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Past champs are absent from SOGC this year Friday Aug 25, 2017 at 7:31 PM Aug 25, 2017 at 7:31 PM Tim Trower Mail Tribune @MTsports The golf gala that is the Southern Oregon Golf Championships annually brings top talent to the fore. However, the red carpet will be missing some notable personalities in the top division when the 88th edition unfolds next week at Rogue Valley Country Club. Mike Barry? Taking a year off. Kevin Murphy? Turned pro. Justin Wiles? Ditto on the pro thing. Circumstances have melded to create an odd dearth of former winners in the men’s regular division. Only one, 2015 titlist Chris Polski, from Eugene, is back in the fold. “We’re missing a couple of those names this year,” said RVCC head professional Tracy Snyder. “It’s time for some new ones to fill their shoes. It’s still a good field.” The Southern Oregon caps the local tournament season, which begins with club championships at the various courses, then slides into this weekend’s Rogue Valley Stroke Play Championships at Centennial Golf Club. The city tournament, as the stroke-play event is known, begins Saturday morning and concludes Sunday. Practice rounds for the SOGC are Monday, followed by stroke-play qualifying for local men on Tuesday and for women and out-of-town men on Wednesday. Competition turns to match play Thursday. The tourney ends on Labor Day, when titles in all divisions and flights will be decided. There will be 400 players, the same as last year, in the largest single-site match-play tournament in the country. Barry, a former North Medford state champion who now lives in Eugene, and Rogue River’s Murphy — also a former prep state titlist — have been particularly compelling draws in recent years, whether matching up in an early round or in the finals. They claimed seven of the eight crowns from 2007 to ‘14, have numerous runners-up showings and authored perhaps the greatest finals match in history in 2014. That year, Barry made a 66-foot eagle putt on the first playoff hole to defeat Murphy in a battle that featured one spectacular shot after another down the stretch. It was Barry’s fourth championship, making him one of only three players in the men’s regular with that many. The others were Eddie Simmons (six) and Dick Hanen (four); the last of their titles was Simmons’ in 1949. Murphy made history in 2013 when he became the only men’s regular player to win three straight. He also has won the past three men’s city titles, leaving that contest up for grabs this weekend. The timing of a busy work schedule and duties with young children will keep Barry away, he said. “It’s just kind of bad timing this year,” he said. Murphy graduated from Oregon State in the spring and turned pro in June. On the Dakota’s Tour, he’s played six events and made the cut three times, with a best finish of 15th. After Polski defeated Grants Pass’ Ryan Schaefer for the 2015 title, Wiles knocked off Barry in the finals in 2016, then went pro. Wiles, from Klamath Falls, placed second in the Northwest Open this week following a sudden-death playoff loss. “We kind of anticipated a little bit of this happening,” Snyder said of the attrition. “Not only in that division, with those guys moving on, but in older divisions, where some people aren’t playing anymore.” The tournament committee advertised in the Portland and Eugene TV and radio markets and hit social media hard to attract new players. Based on new out-of-town entrants, Snyder surmises the push had some impact. Whether someone shows up to challenge in the men’s regular remains to be seen. For the moment, the favorites appear to be Polski, a former professional who owns the non-competitive course record of 59 at Shadow Hills Country Club in Junction City; Jimmy White, another former pro who set the SOGC qualifying record of 60 three years ago; and Schaefer, who typically works his way into the hunt. Champions and runners-up will return in all the other divisions, save for the women’s, where former Crater High and current Oregon player Daniele Giles is missing. Her finals opponent, Aubrie Street, is entered, as are past winners Trina Jones, Kelly Loeb and Terry Levis. Marla Parmele, a former professional who recently regained her amateur status, is playing for the first time. In men’s junior-senior, Steve Taormino is back to defend. Last year, he downed 2015 winner Bret Breeze — who also is back — for his second title in three years. The men’s senior division features Kevin Klabunde, who has eight titles overall and defeated Eric Austad in the 2016 finals. Austad returns, as do the likes of Brad Bills, Glen Clark, Dan Dixon, Mark Wilson and Ken Stringer. Greg Miller won the men’s super-senior over Herman Holm. Both return to a field that also includes Doug Olson, George Mack and Bob Maentz. Sandy Day and Alice Hunt, one-two in the women’s senior, are back, as is former winner LaVone Kirkwood. Snyder said a men’s division for 75 and older, called the Legends, will be added next year. A change is in the offing this year, too. Players will be flighted in their divisions based on qualifying scores, rather than by handicap. Before, if you were a 10 handicap, you’d be flighted with other 10s regardless of your qualifying score. The move was made, in part, so players couldn’t tank in their qualifying round and end up playing at a lower level in match play. However, the downside, said Snyder, was that people were playing the same opponents year after year; players intent on manipulating their handicaps did so prior to the tournament; and handicap flighting didn’t affect a number of players, specifically in the women’s divisions, the championship flights and the lowest flights. “We didn’t see it as a benefit to the event to do it by handicap,” said Snyder. “Now the qualifying round means something.” Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 541-776-4479 or [email protected]