»RELATED: Playoff chip-in sends Sipe to U.S. Amateur
After Tuesday’s round the field will be reduced from 312 to the top 64 scorers for match play beginning on Wednesday.
Like everyone in the field, Sipe was permitted to play one practice round on each of the two courses.
Others in the field include 21-year-old Ohio State senior Will Grimmer, Daniel Wetterich of Cincinnati and 49-year-old Gary Nicklaus, who was reinstated as an amateur in 2007 after playing as a professional for many years.
Nicklaus was on the PGA Tour from 2000-2002. His best finish was in the BellSouth Classic in 2000 when he lost to Phil Mickelson in a playoff.
Ohio Senior Amateur this week at Denison
The Ohio Senior Amateur Championship is being held Tuesday and Wednesday on the Donald Ross-designed Denison Golf Club course in Granville.
The 36-hole event was played last year at Dayton Country Club and won by Derek Gustafson of Cincinnati, who was the only player in a field of 68 who parred the course.
The 58-year-old Gustafson, a five-time club champion at Sharon Woods Golf Course in Cincinnati, had rounds of 72 and 70 for an even par total of 142 on the par 71 course.
The best score by a Daytonian was the 147 turned in by Dave Novotny, who tied for ninth.
Dayton women win Tri-City matches
One of the favorite events for the Miami Valley women who regularly compete in golf tournaments outside their clubs is the annual Tri-City Championship that pits a 15-member team from Dayton against teams from Cincinnati and Columbus.
It has been held for many years on the first Tuesday of August with sites rotating between the three cities. Teams are selected with a mixture of young and old, and the captains exchange handicaps to balance the competition.
Kathy Ingersoll has been the Team Dayton captain for many years, but a health issue kept her from attending the 2018 match play competition, which was held on Tuesday at Losantiville Country Club in Cincinnati.
The Dayton team played well without her presence, repeating as champion by scoring 303 points. Team Columbus was second with 272.5 and Team Cincinnati had 245.5.
Team Dayton has won four of the last five and six of the last eight.
Hannah McCrabb of Springboro, who attends Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky., led Dayton in scoring by accumulating 27 points against her opponents.
Other members of the team were: Penny Bitzer, Alyssa Burritt, Marla Flynn, Ginger Fulton, Jacque Howell, Cathy Jefferson, Becky Krakowski,
Jami Kruithoff, Daryl Nels, Claire Nickolai, Grace Nickolai, Tee Pazitney, Cynthia Pratt and Peg Wynkoop.
Ingersoll had an opportunity to celebrate later Tuesday when a few of the players delivered the large championship cup to her home.
DCC to host 2 fund-raisers
Dayton Country Club is making its golf course available for two major fund raisers in September.
For the fifth year in succession, John Higgins is partnering with the Lexus of Dayton dealership in sponsoring the Lexus Champions For Charity event benefiting the First Tee of Greater Miami Valley. The tournament generates a large portion of First Tee’s operating budget.
It will be held on Friday, Sept. 21, beginning at 11 a.m. with registration and lunch. There will be a shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. The cost is $1,600 per foursome, and 100 percent goes to the First Tee program. Format is: best three of four with Stableford scoring. Participants get 80 percent of their handicap, which cannot exceed 18. More details can be found on the First Tee website: thefirstteegmv.org
The second event is the Dayton Region Patriot Golf Classic benefiting the Folds of Honor Foundation on Monday, Sept. 24. It will have two waves, with shotgun starts at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
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