Vanleeuwen's game solid in CGA win at Fox Hollow

By DAVE THEALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 9, 2000

Back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes at Fox Hollow helped Neil Vanleeuwen of Palm Harbor shoot a 1-under 70 to win Thursday's County Golf Association tournament.

Vanleeuwen opened with birdies on No. 2 and 7 to to help offset three bogeys for the victory.

"I really didn't capitalize on the par-5s," said Vanleeuwen, 41, who played collegiately at Florida State with current PGA Tour regulars Paul Azinger, Jeff Sluman and Kenny Knox. "Also, I've been experimenting with my putting, trying to eliminate the forward press. That's an unnecessary step. Still, I made a few putts and missed others when I lifted my head up. All in all, it was a real solid round where I drove down the middle, hitting 14 fairways. That's pretty good for me since I haven't played much since November."

Vanleeuwen is a member at the Westin Innisbrook Resort and a vice president with A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., in Clearwater. He has been invited to play in the four-round Palma Ceia Invitational Feb. 24-27 that attracts some of the nation's top amateurs.

Playing in another foursome at the Fox Hollow match, Dan Winar, 24, nearly tied for first place with an even-par 71. He also had four birdies in his round, those coming on the par-4 third, ninth, 10th and 14th holes.

"If there's such a thing as a good double bogey," Winar said, "I had one on the sixth hole where I sank a 15-foot putt for a double after driving out of bounds."

Winar's shot of the day was on the 425-yard third hole where he drove 275 yards and then hit his 8-iron approach shot 10 yards to the right of the pin. The ball kicked left sharply to within a foot for a tap-in.

Winar, a native of Cleveland, is staying with his sister in Palm Harbor this winter and spring to hone his game before turning pro this summer. He's a 1998 graduate of Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, where he earned a degree in business management. During his junior year there, he tied for seventh place at the NCAA Division III national championships to earn second-team All-America honors.

"I plan to return to Ohio this summer and join the Tornado Tour," Winar said. "Hopefully, I'll play well enough to move up to the TearDrop or Hooters Tours. In the meantime, the CGA matches provide me with a good opportunity to play the better courses in the area with competitive golfers. They are a good bunch of guys."

CGA SENIORS: Jack Forbes, a third Palm Harbor resident, won the seniors title in the Fox Hollow match with a 1-over 72.

NORTH FLORIDA PGA WINTER TOUR: Nick Klassen of Dunedin shot rounds of 65-71-136 on the Plantation at Leesburg Country Club on Jan. 30-31 to set up a playoff with Gene Jones of Orlando. Klassen birdied the first playoff hole for the first prize of $1,300. It was his second win on the North Florida PGA Section's Winter Tour.

JUNIOR UPDATE: Largo High senior Courtney Burdick, who won the district title last fall and was named the Times Pinellas player of the year, has to put her golf game on hold temporarily. She is a four-year starter on the Packers soccer team, which won its district title last week.

"Golf is still my priority," Burdick said. "After soccer season, I plan to play in some Greater Tampa Junior and West Central PGA Junior tournaments this year. I've also got recruiting trips lined up to Division I Georgia State University and Division II Barry, where I was told I'd be either No. 1 or 2 on the team."

Burdick averaged 37.25 for nine holes last fall for Largo High and shot rounds of 84-78 at the state tournament.

The American Junior Golf Association has named Mike Barbosa of St. Petersburg and Whitney Code of Tampa to the U.S. teams that will play Team Scandinavia in the Izzo Cup match in Stockholm, Sweden, June 26-30.

The match will feature the top 16 junior golfers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden against the top eight U.S. boys and girls.

Barbosa, a junior at St. Stephens School in Bradenton, earned his spot by accumulating 365 Izzo Cup points for fifth place. Ahead of him are two other Florida members of the team, Ty Tryon of Orlando and James Vargas of Miami.

Code, a home-schooled student who won the high school title playing for Chamberlain last spring, finished fourth in the point standings. Catherine Cartwright of Bonita Springs, the girls state titleist in the fall season, tied for seventh to earn her spot.

For more information about the Izzo Cup or the AJGA, visit Web site www.ajga.org.

FITNESS PROGRAM: Dr. Sam C. Frattalone, a Pinellas Park chiropractic physician, will have a book signing on Saturday in connection with the publication of his Maximum Performance: A Golf Fitness Program. It will be held at the Suncoast Golf and Shoe Mart in Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg from 11 a.m. to about 5 p.m.

The manual provides golfers with easy-to-follow exercises to help improve performance. "With the help of a PGA teaching professional, we have correlated the swing flaw with the effect it will have on the ball impact and trajectory problem, giving the golfer a specific area that he or she may want to concentrate their exercise program," Frattalone said.

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