Golfers and spectators use umbrellas to shield themselves from rain as they head to the clubhouse as the final round of the 2021 Circle K Junior Championship Hosted By Otter Creek was canceled due to the weather in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, July 1, 2021.
The Republic file photo
Ten years ago, Otter Creek Golf Course landed an American Junior Golf Association event and began preparations for its inaugural event to go off a year later.
That tournament turns 10 years old next week, when the 2022 Circle K Junior Championship Hosted By Otter Creek comes to town.
“We try to make things a little better every year, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that,” tournament chairman John Fairbanks said.
The 54-hole tournament gets underway on Tuesday morning and will continue through Thursday.
The event featured a full field of 144 golfers each of its first seven years before being limited to 78 in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. The number stayed at 78 last year and will remain there again this year.
“We had a couple of options to move it up a little bit, but there are a number of factors that go into deciding the size of the field, and this year, we kept it at 78 players, which just gives us a little more flexibility,” Fairbanks said. “It gets the golf course back operational in the afternoon for regular play for Otter Creek. But it’s also a little bit better atmosphere for the players because it’s a smaller field, and it’s just easier to manage all the players going off in the morning vs. having a bunch of players going in the morning and a bunch in the afternoon.”
The field will consist of 57 boys and 21 girls, with the final spots decided in Sunday’s qualifier. Twelve of those players already in the field are fully exempt through achieving enough stars in AJGA events.
“They’ve chosen out of 130 events for Otter Creek to be one of their five,” tournament director Mitch Garlitz said.
Garlitz, who is from Fort Worth, Texas, arrived in town on Wednesday to begin preparing for the tournament.
“I think (the course is) in beautiful condition,” Garlitz said. “The greens are rolling really smooth, and everybody here has just been fantastic to work with, from Brent (Downs, chief agronomist), Mitch (Eickhoff, head superintendent), Wiley (Umphress, general manager), Tim (Davis, head pro), everybody here has just been fantastic.”
Fairbanks credited the grounds staff, led by Eickhoff and Downs, with getting the course ready to play last year and having it in excellent contition this year.
“They’re a great team,” Fairbanks said. “They’ve done a great job. You think back to last year, three weeks after flooding when the back nine was under water, they had it in playing condition, and you couldn’t even tell. We were concerned for at least a couple of weeks, but they got their staff, and they moved quickly and they got it in shape. It’s in probably the best condition that I’ve seen this golf course in for a tournament in 10 years.”
Circle K is in its seventh year as a title sponsor for the tournament.
“I’m proud to say that we’ve doubled in participation and charitable contribution every year over the last six years,” Circle K representative Kevin Merritt said. “We donate money. We also donate goods, and then we also bring in a large percent of our national sponsors that support and sponsor the event.”
Foundation For Youth is one of the main beneficiaries of the tournament. FFY plans to bring about 150 kids and 20 staff members for Monday’s Junior Clinic, which starts at 1:30 p.m.
The Junior Clinic is free and open to the public.
“We do have a much bigger junior clinic this year than what we’ve had in the past, and I think the main reason for that is, we’ve partnered with Foundation For Youth and Boys and Girls Club, and they’re very interested in introducing the game of golf to the kids in the club,” Fairbanks said.
Harrison Lake Country Club pro Austin Wright will be one of the instructors for the clinic, along with a few local natives who are golfing in college, including Xavier’s Nathaly Munnicha. Instructors will take kids through three stations — putting, chipping and driving range.
“He’s going to have those folks moving with the kids, so the kids will get to know them, and they’ll have some interaction with the kids, which we think is really important,” said Fairbanks’ wife Melissa, who along with Davis, is organizing the clinic. “They’ll show them how to hold the putter, how to putt and then let the kids putt. Some of those children will never have another opportunity. This is maybe their first time at a golf course.”
Two local players are entered in the tournament. Ava Bunker, an Edinburgh resident who will be a freshman at Columbus North, will be in the girls field, and recent North graduate Luke Schneider, who is headed to University Evansville, is in the boys field.
Both Bunker, an AJGA regular who has accumulated enough AJGA stars, and Schneider, who received a sponsors exemption, will be playing in the tournament for the second year in a row. They were in last year’s tourney, which was shortened to 36 holes because of rain on the final day.
Rain is not in the forecast for the next few days.
“It’s going to cool off a little bit,” John Fairbanks said. “Humidity is going to stay down. Greens will be perfect. Tees and fairways will be perfect. The rough will be just thick enough where it’s going to be a little bit of a penalty, but keep it fun, where it’s not like US Open-type rough.”
