Let the games begin.
Virtually every golfer can play in the Sedona Golf Resort’s Olympics, which begins at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.
“As long as you can play 18 holes, you can play,” said Micah Filice, the resort’s head golf professional. “This is a celebration of golf returning to the Olympics after 112 years.”
At least 30 golfers are expected to play in the 18-hole tournament, which will be scored using the two-person better ball format, which takes the lower of the two players’ scores on each hole.
“The Olympics will be utilizing that format a little bit in team competition, but they’re a four-round event,” Filice said. “Ours is just a one-round event.”
Viewers will be able to see the difference beginning Friday, Aug. 12.
“A lot of people in the golf community are seeing it as an extra major, like The Masters,” Filice said. “A gold medal’s nothing to scoff at.
“It’s something new and exciting, although maybe not everybody is feeling that way, especially in light of the top four U.S. golfers not deciding to make the trip.”
They’re more than welcome at the Sedona Golf Resort’s Olympics, he added, where every team has to represent a different country.
“We’re not going to check any birth certificates,” Filice laughed. “We have one golfer from Belgium and one of Belgian descent, so they’ll represent that country, but we allow them to pick any country.”
Both players on the team, though, must declare the same country of origin and should dress in the colors of that country, he added.
“Whatever handicap you have, we’ll take it,” he said. “Doing it that way allows us to have winners from every skill level.”
At the awards ceremony and lunch following the round, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the top three gross and net scorers, by team.
“Usually, the lower handicap people are the ones who win that one,” Filice said. “The handicap range is pretty high — right now we have players from 2 or 3 all the way up to 30.”
But the event is not really serious, all in good fun and is open to players outside the area, he said.
“We currently have about 20 committed,” he said. “A lot are locals who play here quite often. But a couple are from Prescott, and we have two ladies coming over from Verde Santa Fe [Golf Course] in Cornville.”
For the cost and other details about entering the Sedona Golf Resort Olympics, please see the Friday, Aug. 5, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
