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The Lima City Men’s Golf Championship will see an increase of almost 20 players this year, apparently the result of tightening up the schedule and some friendly persuasion.
A total of 133 players have signed up for this year’s tournament, up from 115 in 2014. The biggest increase is in the championship flight, where there are 33 players, compared to only 19 last year.
The tournament, which will run from Wednesday through Sunday, will be one day shorter this year than in the past.
Last year’s 115 golfers was a drop of 20 percent from the 143 who played in 2013. As recently as 2009, there were 200 golfers in the tournament and traditionally there had been more than 150 participants.
The two biggest reasons suggested for the drop-off were that the tournament was too long and that moving the tournament to June from July last year might have kept some golfers out of the tournament.
The organizing committee of the tournament talked with golfers, asking them what could be done to improve the tournament.
What was learned was the length of the tournament appeared to be a much bigger factor than which month it was played.
One other significant change is that the championship flight will play 36 holes on Thursday, the first day it will be in action.
The championship flight is the only flight which is scheduled to play two rounds in one day.
“We’re happy. The main focus was to try to get the championship flight back up. To get that up to 33 was big,” said Matt Metzger of the tournament organizing committee. “We tried to listen to that flight and the open flight guys particularly as far as shortening the schedule.”
Shortening the schedule was the runaway top suggestion about how to attract golfers back to the tournament, Metzger said.
“We went to those guys who didn’t play and said, ‘What’s the main reason you can or can’t play?’ It was 85 percent plus that came back if it was a shorter tournament they’d be more likely to play,” he said.
“I think a lot of these guys are saying ‘I’ll play more golf on one day if that means I only have to take two days off work.’ ” “We’ve really received a lot of positive feedback on that.”
The hope is that getting the field to 133 will mean another increase next year, though no one is predicting a return to almost 200 players.
“I think 140 to 150 is going to be the new norm. That range is probably what you’re going to see going forward,” Metzger said. “The days of 200 people, that isn’t happening anymore. That isn’t the golf world today. If we can keep around 140 to 150, that’s the goal going forward.”
In addition to the 33 championship flight players, there will be 45 in the open flights, 22 in the super seniors flight, 16 in the senior open flight and 17 in the senior championship flight.
The tournament will start on Wednesday with all senior flights playing a one-day qualifier at the Bluffton Golf Club and all open flights playing at Hawthorne Hills.
On Wednesday, the championship flight will play a qualifying round in the morning at Hidden Creek, then come back to play match play in the afternoon. The low 16 in the senior flights will play at Hawthorne Hills and the low 16 in the open flights will play at Colonial Golfers Club.
The final three rounds in all flights will be at the Shawnee Country Club on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Phil Trueblood, the defending champion, and 2014 runner-up Austin Goodridge are among the 33 players in the championship flight.
Last year’s other winners were: Shawn McGue in the first flight, Steve Mefferd in the second flight, Thomas Nolte in the third flight, Paul Masters in the senior championship flight, Tom Mulcahy in the super seniors flight and Denny Thompson in the senior open flight.
