Seven from Iowa to be featured at 7th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball
A total of seven players from Iowa will be represented at the 7th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball hosted the the Country Club of Birmingham, May 14-18. This will be the third USGA event at the C.C. of Birmingham in nine years, including the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur, won by Iowa Golf Hall of Fame member Mike McCoy.
“The way the members turned out in terms of volunteers (in 2013) and the welcome they provided, they just couldn’t do enough for you,” McCoy said in an interview with the USGA. “It’s nothing but a first-class affair. You’re going to walk away feeling like you have been someplace very special.”
Those representing Iowa include the sides of Jon Brown / Ethan Mechling, Nate Dunn / Marc Gladson, Josh Manske / Aaron Ahrendsen, along with Dennis Bull, who is teamed up with Illinois’ Andrew Price.
Championship co-chairman Barney Lanier, a club member since 1976 who played in three U.S. Amateurs, knows the two courses as well as anyone.
“The East would be the course most played by the members. It’s shorter, with small greens,” he said in an interview with the USGA leading up to the event. “The West is our championship course – longer, quite challenging and more hilly. The routing is identical to the original by Ross except for the 15th and 16th holes, which Jones flipped from a par 4 and par 5 to a 5 and 4. Sixteen of the green sites are identical to what Ross designed. The bunkering certainly has a Dye flavor with some pot bunkers. You would certainly recognize his swales and hills around the greens, which are the defense of the golf course.”