What to know when the 96th Bloomington City Golf Tournament begins: Storylines, tee times

The 96th annual City Golf Tournament tees off Saturday morning with the first round of match play in all three Championship flights.

Here's what to know going into the weekend:

Simon Deliyannis back on course

This spring, 2023 Bloomington North grad Simon Deliyannis was back with the Cougar boys' golf team as a coach this time. Just a year removed from his playing days, he yearned to be back out there competing. So here he is, runner-up in the City Golf Qualifying Tournament and a third seed in the Men's Championship flight.

"I really love it. I unfortunately forgot to sign up for the Medalist this year," Deliyannis said. "So I had to wait for the City. But I really love playing competitively. Every tournament I was like, 'Gosh, I wish I was still playing.'"

Working with the players allowed him to see the game from a different perspective.

"Seeing it through a coach's lens, I think mentally it helped me to see the safe shots to play and not just take the risks," Deliyannis said.

As a result maybe, his 141 in the qualifier was a vast improvement from his last foray into the City Tournament in 2022 when he shot 155 and lost a playoff for the last spot in the Championship flight. He then went on to win the First Flight title.

A bit of work on his game made a difference.

"Not so much in the fall," Deliyannis said. "Definitely a lot more in the spring I've been playing a lot. I guess I've significantly improved since last year.

"The past two weeks I've been playing really well and I was hoping it would transfer over to competitive (play) and it did."

Field set for weekend

There are 116 golfers in this year's field, down a tad from last year.

The Men's, Seniors and Super Seniors have been trimmed down to a field of 16 in the Championship flights with all three 2023 champs returning: Jason Bannister, Jim Alexander and Rory Brown, respectively. Bannister and Brown have won the last two titles.

They will go in as No. 1 seeds while the winners of last weekend's qualifiers: Chris Williams, Tim Gillespie and Dan Neubecker, are the No. 2 seeds on the opposite sides of the bracket. Neubecker was the runner-up last year and Gillespie was runner-up in 2022. Alexander has made three of the last four Seniors finals.

And as has been the case lately, not enough women or juniors signed up (at least four are needed) to have a bracket.

The Men's field has two other former champs/Tournament Hall of Famers, Williams and Mitch Oard but is missing 2021 champ Jace Day due to a wrist injury.

The Senior field has a few notable additions, starting with five-time Men's champ Troy Gillespie (1991, 1999-2001, 2005), who started with a Junior title in 1986.

Senior and Super Senior regular flights (in groups of just eight) will begin on Saturday while the Men's regular flights start on Sunday.

Family connections

With no Junior competition, North sophomore Alec Freund is in the Men's First Flight while older brother Graham Freund, coming off a baseball season and heading to play football at DePauw, is in the fourth flight. Jay Freund is in the second flight of the Seniors.

Interestingly, another 2024 North grad and varsity golfer, Hogan Conder is in the Men's second flight along with Andrew Conder and if both win on Sunday, they'll meet in the semifinals.

Then there's the Wise clan: While Sam competes in the Men's Championship flight, Brian and Jerry are both in the second flight, but on opposite sides of the bracket, with Robert in the first flight.

96TH ANNUAL BLOOMINGTON CITY GOLF TOURNAMENT

SATURDAY TEE TIMES

PHIL TALBOT MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

7:30 a.m.: [1] Jason Bannister vs. [16] Justin Fox; [8] Sam Wise vs. [9] Hunter Desilets; 7:40: [4] Mitch Oard vs. [13] Zach Sykes; [5] Brad McLaughlin vs. [12] Marc Guyer. 7:50: [2] Chris Williams vs. [15] Chad Stoute; [7] Anthony Robertson vs. [10] Brayden Bunger; 8:00: [3] Simon Deliyannis vs. [14] Justin Stacks; [6] Logan Vernon vs. [11] Jason Storm.

PAUL GRAY SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

8:10: [1] Jim Alexander vs. [16] Joe Davis; [8] Charles Osborne vs. [9] Bill Kelson; 8:20: [4] Charles Combs vs. [13] Jeff Harrington; [5] Darren Fuller vs. [12] Brad Leach. 8:30: [2] Tim Gillespie vs. [15] Lance Ringler; [7] Matt Till vs. [10] Gary EuDaly; 8:40: [3] Chad Osborne vs. [14] Chuck Vernon; [6] Troy Gillespie vs. [11] Garry Lee.

ROSS RUSH SUPER SENIORS CHAMPIONSHIP

9:00: [1] Rory Brown vs. [16] Steve Hinds; [8] Jeff Smith vs. [9] Gary Blackwell; 9:10: [4] Ike Martin vs. [13] Roger Rainbolt; [5] Dick Meacham vs. [12] Fred Cooksey. 9:20: [2] Dan Neubecker vs. [15] Don Chastain; [7] Joe Beane vs. [10] David Devitt; 9:30: [3] Mike Vernon vs. [14] Brett Daniels; [6] Robin Harper vs. [11} Tom Smith.

SENIOR REGULAR

First flight — 9:40: [1] Ross Grimes vs. [8] Bruce Sims; [4] Charlie Stone vs. [5] Jeff Huntoon; 9:50: [2] Rick Scheid vs. [7] Joe McWhorter; [3] Burke Geene vs. [6] Matt Grubb.

Second flight — 10:00: [4] Mike Vernon Jr. vs. [5] Drew Antilla. (Byes: [1] Rick Scherer; [2] Ramesh Venkataraman, [3] Jay Freund

SUPER SENIOR REGULAR

First flight — 10:10: [1] Mick Renneisen vs. [8] Gary Walters; [4] Steve McDonald vs. [5] Jim Sims. 10:20: [2] Mike Thomas vs. [7] Brian Werth; [3] Marty Hutsell vs. [6] John Cantwell.

Second flight — 10:30: [1] Mark Deal, bye; [4] Jim Shea vs. [5] Jan Bond. 10:40: [2] Steve Layman vs. [7] Mike Smith; [3] Rand McKamey vs. [6] Steve Englert.