Changes made for Terra Cotta Invite

The prestigous Terra Cotta Invitational Amateur Golf Tournament, held each year at Naples National Golf Club, has undergone a few changes for the 2006 event, which will be April 21-23.

The field has been expanded, and the format changed to 54 holes of stroke play. The previous format had been stroke play with the top four finishers qualifying for 36 holes of match play. There will be 51 players in the field (versus 30 or so previously), and players will receive Golfweek/Titleist Men's Amateur Ranking Points for the first time. A local qualifier also will be held on Thursday, April 6, with the top four finishers being offered a spot in the tournament.

Previous Terra Cotta winners include two-time champion Danny Green, current Champions Tour players John Harris and Tom McKnight, former PGA Tour player Matt Kuchar, as well as Casey Wittenberg, Gene Elliott, Sean Knapp and Jerry Courville Jr. Tommy Brennan is the defending champion.

Other notables who have played in the tournament include PGA Tour players Sergio Garcia and Sean O'Hair and Champions Tour player David Eger.

Denny Glass also has been named the tournament chairman. He has been involved in previous Terra Cottas, but this will be his first as chairman. He has been running the Northeast Amateur in Rhode Island for 12 years.

A member sponsor/contestant tournament will be held on April 20. The Terra Cotta always benefits charities, with the beneficiary of the net proceeds in 2006 being the Ricky King Foundation.

For more information, go online to www.terracottainvitational.org.

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Naples' Lee Booker and Jackie Miller will play in the statewide Florida Cup Matches on Thursday and Friday at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville.

Booker and Miller are on the South Team. The matches are held every two years and feature the top 16 amateurs from the South playing 16 from the North, using a Ryder Cup-style format.

The matches originally were set for Nov. 3-4, 2005, but were postponed due to Hurricane Wilma.

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Naples' Rocco Mediate missed the cut at the FBR Open, his first event for the 2006 season. Mediate shot 69-74 and missed advancing to the weekend by two strokes. He is in the field for this week's AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach.

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Fort Myers' Tommy Tolles missed the cut by a shot in the Nationwide Tour's season-opening tournament in Panama last week. The tour is off until the Jacob's Creek Open in Australia from Feb. 16-19.

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Ave Maria University Founders of Naples Golf League's next event is Monday, March 13 at Stoneybrook Golf Club in Estero. The entry fee is $60. The league is for men and women of all levels of play. Tee times will be at 12:30 p.m. For reservations, call 774-1443 at least one week prior to the event. The next outing will be April 22 at The Glades Country Club.

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The Michigan State University Southwest Florida Alumni and Friends golf tournament will be on Monday, Feb. 20 at Quail West Golf & Country Club in North Naples.

Registration is at 11 a.m., followed by golf, with a boxed lunch, at 12:30 p.m. A reception begins at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 6:45 p.m. An after-dinner program "Vocal Highlights from the MSU School of Music" will follow.

The fee for golf and dinner is $275, with dinner only at $60. At 4:30 p.m., Dr. Lonnie King, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine will make a presentation on animals and human health.

For more information, contact Richard Cregar at 498-1925.

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The Boston College Alumni Club will have its eighth golf tournament to benefit Eden Florida at Wyndemere Country Club on Monday, March 27.

Eden Florida provides life-spaning services for children and adults with autism.

There is a 1 p.m. shotgun start, and the entry fee is $150. For more information, contact Frank Garbarino (514-0769), Dave Rafferty (596-0290), or the Eden Foundation (437-5335).

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The 19th annual Wyndemere Golf Tournament for Youth Haven raised $82,000 for the charity on Jan. 23.

A total of 143 golfers, including club professionals from eight courses, participated.

"I am proud of the cohesive and generous Wyndemere community for wholeheartedly supporting Youth Haven's work with abused children and fragile families year after year," tournament chairman and Wyndemere resident David Ladd said.

The tournament has raised over $700,000 for the charity since its inception in 1987. The 20th anniversary tournament will be held sometime in January 2007.

