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By DAVE THEALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001
Golf 2000 got off to a fast start last January in the New Year's Invitational at Lakewood Country Club and maintained a brisk pace throughout the year.
In the 74th annual edition of the bay area fixture, Jeff Klauk of Ponte Vedra entered with a high degree of optimism and confidence.
The Florida South senior had tied for second in 1998 and finished second to Steve Scott of the University of Florida the previous year.
Although Klauk shot an opening round of 5-under 67 the opening day, he found himself three down to Nick Cassini of the University of Georgia. And after 36 holes, Klauk was down four strokes to Cassini.
But skill and perseverance paid off for Klauk, who proceeded to chip away in the third and fourth rounds for a tournament record 72-hole total of 267.
That surpassed Scott's mark from the previous year by four strokes. Klauk shot a final round of 7-under 65.
The tournament's senior division continued its tradition of a talented field headed by Curt Madson of Mount Dora.
He mounted a charge with rounds of 71-70-69-74 for a 4-under-284 and a six-stroke margin over runner-up Don Lucas of Tampa.
Other area tournament champions of note during 2000 include:
Danny Green of Jackson, Tenn., winning the Gasparilla Invitational.
John Cerutti of Palm Harbor, winning the County Golf Association Championship.
Doug LaCrosse of Tampa, taking the Invitational de Avila.
Ryan Cockman of St. Petersburg in the St. Petersburg City Championship.
Tom Percival of Dunedin in the Dunedin City Invitational.
Kathy Speight of Feather Sound, winning the West Coast Women's Golf Association title.
Brittany Lincicome of Pinellas Park in the FJGA.
Danny Allen, a senior at Tarpon Springs High School, winning the Seminole Amateur Tournament in Tallahassee in June, the Future Collegians World Tournament in November and the recent Innisbrook Christmas Classic.
Clearwater Executive teaching pro R.J. Ziats in the PGA West Central Chapter Championship.
John Huston of Safety Harbor. He birdied three of the last four holes for a come-from-behind victory in the PGA Tour's Tampa Bay Classic at the Westin Innisbrook Resort.
East Lake Woodlands, winning the Pinellas Men's Interclub title.
On the national amateur scene, these winners were crowned :
Jeff Quinney in the U.S. Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield, N.J.
Marcy Newton in the Women's Amateur at Waverly Country Club, Portland, Ore. Lisa Ferrero in the Girls Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, North Plains, Ore.
Matthew Rosenfeld in the Boys Amateur at the same location.
Greg Puga in the Mid-Amateur at The Homestead, Hot Springs, Va.
Ellen Port in the Women's Mid-Amateur at Big Canyon CC, Newport Beach, Calif.
Bill Shean in the Senior Amateur at Charlotte (N.C.) Country Club.
Carol Thompson in the Women's Senior Amateur at Sea Island Golf Club, Ga.
WORLD SCENE: Feather Sound's Greg Kraft, who finished 81st on the PGA Tour money list with $597,021, played a first-round match with top-seeded Ernie Els on Tuesday in the World Match Play Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Kraft is a product of Brandon High School and the University of Tampa.
END OF YEAR STATS: Mangrove Bay has a few thousand less rounds played this year -- approximately, 85,000 -- but most of that is attributed to the popularity of the adjacent nine-hole Cypress Links course.
"We had a record number of rounds, 41,000, at the new course, so that's good," said Jeff Hollis, director of golf for the City of St. Petersburg.
COMING UP: The fifth annual Campbell's NFL Players Super Shoot-Out is scheduled for Jan. 24 at MacDill Air Force Base's Bay Palms complex.
It's a charity outing with a Super Bowl tie-in featuring about 100 active NFL players.
It's open to the public. The 360-person pro-am will group players into 72 fivesomes, each with an NFL player.
Sixteen Buccaneers have accepted invitations.