Bainbridge Island golfer Joe Lanza shot a course-record 60 last
month while winning a Gateway Tour Desert Winter Series event at
The Wigwam Red Classic in Litchfield Park, Ariz.
No, that’s not a typo.
Lanza, 24, shot a 60 in the second round, and it could have been
better. He missed a 3-foot putt for par on his first hole (No. 10)
and had shots at two other birdies from within 15 feet on the back
nine while playing the Red Course. He had 10 birdies and an eagle
en route to his 12-under par round. Lanza sandwiched a pair of 68s
around the 60 and finished with a 20-under par total of 196. He
finished the tournament with 20 birdies and two bogeys, both made
in his first round.
The win was worth $20,700.
Coincidentally, the previous course record was held by Troy Kelly,
the former Central Kitsap and University of Washington golfer who
happened to be in Lanza’s group on that Feb. 6 day. Kelly tied for
16th after shooting 72-67-67-206, good for a $1,993 payday.
Bremerton’s Conner Robbins tied for 22nd in the same tournament,
carding 71-68-68—207. Robbins won $1,504.
“It was one of those days where I just kind of felt like I had the
right club in my hand every single shot,” Lanza of the round. “It
started with the first shot of the day, all the way through the
last…I just kept knocking it close to the hole all day. I actually
even missed a 4 footer for birdie on the 1st hole that made me
upset, but I knew I was hitting it well, and told myself to just
keep it simple all day and I was able to do that…more than
anything, I think I was shocked at the number I had just shot.”
It was the second Gateway Tour win for the St. Mary’s College
graduate. The fulltime Canadian Professional Golf Tour member won
at Trilogy at Power Ranch two years ago.
Lanza missed the cut the following week in another tournament at
The Wigwam Resort, this one on the Gold Course, but finished 21st
and 11tth in a pair of California Tour events.
Lanza was among the most consistent players on the Canadian Tour a
year ago, making 12 of 14 cuts with seven top-10 finishes. He was
fifth at the tour championship and eighth overall in money won
($50,658). Lanza advanced to the second tour of PGA Tour
Q-School.
Robbins, a former Washington Husky who reached the round of 16 in
the 2002 U.S. Amateur, made six of seven Canadian Tour cuts a year
ago to finish 77th and kept his exempt status for this season.
Kelly, who played select Nationwide Tour events a year ago, will
try to join his Kitsap golfers on the Canadian Tour this season.
The talented Kelly will play in the winter qualifying event, a
72-hole event which begins March 25. Golfers will play 36 holes at
the Carlton Oaks Country Club and 36 more at Steele Canyon Golf
Club in San Diego. Hawaiian Casey Watabu, who won the U.S. Amateur
Public Links Championships at Gold Mountain Golf Club in July of
2006, is also going to try and earn his Canadian Tour card in San
Diego.
The first Canadian Tour event begins April 7 at Del Rio CC in
Modesto, Calif.
