BUCKINGHAM— Corey Huber and Max Huff captured a closely contested 32nd annual Lake County Partners Golf Championship, a better ball (fourball) tournament, on Saturday at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. Longtime friends, Huber and Huff grew up together and are both members of the Kelseyville High School Class of 2012. Huber played high school golf and was a two time all-conference golfer while Huff was a top notch baseball player who registered all league honors on three occasions. Huber and Huff also played high school basketball at KHS.
Huber and Huff opened play on Buckingham's front nine, shot a -2 under par 34, and struck out to a two shot lead over another KHS alumni team of a former golf and a baseball players. Matt Wotherspoon was a four time all conference golfer at Kelseyville, and played junior college golf at Cypress College and then earned his four year degree while teeing it up at California State University San Bernardino. He was a member of the class of 2018. Kyle Ellis was one year ahead of Matt in school, like Huff was an important member of the KHS baseball team, and also received all league honors on three occasions. They too both played high school basketball. Wotherspoon and Ellis started out with an even par front nine score of 36.
Both teams played under par golf the rest of the way and while Huber and Huff's lead shrunk to one stroke after making bogey four on the long par three 15th hole, the margin remained at one stroke the rest of the way. Both teams made birdie on the watery par five 17th hole and on the difficult closing 18th hole, both teams made pars. Huber and Huff shot a -3 under par 33 on the back nine for a -5 under par 18 hole score of 67. It was too little, too late for Wotherspoon and Ellis as their back nine score of -4 under par 32 resulted in an aggregate score of 68, coming up one stroke short of a playoff. Huber and Huff played together in the Lake County Three Person Scramble in 2023 while Wotherspoon and Ellis had never played together until last Saturday.
Coming in at even par 72 was the longtime duo of Hidden Valley Lake superintendent Billy Witt and partner Shawn Auten. Auten was a top notch golfer for Kelseyville High School in the mid- 1990s. Pete Wotherspoon of Buckingham and Jeremiah Valador of Kelseyville finished with a team better ball score of 74.
The senior division of the Partners for golfers aged 50 and above was just as closely contested and the end result was an unexpected upset as Rob O'Hara of Buckingham and Robert Evans of Clear Lake Riviera upset a strong senior field with a +5 over par better ball score of 77. It was the first senior win for either O'Hara and Evans who historically play in the net and senior net flights. O'Hara and Evans finished one stroke ahead of a trio of teams led by Juan Lopez and Tom Merriman, Rick Easter and Todd Colbrandt, and Ted Knowles and his partner Manny Mendoza.
Dr. Bob Jolin and Mel O'Meara led the way in the net flight for golfers with handicaps of 10 and above by shooting a net better ball score of 61. Laura Silva and Cindy Forest came in with a net better ball score of 66.
The Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit takes the month of July off from its open competition divisions and will resume on Saturday, August 24th and Sunday, August 25th with the playing of the long running Lake County Amateur Golf Championship at the Adams Springs Golf Course on Cobb Mountain. The circuit dedicates it efforts to junior golfers during the month of July with the playing of the Buckingham Summer Junior Classic at Buckingham on Monday, July 22 while the Lake County Junior Golf Championship will be contested at Adams Springs later that week on Thursday, July 25. Entry forms for all the aforementioned tournaments are available at local pro shops.
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