Crim: Moving city championship to May agrees with golfers, but why aren’t more competing?

QUINCY – It was a perfect sun-splashed Sunday. The wind was relatively still as the temperature steadily rose to the upper 70s. Those competing in the Quincy City Championships found the Westview Golf Course fairways pristine and the greens receptive and quick.

The golf was good, too. It wasn’t until Jason Traeder’s birdie putt on the 18^th green slid just past the cup that Alex McCulla was assured of his third straight men’s title and fourth overall.

The only thing missing, it seemed, was more golfers.

For the first time, the men’s, women’s and senior championships were staged on the same weekend. There were 77 in the men’s field, with 54 of those in the championship flight, but there were only two women and just 14 players in the senior men’s division.

Go back a few decades, and 150 or more men regularly played in the tournament. It wasn’t unusual to have 40 or 50 women entered in their own standalone event, although that number has been steadily declining for years. Separate senior tournaments have drawn much larger fields.

It begs the question: In a city with three country clubs, a 27-hole municipal course, two high schools with competitive boys and girls programs and a university that fields men’s and women’s teams, why aren’t more golfers competing in the city championship?

Opinions vary.

“I think the problem anymore is there’s too many people who’ve got too many other things going on in life,” said David Morgan, director of golf at Westview. “There were so many events in town this weekend.

“Sometimes they just don’t want to play in competition, especially the ladies. (Younger players) want to travel to get seen by coaches so they can advance their college careers, and the prep tours is where they want to go play.”

Traeder, a tournament veteran, admits some golfers likely don’t enter “because they think the quality of golf is so good they don’t have a chance,” even though every division is flighted.

Adam Pfeiffer, who fell short in his quest for a record ninth men’s championship, acknowledges that “we all have families and it’s hard to play golf two days in a row with kids at home.”

That said, Pfeiffer believes increased promotion would lead to more participation.

“I don’t think they do a very good job of promoting it and making it as big as it should be,” he said. “Hype it, advertise it, put it out on Facebook, encourage people who play out here to get more involved.

“I remember playing this when I was in my 20s, and it was an event. We advertised it. We had a dinner the night before. They had a skins game. They had some of the junior golfers walking with signs showing how many under or over you were for the last couple of groups.

“Make a bigger deal out of it because it is a big deal. I mean, ‘the city, check it out.’ It’s still big for the people who play, but it just doesn’t quite live up to what it used to be. This year we had the men, seniors and women all together. It just kind of seems like, ‘Let’s get it over with.’”

Pfeiffer wants players to be more involved in planning, perhaps forming a committee to help the Westview staff brainstorm ideas to lure more junior golfers and higher handicappers alike.

“It’s really a shame we’re not getting that involvement (of junior golfers from the high school and college levels) because that’s the next generation of people who are going to play in this,” he said.

“Maybe there’s a net flight where it’s handicapped based to get more people that are maybe in the 10-to-20 handicap range or even higher a reason to come out and play, so everybody’s involved in one way, shape or form. More involvement is never a bad thing.”

Count Traeder and Pfeiffer among the golfers who support moving the tournament to May to avoid the hotter summer months, when triple-digit temperatures often took its toll on both the course and players.

“I love it,” Traeder said. “This gives the course the best look. I remember when they’d play later in the season, and the course would be kind of burned up and rough.”

Moreover, Pfeiffer doesn’t buy the argument from some golfers who say they don’t play because the tournament is held too early in the year, and they don’t have enough rounds under their belt to compete.

“I think it’s an easy excuse to make when there are probably other underlying reasons,” he said. “I mean, Jason Traeder got second today, and this was his fourth round.”

Morgan said the decision to play all three tournaments simultaneously will be evaluated.

“I think it’s good to get it all in in one weekend because peoples’ schedules are all over the place,” he said. “Come summer, people are going on vacation – ‘I can’t make this, I cannot make that.’ So, we just decided to give it a try, and I thought it worked out very well.

“(Assistant pro) George (Schrage) and I are going to sit and talk about it and figure it out from there. We hope to build on it for next year.”

Traeder, for one, is hopeful.

“I think we’re starting to see a little uptick in the participation in golf,” he said. “You’re seeing people go to the KC Range, having fun, playing games. And then, you know, they’re saying, ‘I want to try green grass golf.’

“I think we can get back to the 160-plus golfers eventually.”