Ascension Charity Classic 2022 Spot Updates

[ChipNRun]

I'm a volunteer this week at the 2nd Annual Ascension Charity Classic at Norwood Hills CC in St. Louis.

 

The inaugural event had the Champions Tour highest spectator draw (51,000) of any tournament, except for the four majors. Also, Norwood celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2021.

 

I'm a Courtesy Car Team volunteer. The local Enterprise rental network arranged for all the players to have a courtesy car for use during the tournament. Delivery scheme: When a player arrives at the airport, he comes to our courtesy desk in the terminal. We then phone over to the Enterprise lot, and a driver and a support car bring over the car for the players. When the tournament is over, the players will return the cars before they fly out of town.

 

Next week's tournament is in Sioux Falls, SD, and there's an early Monday charter flight out of StL going there. So, the car collection crew will have a full day.

-------------------

In opening round, I walked most of 18 with Fred Funk and his group. In past, I've found some video clips of Funk, especially on irons. He's about my size, and has the short crisp swing the I favor. My pro said Funk would be a better role model model for me (age 71) than McIlroy.😉

 

To left, Funk prepares for his approach shot to No. 18 green. He played the day with Billy Mayfair (-3) and John Huston (-4).

 

Funk shot even-par 71, parring 10 straight holes before sinking a 5-foot birdie putt on the tricky short par 4 No. 11, but got a bogie on No. 14. Funk, who gave up about 30 yards to the others on tee shots, but had a number of birdie putts from the 15-foot range that just didn't drop. He did sink a number of 5-footers to save up-and-down pars from greenside.

 

I got *.MOV video clips of Funk hitting an iron shot and a drive, but can't seem to get them transferred to WRX.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by ChipNRun
Removed MOV fragment.

[ebrasmus21]

How are the old pros treating you?  Anyone surprise you in a positive or negative way? 

[iBanesto]

Funk and Mayfair, both have great swings for longevity.

 

But the GOAT of them all is Langer who shot his age in the 1st round, followed by a 67 to only be 1 shot behind Harrington.

 

[iBanesto]

Harrington wins his 3rd Champions Tour title.

 

 

Credit to Langer for finishing 4th. He is giving some of these truly great players (even some HoF inductees) more than 10 years too.

 

[ChipNRun]

On 9/10/2022 at 6:27 PM, ebrasmus21 said:

How are the old pros treating you?  Anyone surprise you in a positive or negative way? 

 

Very positive and friendly. Often a family affair, with quite a few wives serving as caddies. And, I suspect these wives could give us solid swing pointers if they saw us on the practice range.

 

General attitude: They're just glad they can still go out and play golf.

 

One big thing: Superb speed of play. Due to rain delay on Sunday AM, field played threesomes off No.1 and No. 10. A threesome of Seniors can finish 18 faster than a twosome of Young Guns.

 

Tourney winner Harrington came to Sunday evening volunteer party and complimented on what a good job we did behind the scenes.

 

This morning (Monday), I showed up at 4:30 AM at airport to finish collecting courtesy car the players brought back in. (Ascension unusual in that most most Champions tournaments don't provide courtesy cars).

 

Bernhard Langer showed up. Really a classy guy, asked how we were doing. "Want some golf balls?" he asked. We said yes, and he gave us a few of his ProV1s.

 

Belleville (near St. Louis) native Jay Haas (T38 at -2) came by with his wife. They were going to stay a  couple of days to visit relatives. Got to chat with him about local courses. I have played his childhood home course, St. Clair Country Club, in local amateur circuit. By chance, my wife and I saw Haas win his first PGA tournament in 1978, the Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines. I was in the Marines and was stationed at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego.

 

Belleville has a strong sports tradition. Haas's uncle is Bob Goalby, who after retirement designed course in the area. Belleville is also home of the tennis playing Conner family. Jimmy C's uncle Frank Conner was an All-America college tennis player who later became a PGA tour golf pro. Frank is one of only two men who have ever played in the US Open in both tennis and golf.

[3whacker]

2 hours ago, ChipNRun said:

 

Very positive and friendly. Often a family affair, with quite a few wives serving as caddies. And, I suspect these wives could give us solid swing pointers if they saw us on the practice range.

 

General attitude: They're just glad they can still go out and play golf.

 

One big thing: Superb speed of play. Due to rain delay on Sunday AM, field played threesomes off No.1 and No. 10. A threesome of Seniors can finish 18 faster than a twosome of Young Guns.

 

Tourney winner Harrington came to Sunday evening volunteer party and complimented on what a good job we did behind the scenes.

 

This morning (Monday), I showed up at 4:30 AM at airport to finish collecting courtesy car the players brought back in. (Ascension unusual in that most most Champions tournaments don't provide courtesy cars).

 

Bernhard Langer showed up. Really a classy guy, asked how we were doing. "Want some golf balls?" he asked. We said yes, and he gave us a few of his ProV1s.

 

Belleville (near St. Louis) native Jay Haas (T38 at -2) came by with his wife. They were going to stay a  couple of days to visit relatives. Got to chat with him about local courses. I have played his childhood home course, St. Clair Country Club, in local amateur circuit. By chance, my wife and I saw Haas win his first PGA tournament in 1978, the Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines. I was in the Marines and was stationed at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego.

 

Belleville has a strong sports tradition. Haas's uncle is Bob Goalby, who after retirement designed course in the area. Belleville is also home of the tennis playing Conner family. Jimmy C's uncle Frank Conner was an All-America college tennis player who later became a PGA tour golf pro. Frank is one of only two men who have ever played in the US Open in both tennis and golf.

You might want to check your facts....Jimmy Connors is not related to Frank Conner.....Frank Conner played his tennis at Trinity University in TX, and there are actually THREE men that have played in both US Open's on golf and tennis...

[ChipNRun]

47 minutes ago, 3whacker said:

You might want to check your facts....Jimmy Connors is not related to Frank Conner.....Frank Conner played his tennis at Trinity University in TX, and there are actually THREE men that have played in both US Open's on golf and tennis...

 

Possibly confusion over similarity of family last names?

 

Frank Conner grew up in Belleville, IL, and did play on Trinity tennis team. And, he switched from tennis to golf, as per UPI sports story from 1982. Switch to Golf.

 

Also, a segment from the history segment of the St. Clair CC web page makes this statement. Probably needs some clarification.

Quote

"Another outstanding sports figure is the very talented tennis star Jimmy Connors, who grew up in the St. Clair Country Club atmosphere and visits frequently when not busy with the Senior Tennis Tour.

To our knowledge St. Clair Country Club is the only golf club to have three professionals in the same Masters Tournament when Bob Goalby, Jay Haas and Frank J. Conner were players in 1983."

St. Clair CC - about us.

 

 I will need to talk to locals. St. Clair CC member told me the nephew story.

 

3W, good catch.