Woeckener/Hollerbach best tough field at 2021 Southern 4-Ball

April 19, 2021

By MacDuff
At the trailing end of the Appalachian Mountains, flanked by long parallel mountain ridges, Birmingham is one of Alabama’s most populous, and one of America’s most historic, cities. An industrial and educational center, its people have been firsthand witness to many of the Civil Right’s movement’s most tragic as well as uplifting events. It is home to the Southeastern Conference and in 2021 will host the World Games.

Near the heart of this great Southern town is the Highland Park Golf Course, established as the Country Club of Birmingham in 1903. Nine holes were built and in 1906 Canadian Nick Thompson added nine more. It is Alabama’s oldest golf course and rolls over meadows around, over and between hills and is at times challenging and/or downright fun. In 1916 Bobby Jones, 14, won an invitational amateur championship at the course.

Since 2011, it has been the chosen venue for the Southern 4-Ball Hickory Championship, hosted by Tad Moore. This year’s field (April 15-17) comprised 34 two-person teams all eager to play the course, catch up with friends and enjoy a tournament that has long been a highlight of the year’s annual hickory golf events. It is one of four of the Society of Hickory Golfers’ current Order of Merit events.

Things started out with a casual practice round on Thursday and a little reception that evening. The tournament proper started on a cool Friday morning with everybody eager to get underway. There was no holding back.

When a relatively high handicapper begins his tournament round with a birdie and gets another on the 10th hole, he may be forgiven for thinking the stars have aligned for him. His partner, too, may sense wonderful things. The golf gods, momentarily distracted, quickly returned to their station and the natural progression of things was restored. Their scores were mediocre.

Other teams fared better. But scoring alone does not secure the reputation of a good tournament; the host, the course, the weather, and the field all come into play. The Southern 4-Ball excels at all of these.

Host Tad Moore is known to most in the hickory golf world for his talents as a master clubmaker and designer, and for his role in creating the Society of Hickory Golfers (2000). He was its founding president and served in the role for eight years, no others being found worthy it may be assumed. Tad has hosted the 4-Ball since 2003 (with one year lost in 2020 to the coronavirus) and it has built a loyal following, not just among southern tier hickory golfers, but for visitors from throughout the country – California, Washington, Michigan and elsewhere.

In the 2021 field were three U.S. Hickory Champions (who have eight of those 14 titles between them) and six former and current presidents of the Society. Regional hickory directors from Florida, Georgia and Michigan were there as well as a variety of other distinguished guests, including golf professionals, captains of industry and a lone media scoundrel who somehow found his way onto the course.

The Highland Park Golf Course in 2019 benefitted from a million-dollar renovation. Bunkers (Billy Bunkers) and all green surfaces (bent grass) were modernized. Though considered short by some estimates, its 5,800 yards are challenging enough, thank you, with marked elevations that, on the 15th tee box, presents a view of the Birmingham skyline. A stone and cement sided culvert runs through and along several fairways, most notably the seventh where shot placement can make or break the golfer’s scorecard. One can see the forlorn evidence of any number of errant shots along the culvert’s mossy bed. (The high handicapper knocked his approach into this villainous ditch where the ball knocked around a bit before ricocheting out to the back of the green. He promptly putted it off the green back into the culvert.)

As for the weather, the prognosticators forecast chilly days accompanied by drizzle and worse. The cool mornings that each day gave way to sunny or partly sunny warmth surely made them doubt their career choices while the golfers rejoiced in their good fortune and made the best of it.

Of the 34 teams, 10 were in the Open Division, and 24 in the newly created Stableford division. The tough Open Division, dominated by the aforementioned USHO champions, was conquered by the powerful drives and precision approach shots of Rick Woeckener and Joe Hollerbach. Their two-day gross total of 130 was four shots clear of second place finishers, the father and son team of Bill and Cole Houghton, who are both fairly new to the hickory game.

Tad Moore, not content to merely host the tournament, shot a 78 on his own card on the second day (he is 80) and with his partner, Barb Kopec, took the Stableford Division honors with a two-day point total of 178, leaving far in the dust their nearest competitors who managed no more than 161, the Florida husband/wife team of Natalie Wells and Rich Grula.

“Well,” Tad said, “when you are 80 and shoot a 78 you are going to get some points.” Who in the wide world of hickory golf can gainsay that sage wisdom?

The high handicapper who had two birdies on his round and with his partner each birdied their first hole on the second round? That team managed a distant sixth place. It’s one thing to start hot, it’s quite another to keep the flame alive through 18 holes.

Our hosts at the Highland Park Golf Course were ever accommodating. From general manager Evan Godfrey to head golf professional David Poovey and superintendent Eric Slekovich who had the course in beautiful condition, the Southern 4-Ball field were never in better hands.

A photo of the scoreboard tells the story of the scoring, but the story of the 2021 Southern 4-Ball will long be carried in the memories of those who attended, golfed with good friends and made new ones, and who were able to relish a little Southern hospitality and the company of the gentleman host who welcomed us all.

Until next year.