A lot of life changes have taken place between now and the first time Chris Williams won the Bloomington City Golf Men's Qualifying Tournament back in 2008.
The sport, the tournament and Cascades Golf Course still have a special place in his heart so it's always hard not to play in it as has been the case for Williams the past two years. There's just too many good reasons not to be on the golf course as much as he'd like to be, especially with two boys at the ages where they're starting their own athletic journeys.
"When you're a busy parent, you don't get to go hit balls and practice and chip and putt," Williams said. "I think that's the biggest indicator, when you don't play a lot, your feel around the green kind of goes away. That's what I noticed from the weekend."
Despite that, Williams put together back-to-back rounds of 69 and 70 for a 139 and a two-shot win over Simon Deliyannis (70-71—141), who was three shots ahead of Mitch Oard (72-72—144). Brad McLaughlin (147) and Logan Vernon (148) rounded out the top five.
"Happy with it," Williams said after Sunday's final round. "I can beat around out here pretty well. I know the course fairly well and it feels good to compete and feels good to play in it. It's just fun and cool to be medalist.
"I love the tournament. I love to compete in it. I'm glad I had the opportunity to play in it this year."
Williams, a tourney hall of famer who won City titles in 2008, 2015 and 2017, last won the qualifier in 2019 when for the only time, it was shortened to 18 holes due to rain. He was good for 36 this time around.
"I'm hitting the ball fairly well," Williams said. "I don't get to play a ton, but I get to play a decent amount. Part of that is by choice. I'd rather do stuff with my family. I coach baseball and I'm on the board at a baseball park, so that's taken up most of my spring.
"But to have the opportunity to play and still be able to put up good numbers with a lot of really good players and lot of younger players, because I remember being the 20-year-old and now I'm 41. So it's come full circle."
That 20-year-old, who worked at Cascades, was out on the course every day. At best, he's gotten in 10 rounds this spring/summer. When he does play casually, it's for fun. He hit the range on Friday and said it was the first time he had intentionally practiced in four or five years.
"A lot of it just comes back. It's muscle memory," he said. "I don't think about it. I just try to play loose. The more I think about it that more I get into trouble."
Deliyannis, a 2023 North grad, had fun getting back into competitive golf again, and he put just a bit of pressure on Williams on 18 by chipping in from 30 feet out.
"I kept calling my shots on a few holes," Deliyannis said. "I said, 'This time, I'm going to chip in.' And on 18 it finally happened."
"I made good putts on 16 and 17 and on 18, I knew it was close," Williams said. "You want to compete and do well. I wanted to be in that top-three, four of the bracket."
The top 15 in each division qualified for the Championship flights. Match play begins next Saturday with fields of 16 set in Men's, Seniors and Super Senior championship divisions.
Tim Gillespie won the Seniors title and Dan Neubecker took the Super Seniors to earn No. 2 seeds for match play. All three defending title holders are back in Jason Bannister (Men's), Jim Alexander (Seniors) and Rory Brown (Super Seniors).
Tee times and pairings for regular, juniors and women's flights will be announced at a later date.
Senior title bounces Tim Gillespie's way
Gillespie was on the fence about winning, er, make that off the fence.
Chad Osborne made sure Gillespie's margin for error was a slim one, finishing with a 71 but coming up a shot short as Gillespie's 72-74—146 won the title for the first time in his City career.
"I shot pretty steady yesterday and today I played about the same," Gillespie said. "I missed a couple more putts, so that's why it's a 74 instead of a 72. But I hit the ball well and got some good breaks today."
Uh huh. Like his second shot on No. 7 that bounced off the fence (instead of ending up on Kinser Pike) and the ricochet led to a par.
"That was a pretty good one," Gillespie said. "It was (a foot) from out of bounds and I had no swing. And I hit it let handed and it ran up there and hit the pin and stopped (close). (Tourney hall of famer) Bob Hasty just walked up. He got a good laugh out of that one. I went from a 6 to a 4 real quick."
Osborne (76-71—147) and Charles Combs (76-72—148) both had the best rounds of the day in the Seniors division.
"Just drove the ball better today," Osborne said. "Putted a little bit better, didn't get in much trouble. I was in a lot of trouble (Saturday) but got up and down."
It's the first year in the Senior division for the Osborne twins and he and brother Charles have only added to the strong depth this year's field has.
There's a lot of good players this year, i think the field is a little tougher. There are no breeze matches."
Neubecker rules in Super Seniors
Saturday's 66 was going to be a tough act to follow and it was, but Neubecker, last year's match play runner-up and the 2022 Qualifier winner, had plenty of cushion despite a 74 for a 140 total and an eight-shot win.
"It's just golf," Neubecker said. "It was just a struggle for me today. I did OK on the front side. I was even after 9, but I had four bogeys on the back and I just struggled. I finally made a birdie on the last hole.
"My goal was, I had a big enough lead (seven shots) I thought well, just play safe. And I did but maybe a little too safe."
