Columnist Peter Benton: Hansen-Peterson team gets the job done at LVCC

Peter Benton

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 | 9:23 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

"It was most definitely unspectacular golf, but it was the sort of golf that wins tournaments -- conservative yet calculated -- but if the opportunity arose a gamble would be taken and fortunately, that gamble ... paid off," Ron Hansen said.

Hansen, along with Hugh Peterson, won the 54-hole Memorial Weekend Member/Member Golf Tournament at the Las Vegas Country Club.

The Format for this event was Scotch Foursome the first day with 33 percent of combined handicaps deducted from the total score; best-ball of partners with 90 percent of handicaps the second day; and combined net of partners with full handicap the final day.

The Hansen/Peterson team scored 70-65-146--281 to edge the pairing of Woody Hensley/Howard Woolard (68-68-146--282). Russ Olsen and Bob Frusco placed third after rounds of 74-69-141--284.

Mike Small and Paul Scofield teamed brilliantly to eke out a narrow victory in the President's Flight. Their score of 71-67-135--273.2 edged the 65-69-132--273.5 recorded by the runners-up, Ron Johnson and George Levine. The Bob Winner/John Hunt duo garnered third with 68-64-147--279.9.

Capturing the Ladies Flight were Larren Buckley and Pat Corona, who recorded rounds of 68-64-139--268.8. Rene Raynes and Cheryl Blackard followed with 67-65-140--272.8, while in the third spot at 279 (69-67-143) were Sandy Singer and Helina Vergiles.

The field for the seventh annual Battle at The Bridges 18-hole best-ball event which is scheduled for July 25 at The Bridges at Ranch Santa Fe in California has been finalized.

Tiger Woods and John Daly will go up against the Phil Mickelson/Retief Goosen pairing for the $1.7 million purse, where the victors will split $1.2 million and the runners-up will receive $250,000 apiece.

They will not be the only winners, however, as a total of $300,000 will be donated to an assortment of charities. The winners will donate $100,000 each and the second-place team $50,000 apiece.

The recently concluded Spanish Trail Member-Guest tournament saw a huge field assemble for the flighted match-play event.

Each two-man team played a 9-hole match against other pairings in their flight, with a point being earned for each hole won plus another point for the match winners. The two teams with the highest number of points garnered faced off in the finals.

John Garrett and Todd Unrue, who won the Bellagio Flight were also crowned as the 2005 Tournament Champions. Henry Heintz and partner, Jim Hostetler (Mandalay Bay Flight winners) captured runners-up honors, with the pairing of Chris Sarret/Larsh Kellogg, (Caesars Palace victors) taking third place overall.

Other flight winners were: Stardust, Jim Widner and Bruce Tripp; Luxor, Al Abolafia/Mike Biscelli; Palms, Guyan Long/Keith Rohrbough; Rio, Victor Dubois/ Pat Hubbs; Flamingo, Ben Hamilton/Curtis Swarts; Venetian, Earl Green/Jose Troncoso; Wynn, Ren Rimoldi/Mike Reed; Cannery, Al Alvarez/Tod Little; Sahara, Garry Angelotti/John Ranc; Treasure Island, Rob Welter/Clark Simcox and the Mirage Flight saw Joe Harasty and Jim Bixler win.