunday. Photo by Montana Pritchard
A newcomer from Down Under and a pair of Florida superintendents — one a five-time champion — found themselves tied for the lead at the halfway point of the 2024 GCSAA Golf Championships.
Jordan Sherratt from South Lakes Golf Club in Australia, Walter Chavez from Hollybrook Golf and Tennis Club in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and five-time champion Seth Strickland from Miami Beach (Fla.) Golf Club all fired 3-under-par rounds of 69 on the Ambiente
Course at Camelback Golf Club during first-round play Sunday.
All three players played nearly error-free golf in the first round. Sherratt, a one-year GCSAA member, carded a bogey-free round that featured birdies on the par-4 fifth hole, the par-4 10th and the par-5 16th hole. Chavez, a six-year member of the association
who finished seventh in last year’s National Championship, only had one bogey to go against four birdies during his first round. And Strickland rode a red-hot start that featured five birdies in his first seven holes before settling for his
69.
One shot behind that trio heading into Monday’s final round was 29-year GCSAA member Steve Agazzi from Charleston (S.C.) Municipal Golf Course. Three others were two shots back — two-time champion Michael Stieler, CGCS, a 28-year GCSAA member
from Spring Creek Golf and Country Club in Ripon, Calif.; David Kohley, a 32-year GCSAA member from Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park, Ill.; and 10-year GCSAA member Tyler Gabriel from Wildhorse Resort and Casino in Pendelton, Ore.
Monday’s final round of the GCSAA National Championship will also be played at Camelback GC, on the club’s Padre Course.
The National Championship wasn’t the only action on Sunday in GCSAA’s annual golf tournament. The first day of play in the Golf Classic along with a sold-out Scramble event took place. For complete results on all those events, visit the tournament’s
results portal.
Scott Hollister is GCM’s editor-in-chief.