Who plays in the TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open, presented by Granite City Food & Brewery? Who are these guys invading Marion and the area next week?
A lot of pretty good golfers, that’s who!
The TrueNorth GCRO has a distinguished list of alumni and it continues to grow year by year. Considered among the top mini-tour stops in the country by none other than Cedar Rapids own Zach Johnson, plenty of golfers looking to make a living on the PGA Tour, the Web.com Tour or on a golf tour on the other side of the globe have competed in the TrueNorth GCRO.
This year’s 54-hole tournament, which begins Thursday, July 21 and continues through Saturday, July 23, again will feature some of the best up-and-coming talent the sport has to offer. Will all these guys make it to the top tier of professional golf like Zach has, or a George McNeill? The road is a long, winding one, but who knew back in 2001 when Johnson won his hometown tournament he would later go on to hoist the Claret Jug after winning the British Open and wear the green jacket of a Masters champion.
Just this past weekend on the Web.com Tour, one step away from the PGA, nine golfers who have competed in the GCRO took part in the LECOM Health Challenge in Findley Lake, New York.
Rhein Gibson, who finished in a tie for 16th in the 2012 GCRO, was one of three golfers to lose a playoff to Rick Lamb. A Monday qualifier, Lamb earned $108,000 for the win. Gibson, who hails from Australia but was a four-time NAIA All-American at Oklahoma Christian University, pocketed $44,800. He has mainly been playing on the PGA Tour this year, competing in 16 events and making seven cuts. He has one Top 25 finish and just over $108,000 in winnings. A not-so-funny anecdote about Gibson. He had parked his car in the driveway of the GCRO host family he stayed with when he played at Hunters Ridge. Headed to work in the morning, the head of the household pulled out of his garage, completely forgetting he now had a vehicle behind him outside his garage. Gibson’s car suffered some pretty good damage. He maintained his focus to finish 6-under for the tournament.
Ryan Blaum (Champion Gates, Florida) , who had a third and a 10th at Hunters Ridge, tied for 33rd at LECOM. Andy Winings, the 2010 GCRO champion and the 2009 co-runner-up, tied for 37th and Chase Wright, who has entered the GCRO again this year, was T63. Chris Baker, the 2013 GCRO champ, Jared Hack, Justin Hueber, Chrish Naegel and Steve Friesen – all GCRO alums – also competed but missed the cut. Friesen will be back next week.
On the third weekend of May this year, a total of 14 GCRO alums participated in four different PGA-sponsored tournaments.
On the regular PGA Tour, Johnson and Gibson tied for 66th in the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic. Two other GCRO alums who have both won on the PGA Tour didn’t compete that weekend: George McNeill, who never won the GCRO but contended, has won over $11 million in his career and two Tour events. Brian Stuard, who finished fourth in the 2007 GCRO, won his first PGA Tour title in May at The Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
On the Web.com Tour that week, seven golfers who have competed at Hunters Ridge played in the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer, S.C. Winings and Baker tied for 16th , and Hack, who was fifth in the 2014 GCRO, tied for 26th.. Hueber, who shot a 62 in last year’s final round at Hunters, tied for 40th and Blaum, Wright and Naegel missed the cut.
Playing on the PGA’s developmental tour, the PGA LatinoAmerica, four more GCRO alums competed that week. Eric Steger (Fishers, Indiana) placed 11th in the 58 Abierto Mexicano de Golf Tournament. He finished eighth in the Order of Merit when the series concluded in May. Steger, who finished sixth last year at Hunters and eighth in 2012, will return for another try next week. James Vargas tied for 27th, GCRO defending champion Paul Apyan tied for 35th and 2014 GCRO champ Mark Blakefield tied for 50th.
The following week, Apyan tied for fourth in the Mazatlan Open after firing a course-record 10-under par 62 in the opening round. Steger tied for eighth in that tournament.
Both Apyan and Blakefield will return to Marion next week.
Finally, the weekend of May 19-22, in the PGA Champions Tour Regions Tradition, one of that Tour’s “majors”, Doug Garwood (Van Nuys, California) tied for ninth. He’s made over $212,000 in 11 events this year on the seniors tour, including $59,800 that week. Garwood won the GCRO Senior championship in 2013 and finished in a tie for seventh overall.
Don Wojciechowski resides in the Hunters Ridge Golf Course community and plays the course on a regular basis. He’s a former sports editor for a suburban Chicago daily newspaper and an avid golf fan.