Player of the Year!

During halftime of the last Missouri Basketball home game verse Colorado I had the privilege of presenting John Kelly with the MGA Player of the Year Award for 2006. John had a great summer by winning the Ozark in April, finishing runner up in the Cotton, winning the Missouri Stroke Play Championship, and then highlighting his whole summer with making it to the Finals of the United States Amateur at Hazeltine. With John’s great play in the US AM, he now gets the honor of playing in the Masters. I talked a little bit with John about the upcoming event and he said that he is already making trips down to Augusta to get some extra time in there. (Who blames him) He also said that he has practice rounds set up with Ben Crenshaw on Monday and Fred Couples on Tuesday. I think that is a great thing that these former Masters winners will take John around the course and show him what he needs to be watching for. What a great experience. I know all of us here at the MGA wish John good luck and to have fun in April.

About three weeks ago I went on a golf trip with some friends down to San Antonio. There were 12 of us that went on the trip. Joe Jimenez the long time head golf Professional at Jefferson City Country Club lives in the San Antonio area now, so we played four days of golf in a pro am format. Each day you rotated pro’s, that way each guy got a day with Joe. My day with Joe happen to be the day we play LaCantera, the host course for the PGA Tours Texas Open. The wind blew about 30 to 40 mph that day, Joe is in his 80’s now, however that does not stop him from still powering each drive out there between 240 to 280 yards. Joe broke his age each day with ease, shooting around par each day except for the wind blown day where he still shot 77 from the back tee’s which well over 7200 yards long. It was a great treat to play with him and see what a great tempo he had. It was a struggle for me that day, and I had to really grind the last two holes so that I would not be beat by a man well over twice my age. I birdied the last hole to clip him by two. (Thank God)!! I pray to God that when I am 80 that I can be as active as he is. If you are looking for a good golf trip, check out San Antonio, there are some great courses and the prices to play them are reasonable too.

Entries have been open and on line now for about two weeks. So, if you want to enter a MGA event this summer, go to the web site (http://www.mogolf.org/) and create a player profile for yourself to start entering the events. If you want to get in the Four-Ball or Senior Am do not wait, these two are filling up fast!!

Enjoy this great weather the next couple of days, before long it will be 110 each day and then too hot to get out and play.

Until I see you on the tee,


Scott Hovis