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"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
May 1, 2001
The Chattanooga amateur golf circuit begins in earnest on
Friday when Signal Mountain Golf and Country Club plays host to
its annual tournament.
The Signal Mountain Invitational has long been a popular
tournament among the area's top amateurs—one need only look at
the list of past champions to figure that out. Most of
Chattanooga's top players of the last 50 years have won the
tournament, most notably Lew Oehmig, Ira Templeton and the man for
whom the tournament should be named, Ed Brantly. In his prime,
Brantly was tough to beat on his home track, mainly because of his
uncanny prowess on the course's tricky greens.
The greens have been softened by the club's late-'90s
renovation, making the course even more fun to play and the
tournament all the more popular. A full field is expected, and the
tournament, as always, should be competitive.
"Three (handicap) and under is the championship flight,''
said tournament director Tim Burns. "That's pretty strong in
my book."
Indeed, 11 players from ChattanoogaTPC.com's ranking of the
area's top 20 amateurs are entered: No. 3 Mike Miller, No. 6 Randy
Yoder, No. 7 Chris Treadway, No. 8 Jimmy White, No. 9 Neil
Spitalny, No. 11 Lex Tarumianz, No. 12 Tom Schreiner, No. 13
Patrick Williams, No. 15 Josh Nelms, No. 16 Larry McGill and No.
19 Jay Potter.
White and Yoder are coming off some recent success, having
qualified for the Tennessee Open at Council Fire on Monday. White
was the low qualifier with a 71.
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One amateur on ChattanoogaTPC.com's list is conspicuous by his
absence in the Signal Mountain field, but suffice to say he has a
good reason for sitting this one out. No. 1 Richard Keene won't be
playing after experiencing what his doctors called a "cardiac
episode" last week.
"It was scary," the 43-year-old Keene said.
"Instead of saying it might have killed me, they called it
(potentially) life terminating. I grew up in Brainerd with just
eight crayons in my box. I didn't know what they were talking
about with all those fancy words."
Keene has been in remarkably good humor after the ordeal. And
he knew full well what his doctors were talking about after
experiencing pains in his chest and both arms while at work last
week. Keene wanted to go home and take a nap, but his sister
forced him to go to the emergency room, which could well have
saved his life.
Though Keene is young, keeps in good shape, doesn't smoke and
has no family history of heart disease, doctors found 100 percent
blockage in his left anterior descending coronary artery.
The normal procedure to alleviate blockage is to use a balloon
to widen the artery, but Keene's proved stubborn and his doctor
had to insert a stent.
A week later, Keene feels fine, but he's already made some
life-altering decisions.
"I've already made a big change in my diet," Keene
said. "It used to be cheeseburgers, fries, all kinds of fried
foods. I need to stay away from the drive-through window. I've
eaten enough salad in the last week to kill most people. I feel
like a rabbit."
Keene, who admits he's let little things agitate him in the
past, has also vowed to stay cool.
"When you're on your back in the hospital, you do some
re-evaluating," Keene said. "You think, 'Damn, this is
for real.' I'm sure the next time I snap hook a drive in the
weeds, I won't be quite as upset. There are a lot of worse things
than can happen to you."
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