Golf: City Championship is coming soon

Time is running out to register for the 2011 Odessa Men’s City Golf Championships at Ratliff Ranch Golf Links, with plenty of good tee times available.

Though the field has yet to fill out, Chris McQuatters, the PGA professional at Ratliff Ranch Golf Links, isn’t worried.

Scheduled for July 29-31, the annual event has a history of last-minute applications.

“We have 37 players entered right now and I expect a lot of players to enter this week,” McQuatters said of the July 24 deadline to submit entry forms.

“I’ve been sending out e-mails to the players and I’ll send out some more this week, but I really expect a lot of people to enter this weekend.”

Among those already entered are defending champion Johnny Kidd and Ciro Baeza, who played in the final group last year.

Kidd fired a three-round score of 9-under-par 207 that included an even-par 72 in the final round.

In order to compete in the event, players must have a verifiable handicap as McQuatters will flight the golfers prior to play in the opening round, giving everyone a chance to compete for prizes against golfers of the same caliber.

Additionally, the course has changed its overnight watering pattern in the past week, working on the fairways and around the greens on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The tees and rough get watered on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with the greens getting watered every day.

Before the recent Parent-Child Tournament, McQuatters said the course was using 1 million gallons of water a night and it was hard to get all the areas covered. The new systems allows for more concentrated efforts in select locations.

“Instead of 20 minutes on the fairways because we need the water someone else, we can water the fairways between 40 and 60 minutes, allowing the water to get deeper into the root zone,” he said. “Because of the conditions, we still are going to have to some spots that I am going to have to mark off, but not too many.” 

>> THE BASICS

What: 2011 Odessa Men’s City Golf Championship.

Where: Ratliff Ranch Golf Links (par 72).

When: July 29-31.

Defending champion: Johnny Kidd (9-under par)

On the net: ratliffranchgolfodessa.com.