Hanover -- Hanover Country Club pro Alex Kirk is getting ready for his first Tommy Keane Invitational golf championship starting Friday and he can’t wait.
“This is a prestigious event for New Hampshire and New England,” said Kirk, who came to Hanover earlier this year from Manchester Country Club. “We have players coming from all over. I'm excited.
“This, to me, is the biggest weekend of the year for us. This is the Masters and the U.S. Open for us.”
The Tommy Keane, now in its 31st edition, begins play Friday with an 18-hole qualifying round, after which the two-man teams will be placed in flights. Four ball, match play begins Saturday morning with the winners advancing to afternoon matches and the survivors going on to play Sunday morning. The 18-hole championship matches in each flight (and the consolation brackets) will be conducted Sunday.
“This is a true gross event,” Kirk said. “It gets back to the roots of golf. Handicaps are part of today's game and there's a lot of net events but there aren't too many traditional gross events out there. You've got to play hard.”
The tournament honors the memory of Tommy Keane, Hanover Country Club head professional (and Dartmouth golf coach) for 45 years.
Dartmouth golfers Matt Uretsky and Chaki Kobayashi won last year’s event. Former Hanover High School golfers Scott Peters of Hanover and brother Mike Peters will be bidding for an unprecedented seventh TKI title but their first since 2003. Also looking for a seventh championship will be Brian Doyle of Cocheco, who won his first three titles with Don Folsom and the last three with Portsmouth’s Craig Steckowych, his partner again this year. The pair are former state four-ball champions.
The field also includes Jim Burnett, who won the inaugural TKI with former Dartmouth standout Jerry Daly in 1975. A four-time All-American who died in 2002, Daly will be remembered with an award presented to the winner of Friday’s medalist round.
" I think the golf is going to be phenomenal," said Kirk, the host pro. "The course is in great shape. Steve Lyon has done a great job with the conditions. ... For the amount of rain we've had the greens are in spectacular condition. I think the fairways are in great shape."
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