Neubecker said his chipping was not as good as its been and several putts also came up short. Still, last year's runner-up likes the consistency he'll take into next weekend.
"I feel good about it," Neubecker said. "The thing with golf is you realize that some days you don't have it. But I'm pretty consistent for the most part and I've had a lot of under par rounds in the last month. If I just play to my normal game I should do well."
The runners-up were Mike Vernon (75-73—148) and Ike Martin (73-75—148), with Vernon getting the 3 seed by virtue of his better second-round score, which was the best of the day for any Super Senior.
Vernon got off to a quick start with two birdies on the first four holes, then got under a tree to double-bogey No. 5 but stayed steady the rest of the way, finishing with five straight pars.
"The Medalist, I three-putted about 10 times over the course of two days," Vernon said. "So I went back to my two-ball putter."
BLOOMINGTON CITY GOLF QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Top 15 make Championship flights
MEN'S — Chris Williams 69-70—139; Simon Deliyannis 70-71—141; Mitch Oard 72-72—144; Brad McLaughlin 74-73—147; Logan Vernon 73-75—148; Anthony Robertson 70-78—148; Sam Wise 74-76—150; Hunter Desilets 78-76—152; Brayden Bunger 76-76—152; Jason Storm 72-80—152; Marc Guyer 78-75—153; Zach Sykes 79-76—155; Justin Stacks 75-80—155; Chad Stoute 79-78—157; Justin Fox 76-82—158. Failed to qualify: Jeff Nelson 81-78—159; Jake Miller 79-80—159; Robert Wise 77-83—160; Randy Lientz 79-82—161; Daniel Melwid 84-79—163; Brad Scroggins 82-81—163; Matt Newman 78-86—164; Brian Wise 81-84—165; Jeremy Wise 81-86—167; Bryan Fyalkowski 86-82—168; Tyler Baker 85-83—168; Young Oh 85-91—176; David Tiwari 87-100—187; Brandon Chambers 95-94—189.
SENIORS — Tim Gillespie 72-74—146; Chad Osborne 76-71—147; Charles Combs 76-72—148; Darren Fuller 74-75—149; Troy Gillespie 76-75—151; Charles Osborne 77-76—153; Matt Till 78-75—153; Bill Kelson 78-76—154; Garry Lee 75-80—155; Gary EuDaly 76-79—155; Brad Leach 74-81—155; Chuck Vernon 79-81—160; Jeff Harrington 82-78—160; Lance Ringler 83-80—163; Joe Davis 78-87—165. Failed to qualify: Rick Scheid 80-87—167; Burke Geene 88-82—170; Ross Grimes 78-95—173; Matthew Grubb 89-85—174; Ken Wilson 88-92—180.
SUPER SENIORS — Dan Neubecker 66-74—140; Mike Vernon 75-73—148; Ike Martin 73-75—148; Dick Meacham 76-74—150; Robin Harper 77-74—151; Joe Beane 76-76—152; Jeff Smith 79-74—153; Gary Blackwell 79-74—153; Dave Devitt 75-80—155; Tom Smith 77-79—156; Fred Cooksey 77-82—159; Roger Rainbolt 79-81—160; Brett Daniels 84-77—161; Don Chastain 79-84—163; Steve Hinds 79-85—164. Failed to qualify: Marty Hutsell 85-80—165; Brian Werth 83-87—170; Jan Bond 90-90—180.
FIRST-ROUND PAIRINGS
MEN'S — [1] Jason Bannister vs. [16] Justin Fox; [8] Sam Wise vs. [9] Hunter Desilets; [4] Mitch Oard vs. [13] Zach Sykes; [5] Brad McLaughlin vs. [12] Marc Guyer. [2] Chris Williams vs. [15] Chad Stoute; [7] Anthony Robertson vs. [10] Brayden Bunger; [3] Simon Deliyannis vs. [14] Justin Stacks; [6] Logan Vernon vs. [11] Jason Storm.
SENIORS — [1] Jim Alexander vs. [16] Joe Davis; [8] Charles Osborne vs. [9] Bill Kelson; [4] Charles Combs vs. [13] Jeff Harrington; [5] Darren Fuller vs. [12] Brad Leach. [2] Tim Gillespie vs. [15] Lance Ringler; [7] Matt Till vs. [10] Gary EuDaly; [3] Chad Osborne vs. [14] Chuck Vernon; [6] Troy Gillespie vs. [11] Garry Lee.
SUPER SENIORS — [1] Rory Brown vs. [16] Steve Hinds; [8] Jeff Smith vs. [9] Gary Blackwell; [4] Ike Martin vs. [13] Roger Rainbolt; [5] Dick Meacham vs. [12] Fred Cooksey. [2] Dan Neubecker vs. [15] Don Chastain; [7] Joe Beane vs. [10] David Devitt; [3] Mike Vernon vs. [14] Brett Daniels; [6] Robin Harper vs. [11} Tom Smith.
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