Southern Pines, NC  (March 31, 2011)  -  Alan Dirk of Sanford waited awhile to get his 2011 Senior Amateur Golf Tour schedule going.  The wait turned out to be worth it, as the 2-time National Tour Champion returned to Tour play today at Southern Pines CC and emerged as the winner of the Championship Flight competition in his 2011 debut.  Tour regular Mike Smith of Lewisville was 1 back of Dirk - 74 to 75.  

Pinehurst's Arch Reed, a Tour "rookie" got his first career victory "on-Tour" with the lowest score of the day in any flight- a 73.  "While the A Flight played from one tee box closer than the Champ Flight guys, Arch still posted a heckuva score", said Tour Director Bruce Hallenbeck.  Finishing 3 back of Reed was Southern Pines' Wiley Barrett.  

The B Flight had to go one extra hole to determine a winner, as Zebulon's Jim Alford nipped Durham's Twig Avent on the 1st hole of a sudden-death playoff after both had turned in regulation 77s.  Unfortunately for Avent, he found the greenside bunker on his approach, and was unable to extricate himself from the sand trap to challenge Alford.

The C Flight saw John Henely of Pinehurst continue his strong play of late with an 81 while cruising to a 7-stroke victory over Raleigh's John Hall and Jimmy Dollar of Franklinton.  They were the only 3 flight members to break 90.   Although the advance weather forecast called for steady rain, only a few drops fell on the field late in the round.  "This was a disappointingly small turn out for a course that was in perfect shape.  The greens were great, the fairways green and the tee-boxes lush', noted Hallenbeck.  "Best shape I've seen the course in over the 20-plus years I've played here. 

Although it was a small field the winning scores were impressive and I'll be interested to see if some of these guys might be moving up a flight after today's efforts".  

THE SENIOR AMATEUR GOLF TOUR
SOUTHERN PINES COUNTRY CLUB EVENT
TOP FIVE SCORES BY FLIGHT  

CHAMPIONSHIP  (6,268 yards)
Alan Dirk, Sanford  74 Mike Smith, Lewisville  75 Chuck Taubersmith, Pinehurst  79 Rick Luzar, Pinehurst  80 Dave Coolidge, Winston-Salem  86  

A  FLIGHT  (6,005 yards)
Arch Reed, Pinehurst  73 Wiley Barrett, Southern Pines  76 John East, Rockingham  77 Bob Rudolph, Raleigh  77 Fred Berman, Sanford  79 Gene Jones, Thomasville  79 Sonny Rose, Rockingham  79  

B  FLIGHT  (6,005 yards)
Jim Alford, Zebulon  77 Twig Avent, Durham  77 Dexter Barbee, Burlington  78 Ron Caulder, N Myrtle Beach, SC  79 John Doster, Winston-Salem  81  

C  FLIGHT  (6,005 yards) John Henely, Pinehurst  81 John Hall, Raleigh  88 Jimmy Dollar, Franklinton  88 Richard Payne, Kernersville  90 Don Michaux, Greensboro  91 James Eatmon, Sims  91