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WCI Communities, Inc., and Golfing Naples have signed on as presenting sponsors for the Lexus Naples Intercollegiate Invitational. The college tournament will be from Feb. 26-28 at Hammock Bay Golf & Country Club. Participating teams are: Florida Gulf Coast University, Notre Dame, Ohio State, St. Mary's (Calif.), Florida State, Illinois State, Navy, Baylor, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Wake Forest and Portland.

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The Hall of Fame Group from New York held its first golf outing at Quail Run Golf Club on Dec. 3.

Don Winter, who was inducted into the Westchester County Sports Hall of Fame in October, joined with Don Festa and Brant Winterstein, along with Bob Doherty.

Winter and Winterstein were top football coaches in Westchester County, while Festa was a top basketball coach. Doherty is on the board of directors for the Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Con Edison Electric Company of Rye, N.Y.

Over 200 athletes from Westchester County have been inducted since 1968. The 2006 tournament will be in October.

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Other upcoming golf events follow:

• 2006 Beck's Open — Feb. 11-12, Fort Myers Country Club. Admission is free. To enter or for more information, call 936-3126.

• 2006 ACE Group Classic — Tickets are on sale for the Champions Tour event, Feb. 13-19, at The Club at TwinEagles.

Fans can choose from the following packages for the Champions Tour event: weekly grounds, daily grounds or the Seminole Party Deck Weekly Package. Children under 16 will be admitted free all week. There will be free admission, courtesy of The ACE Group of Companies, on both Monday and Tuesday of tournament week.

The Seminole Party Deck is new for 2006 and will include premium viewing of golf with food and beverages in a luxury skybox. For $400, spectators receive one ticket for each tournament round Friday through Sunday, unlimited food and beverages, and the Bonita Bay Golf Experience Book. Call 1-800-566-3470 or visit www.theacegroupclassic.com.

• The 2006 Dodge Celebrity Invitational — April 19-23 at Gateway Golf & Country Club in Fort Myers. For more information, call 1-888-256-5053 or visit www.eclipsesportsmanagement.com/dci.

• Champions Tour, PGA Tour qualifiers — The South Florida PGA Section will run open qualifiers for the Champions Tour's ACE Group Classic, as well as the PGA Tour's Ford Championship at Doral and Honda Classic.

The ACE Group Classic qualifier will be at West Bay Club in Estero on Monday, Feb. 13. The deadline registration is Feb. 10 and is open to professionals only, age 50 and over. The field will be limited to 144 players, with the two low scores of the 18-hole, stroke-play competition gaining entry into the main tournament. For more information or an entry form, go to www.sflorida.pga.com.

For PGA Tour qualifiers in 2006, entrants must register and successfully compete in a pre-qualifier to move on to the Monday open qualifying. The top 50 and ties move on to the Monday qualifier. The four lowest scores in the Monday qualifier earn spots in the field. Amateurs with a handicap of 2 or less and professionals are eligible to apply.

The deadline for the Ford Championship is Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. Prequalifying will be at The Club at Emerald Hills in Hollywood, with the secondary site at Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation. The Monday qualifier will be at Emerald Hills.

The deadline for the Honda Classic is Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. Prequalifying will be at Ironhorse Country Club in West Palm Beach, with the secondary site at Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation. The Monday qualifier will be at Ironhorse.

• 26th annual Southwest Florida Chapter PGA Tournament of Charities — Co-sponsors Pepsi and Coors Light for area charities: The Vince Smith Center of Southwest Florida Addiction Services, PGA Art Soderholm Scholarship Fund, Junior Golf, and the Florida Gulf Coast University PGM Program. The PGA-supported tournament has raised over $1.3 million in its 25-year history. The tournament concludes with the grand tournament on April 3 at Pelican Preserve Golf Club in Fort Myers. Last year, Olde Florida led all fund-raisers with donations of $11,057.

Club professionals will be encouraging members to participate in fund-raising tournaments such as birdie-a-thons. For more information or to make a pledge to any or all of the involved charities, contact Kelly Leonard at 561-9911 or a local golf professional.

• Tournament Players Association — Upcoming events: Feb. 11-12, Majestic CC, Lehigh Acres. Entry fees, $100. The Tournament Players Association is accepting applications for membership for the 2006 season. The organization was founded in 1989 and plays a minimum of 35 stroke-play tournaments on area courses every month of the year. Each tournament has five flights for players of all handicaps.

