Challenging conditions at Hideout can’t hamper amateur tourneys

by Jeff Simon
Hideout Golf Club PGA Professional
The challenges just kept coming for the senior golfers and women golfers at this past weekend’s Hideout Senior Amateur and Hideout Women’s Amateur.
On top of the usual narrow fairways and confusing greens, the golfers were greeted by wind, rain, and colder-than-expected temperatures on Friday and Saturday, August 19-20. Those who were able to ignore the conditions fared the best.
After opening the tournament with a two-over-par round of 74, David Booth had the tournament’s best round on Saturday morning with a two-under-par 70 to win the Amateur by five shots over Blanding’s Rob Wilcox.
Wilcox shared the first-round lead with Booth and Grand Junction’s Rick Ott, but Booth’s first nine holes during the second round proved to be the difference.
Booth started his second round with a birdie on No. 1, then closed out the front nine with a birdie on the difficult eighth hole and another birdie on the ninth to go out in 3-under-33 and take control of the tournament.
Finishing third was 2021 champion Mike Hacker of St. George who had back-to-back rounds of 75. Jesse Needles of Price was third with scores of 79 and 72.
In the second flight, Flagstaff’s Randy Watkins shot a career best on Friday with a 4-over-par round of 76. He then followed that up with another career best of 75 on Saturday. He won the second flight by 12 shots over Bluff’s Marx Powell.
“I love coming to this golf course,” Watkins said.
Finishing third was Hideout regular Rick Kollenkark with rounds of 85 and 83. In the net division, Powell was the winner with Farmington’s James Hosman second, Monticello’s Dell Hunter third, and Blanding’s Jolly Bayles fourth.
In the Women’s Amateur, Jan Simon shot scores of 100 and 92 to win the title. Vickie Thomas was second.