Royal Links champs: McKay, Knievel, Huseby, Smith, Quinn, Haddock
LAS VEGAS, NV (Feb. 26, 2020)–Grant McKay (Championship), Kelly Knievel (Senior) and Phil Huseby (Silver) won gross titles at the SNGA Tour’s stop at Royal Links on Feb. 25, 2020. Shawn Smith (Net), Tim Quinn (Senior) and Dave Haddock (Silver) were the net champs. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider.
Championship
Grant McKay won for the second time on the SNGA Tour, overcoming cool, windy conditions to post a five-shot victory in the Championship Division.
McKay, who won an SNGA Tour event in 2017 as well as a two-day SNGA event last fall, birdied the second hole to get to one-under par but then struggled with the conditions.
“I got off to a good start but I knew it would be about patience out there,” he said. “It was rough. I was just trying to make sure I knew what I was going to try and do with each shot.”
McKay lives in Las Vegas and is taking classes on-line at Grand Canyon University. He’s a senior and a finance major but still hopes professional golf is in his future.
“Right now I’m trying to play as many amateur events as I can,” he said. “I’ll just see where the rest of the year goes. I would definitely like to play professional golf in the future but I know there’s a lot of work to do.”
Championship
Grant McKay, 77
Tyler Coonts, 82
Kyle Meade, 83
Net
Shawn Smith is back.
Smith won three times in 2018 but hasn’t been in the winner’s circle since…until Tuesday. Smith posted an even-par 72 score to win the Net Division by four strokes.
“I got a promotion at work (running the Eureka Casino in Las Vegas),” he said. “That promotion is great for work but not good for my frequency of playing and hitting golf balls.”
But despite his lack of playing time, his game was solid.
“It was a good day off the tee and a good day for my mid-irons,” he said. “Plus I only had 30 putts and having just 30 putts on a windy day at Royal Links is a real good day.”
Now, he’s hoping to fit in a few more SNGA events.
“My goal is to definitely not take a full year off again,” he said. “I’d like to iron out my schedule and play in a few more tournaments. I wish I could play the weekend events, but I have a 3-year-old (Harper) and she runs the roost on weekends.”
Net
Shawn Smith, 72
Greg Pyszko, 76
Erick Hernandez, 78
Senior
Kelly Knievel made it two straight victories, edging Todd Roberts for the Senior title.
The two were tied with two holes remaining before Roberts bogeyed the par-3 17th while Knievel put a par on the board. Both players parred the par-5 final hole.
“Winning begets winning, that’s all there is to it,” he said with a laugh of his second straight victory.
He said his ball striking was solid…his putting, well, not so much.
“I hit the ball really good,” he said. “I had four three-putts and still shot 75. The greens were bumpy and the wind was blowing so I accepted the fact I wasn’t going to putt very well and that was it.”
He said his game-plan was solid. “I played really smart golf,” he said. “It doesn’t matter the weather, as long as you hang on. That’s what I did.”
Senior
Kelly Knievel, 75
Todd Roberts, 76
John Bobroski, 78
Senior Net
Tim Quinn won for the first time on the SNGA Tour beating Brian Freymueller in a scorecard playoff.
Quinn was recently honored as the 2019 SNGA Volunteer of the Year and is a former president of the SNGA.
He was quick to admit this victory wasn’t expected.
“I only get to play in one or two of these a year,” he said. “This is kind of fun and it’s a very good feeling to win. It’s the first time I’ve ever won anything at an SNGA tournament and who knows when I’ll get the chance to play again.”
Quinn added it’s nice to see the tournament fields steadily growing.
“We have a great group of players,” he said. “We’re finding more and more guys playing and having fun and then telling their friends and they are coming out to play.”
But on this day it all worked out for Quinn.
“I hit the ball pretty well and made a couple of putts,” he said. “With the wind I knew everybody would probably struggle but luckily my mistakes didn’t cost me too much.”
Senior Net
Tim Quinn, 74
Brian Freymueller, 74
Derek Davis, 75
Silver
For Phil Huseby it was just a matter of time.
Huseby got into the SNGA winner’s circle after two near-misses in 2019 where he finished third in July and then wound up with a second three months later.
Huseby was even-par through 15 holes but had to hold on for the title as he bogeyed three of the final four holes.
“I usually don’t do very well in these tournaments,” he said. “But I kept the ball in play and made four nice par putts (on the front nine). On the back nine I had three three-putts or it could have been a real nice round.”
It’s been a battle for Huseby, who was a crane operator in North Dakota before moving to Vegas, to get that first win in SNGA play.
“I ended up in the hospital for a month last February and I was in a coma for almost two weeks,” he said. “It’s taken me almost a whole year to feel like I’m hitting the ball solid.”
This event proved he’s on the right track.
“I just wanted to do no worse than a bogey,” he said. “I didn’t have a double and didn’t make any stupid mistakes…just a couple of chip shots that were a little long. It was a pretty good day for me.”
Silver
Phil Huseby, 75
Ed Knott, 76
Mark Dopheide, 83
Silver Net
Dave Haddock won for the third time in SNGA play–the fourth counting a parent/child team victory in early 2019.
He said this one was different.
“It was links golf and I took advantage of the architecture of the course and the wind conditions,” Haddock said. “The course allows an opening on just about every hole to roll the ball onto the green and that’s just what I did.”
He said an earlier practice round, as well as a trip across The Pond, helped out his approach to this event.
“I played the sister course at St. Andrews and the caddy said that’s exactly how they play over there,” he said. “Unless you have a wedge in your hands, you keep the shot low.”
This week it was more of the same.
“If you hit shots that are only six feet off the ground, you don’t have to worry about the wind,” he said. “But get it in the air and if the wind takes it, it’s gone. I played a practice round here two weeks ago and it was the same conditions. The knockdown shots worked well then and did again today.”
Silver Net
Dave Haddock, 72
William Day, 78
Ray Chase, 80
