By Alexander Smolinski and Vito Berlingeri

The 2011 Southern Arizona Championship, conducted by Southwest Section PGA, took place May 23-24, at the Ventana Canyon Golf & Racquet Club located in Tucson, Arizona.

Congratulations to Kirk Schultze & Rich Saferian of Oakley Golf and Blayne Hobbs & Andy Fuller of Wildfire Golf Club who tied for 1st Place with finals scores of 128 and each took home winnings $575. Rich Elias & Clay Steffey of Canoa Ranch Golf Club and Don Littrell & Sam Webert of Skyline Country Club tied for 3rd Place with final score of 129 and took home winnings of $300 each.

In the Professional Division: Rich Elias of Canoa Ranch Golf Club took 1st Place with a final score of 138 for the two days and winnings of $2,000. Mike Russell of The Stone Canyon Club tied for 2nd with Brandon Smith of Ventana Canyon Club with final scores of 143 and winnings of $1,100 each.

Ventana Canyon, a Sonoran Desert preserve at the foot of the Catalina Mountains, features two distinct courses that offer a unique blend of beauty, challenge, and playability. Both 18-hole courses have a Par of 72.

The championship, which is in its inaugural year, will take place on the ‘Mountain’ course, a classic desert-style target course that features several changes in elevation, multiple elevated tees, and a panoramic view that stretches across the Sonoran Desert and into Mexico. The infamous third hole of this course features its green placed directly on top of the native mountainside, and has a heating and cooling system installed underneath it to cool the green during the summer and keep it from freezing during the winter. The course features typically fast greens, making putting a bit more of a challenge. Tournament tees play the course at 6,907 yards.

The Southern Arizona Championship consisted of a 36-hole Pro-Am, as well as a 36-hole individual stroke play format. Each Pro-Am team consisted of one professional and one amateur playing in a 36-hole net better-ball format. The 36-hole individual stroke play format was available only to professionals.

The Southern Arizona Championship has a maximum field of 80 teams with an entry fee of $300 per team. This entry fee gives players access to the Pro-Am competition, as well as the individual stroke play. Both professional and amateur golfers were eligible to receive earnings in either the Pro-Am or the individual stroke play. Professional golfers earned prize money, while amateurs won gift certificates redeemable at the Ventana Canyon golf shop. Trophies were also awarded to the team that finished first in the Pro-Am format, as well as the champion in the individual stroke play format.

In order for professional golfers to be eligible to play in the tournament they had to be a member or an apprentice of the Southwest Section PGA with classifications of A-1, A-2, or A-4 through A-24, and must have life member classifications in good standing. Apprentices also had to meet the playing requirements set forth by the Southwest Section PGA. All amateur golfers were more than welcome to participate in the tournament.  The maximum handicap for the Pro-Am tournament was ten. A player with a larger handicap was able to enter the competition, but was only allowed to use the maximum of ten.

Presenting sponsors included Yamaha Golf Cars and Oakley Sunglasses. The product sponsor was Finley Distributing, the Miller Coors distributors for Tucson, Arizona. The championship was played by the rules set forward in the ‘2010-2011 USGA Rules of Golf’, as well as the ‘2010-2011 USGA Decisions on The Rules of Golf’.

Results were not available at press time for this publication. For more information, visit http://southwest.pga.com.