Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Jock Talk

The team of Heeg, Heeg and Heeg emerged as the champions of the 2017 Father’s Day Golf Tournament held this past weekend at the fabulous Four Winds Golf Course. It was Vince Heeg, Jr., Henry Heeg Sr. and Henry Heeg, Jr., scoring rounds of 61-59=120 to take top honors from the field of 33 three-person teams that enjoyed the weekend of golf and fellowship despite a very strong wind on the first day. The Heeg team had to battle back and fight hard to secure the win as the team of Nate Dvorak, Steele and Maser shot the best score on Saturday with their 59, but ended up 59-62=121 to take second place winning over the team of Pete Andersen, Tom Andersen and Roger Gunderson by score card playoff with the third place winners shooting 60-61=121.

In the first flight, the team of Bruce Smith, Landon Smith and Dustin Bowron opened with a 67 but came back with a blistering 59 on Sunday to shoot 126 and win handily over the team of Chad Wise, Dillon Wise and Payton Wise, shooting 69-64=133. The third place team in the first flight was the team of Tom Southard, Doug Southard and Steven Burback with their round of 69-66=135.

Winning the second flight was the team of Bill Wallace, Pat Cordell and Shane Hays with a round of 71-67=138. A Wamsley- Wamsley- Wamsley team out of Sidney finished second with 73-68=141 and finishing third in the second flight was the team of Randy Bohac, Bob Kellner and Justin Drake with a round of 72-73=145.

One of the key organizers of this year’s tournament, Randy Bohac, was quite pleased with the large turnout of entries, and handled the MC duties at the presentation of awards at the end of the Sunday play. In his remarks at the awards event he gave special thanks to the staff at the Wind Break Restaurant for serving up an excellent meal on Saturday night to all golfers and their families. He also gave special remarks in memory of Jerry Anderson, who was so instrumental in helping to keep the Father’s Day Tournament going through the years. Jerry passed away this past September just as he was preparing to move to Arizona. He also gave thanks to all of the businesses who helped with Hole sponsor money and for their donations to the flag prizes.

The Kenny and Jennifer Greenwood family may have worked as hard as anyone with Kenny doing most all of the scoring which was very prompt and clear to all golfers and fans. Here again, he was helped by wife Jennifer and all three of their kids. Jennifer was also one of the ladies who worked so hard with the Kimball Dance and Cheer team to serve lunch both days at the Pro Shop area in a fund raiser for their group.

Last, but not least, a big thank you to Jeremy Williams and he crew for having the course in such excellent condition that it brought many kind words of praise for the course, and to Four Winds Pro Chad Wise and his staff for the way they set up the tournament and made sure things ran smooth. Chad and his talented son, Dillon, and daughter, Payton, also played in the tournament and my son, grandson and myself were fortunate to draw the Wise family to play with on Sunday and got to see and enjoy their talents.

It is always so much fun to see all of the former family members come back to Kimball each and every year to play in the Father’s Day Tournament and it is also impressive that this tournament attracts out-of-town teams that simply want to enjoy golf on the Four Winds course. For example, Gering High basketball/track coach, Randy Plummer, and his family team were in the field and Randy was high in his praise of the course as this was his first time to play the Four Winds. Roger Gunderson, who grew up in Kimball, was back to play with Tom and Pete Andersen and he has had the opportunity to play some of the top courses nationwide and said, “The greens here at Kimball are as good as any I have experienced.”

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With the Father’s Day Tournament now in the books, time to turn our attention to the next big event and it is the TeamMates 4-person scramble coming up this Saturday, out at the Four Winds. This is your chance to once again enjoy one of the finest courses in Nebraska and help a great cause. Cost is just $60 per player, which gets you lunch at 12:30 with a shotgun start at 1:30. Each golfer will also get a golf towel and a sleeve of Pro V1 balls. There will be flag prizes on all 18 holes and the top four teams will win some fabulous prizes. Get signed up today before entries close.

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Kimball’s junior golfers have been busy with play in the Panhandle Junior Golf Tour and bringing home good results. At last week’s Morrill Tournament, Dillon Wise finished first with a below par round of 70, Zane Anthony was runner-up with 73 and Kole Bush was third with 79.

At Sidney this past Monday, Anthony was second with a 78 and Wise third with 80. Tristen Zitek shot 84, Andrew McCloud 86 and Izaac Reuter 87. In the grade 6-7 division, Tayten Zitek finished third over the nine holes of play with a 59. Mercedes Bartles was third with 94 over nine holes in her division.

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Two Kimball juniors participated in the Masters Drive-Chip-Putt contest at the Fort Collins, Colo., Country Club on Monday with both finishing in the top three to advance to the next level of competition in Denver. Payton Wise finished second in both the driving and putting categories and was third overall as her chipping let her down a bit. Cole Henton won the driving division and did not place in the top three in the other two categories but still ended up second overall in his division. There were 18 boys and 18 girls in the competition.

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The Kimball Rec area is the place to be this weekend if you are looking for some fun and entertainment. As already mentioned, the TeamMates Golf Tournament is going on Saturday afternoon, and also the Andy Shaw Memorial Softball Tournament will be playing both Saturday and Sunday. This is a co-ed type play and always attracts a lot of teams. All proceeds from the tournament go to local people fighting cancer. A very worthy cause.

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Congrats to Kimball’s Kate Reader for being named to the Star Herald’s All Region Girl’s Basketball third team this past week. This was for her sophomore season of play. Potter-Dix’s senior, Alexus Rozelle, also was named to the third team and junior Audrey Juelfs was a fourth team selection.

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Congrats also to Hunter Thompson of Pine Bluffs for being named Mister Wyoming Basketball for 2017. This talented and humble young man is a very rare talent and the Hornet grad is taking his game close to home after signing to play for the University of Wyoming.