Membership rates, $120. Membership includes a members-only gift package of discounts at area courses as well as 2-for-1 ACE Group Classic tickets, and gift certificates at area golf stores and driving ranges. Call 458-0754 or go online to TPAgolf.com.

• Fantasy Golfers Association/Michelob Ultra Golf Tour —The tour events are generally stroke-play formats following USGA rules, with one- or two-day events. Tournaments are flighted by handicap. Top finishers in each flight receive non-cash prizes. Awards vary depending upon size of fields. Events also provide optional skins games. In order to abide by USGA rules, no single or cumulative prize value will exceed $750. Call Jim Stockman at 593-3485 or visit www.ultragolftour.com.

• Executive Women's Golf Association — Upcoming events: April 8, EWGA Tee Off Golf Event luncheon, Spanish Wells Country Club, Bonita Springs; May 20-21, Fun Sectional Weekend of Golf, Miami; June 9-10, EWGA Pro-Am, Tiburón; TBD, Naples Chapter Championship; Aug. 12, Florida Sectional Championship, Lely Resort; Nov. 2-4, EWGA National Conference, Palm Beach. For more information, go online to naplesewga.com.

• The Naples Golf Academy— New location will be at Hibiscus Golf Club on Rattlesnake Hammock Road in East Naples. Hibiscus is in the process of developing a new practice area and clubhouse. The Naples Golf Academy will remain at the Naples Golf Center on Davis Boulevard until April 2006. Lauri Travers, Phil Grear and Chris Travers are the academy's instructors. Go online to www.learningggolf.com for more information on their new clinics, or call 732-9944.

• Rules of Golf Seminar — The Florida State Golf Association will have a Rules of Golf Seminar at The Forest Country Club in south Fort Myers on Feb. 17. The seminar will be from 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., with an indoor classroom session including a video presentation, as well as outdoors hands-on sessions covering the rules of golf. All workshops are instructed by FSGA staff members with assistance from tournament volunteers. FSGA committee members are admitted for $15 while other individuals pay $30 to attend. Golf professionals earn four MSR credits for attending. Admission also includes a luncheon buffet and rule book.

• 2006 Lexus Naples Intercollegiate Invitational Alumni Golf Challenge — Monday, Feb. 20 at Hammock Bay Golf & Country Club. Player registration will be at 11:30 a.m., with a 1 p.m. shotgun starts. A awards reception will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The format is two better balls of foursomes in the four-person scramble. The entry fee is $150. All team members will be allowed 80 percent of their adjusted handicaps. A reduced rate practice round is available at Hammock Bay by calling 394-4811. For more information on the tournament, call 259-1100.

• Southwest Florida Ford Retiree Golf Outing — Wednesday, Feb. 22 at Pelican Preserve Golf Club in Fort Myers. The tournament is open to all Ford Motor Company retirees. The entry fee is $100 for golf and dinner. The registration deadline is Feb. 8. Call Don Morgan at 948-7171 or Tom Howard at 948-8876.

• 13th Boston Red Sox-Children's Hospital Celebrity Classic — Friday, Feb. 24 at The Forest Country Club in south Fort Myers. Since 1993, the tournament has raised more than $3.5 million for Children's Hospital. The entry fee is $250 for a step-aside scramble with a 1 p.m. shotgun start. Current and former members of the Boston Red Sox will be participating. Call the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation at 985-3550.

• 15th annual Pro-Am to benefit Hospice of Naples — Forty local club professionals will participate in the benefit at Royal Palm Country Club on April 7. Each pro will be teamed with three amateurs. Royal Palm has raised more than $450,000 in its 14 years with the pro-am. The goal in 2006 is to raise $60,000 for Hospice of Naples. Hole sponsorships and other sponsor opportunities are available. The dinner to honor donors and participants will be on April 8 at Royal Palm. For more information, contact Don Harlow at 774-1774.

For more golf information, including instruction, please go online to www.naplesnews.com/npdn/sports. To submit an item for the golf column, send a fax to 263-4816 or e-mail gshardwig@naplesnews.com.