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Henrik Simonsen
Mark Guhne will have the easy job.
That’s if he handles the tough part of getting his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golf team to the 2010 NCAA championship tournament at The Honors Course.
“I’m just coaching,” said Guhne, who has his Mocs in third place after one round of the 2009 NCAA finals at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
“There will be a lot of pressure because we don’t want to be watching the championship played in our back yard,” Guhne said. “If we can get in there, we can do pretty well. Our guys are comfortable there.
“When this week is over, we’ll begin working on that.”
Other people have already begun the hard jobs of planning and preparing for the tournament to be held June 6-10, 2010, at the 420-acre oasis in Ooltewah.
The NCAA awarded the championship to UTC and the Honors in July 2006, so it’s been on the radar. The championship becomes a focal point now that the first stroke will be made 375 days from now.
“I’d like to say we’re really on the ball, but we’re about a month behind where we should be,” said UTC associate athletic director Matt Pope, also the tournament manager. “It’s not pressing, but we need to jump on it.”
Pope is in Toledo observing the tournament there and meeting with NCAA officials and Inverness representatives. Also visiting Inverness are the Honors general manager Ashton Harris, head professional Henrik Simonsen and course superintendent David Stone. They also will communicate with officials and make notes of their own.
“We’ll visit them, see how they’re doing it and get some ideas and bring them home and get ready,” Simonsen said Sunday. “We have a new club manager and I’m a new pro, and we haven’t been here for the really big tournaments. So we’re going to lean on the staff and members that have been here.
“This place knows how to do it.”
The Honors Course has been the site of the 1991 U.S. Amateur, the 1994 Curtis Cup and the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur, which are all USGA events. It also served as the host site for a memorable 1996 NCAA championship.
Arizona State won the 1996 team title and Stanford’s Tiger Woods earned medalist honors with a 72-hole total of 3-under-par 285. Woods was in the 60s every day until a final-round 80 that included a triple bogey on the par-four ninth.
The course has change a little since then. New tee boxes have stretched it to a maximum of 7,400 yards, and a few greens have been altered. Shrinking the green on No. 11 during the offseason is the most recent alteration made by original course architect Pete Dye. No others will be made between now and the NCAA championship.
“I love that place down there,” Dye said last summer on the 25th anniversary of The Honors Course. “When you’re talking about your kids, you never say one is better than another. But there’s nothing I’ve done better than that, and that’s for sure.”
Pope, Simonsen and other tournament officials will begin dealing with logistics such as fundraising, hospitality, parking, merchandising and securing volunteers. Pope and UTC officials gained invaluable experience in 2008 when they hosted the NCAA East Regional at Council Fire Golf Club.
“I’ve got a checklist the size of a small media guide,” Pope said. “It’s not really a how-to. It’s mainly a list of things the NCAA wants done by certain times.
“It’s a monthly deal now, but when it gets closer it will be weekly.”
It’s 53 weeks until the first tee time.
David Uchiyama is a sports writer at the Chattanooga Times Free Press who began his tenure here in May 2001. His primary beats are UTC athletics — specifically men’s basketball and athletic department administration — and golf, which includes coverage from the PGA Tour to youth events. He also covers other high school sports, outdoor adventures, and contributes to other sections of the newspaper when necessary. David grew up in Salinas, Calif., and began working ...
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