Long Beach Golf Festival

2019 Tournament Guide

Long Beach Golf Festival

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16 • Long Beach Golf Festival Tournament Guide • 2019 Edition THE COURSES T orey Edwards is a Long Beach native and a gradu- ate of California State University Long Beach who grew up playing the city's public golf courses. Now 36, he has played tournaments in the Long Beach Golf Festival going back to his first Crosby Junior two decades ago. Two of the last three years he has been the low amateur in the Long Beach Open, and he happens to hold the course record (58) at Recreation Park. He knows the three courses played in the Fes- tival like the back of his hand, and provided some insight on how to approach each track… uuu SKYLINKS "Skylinks is a little different than the other two courses because it's more of a links-style course. The biggest thing is that you have to stay out of the sand traps — they have done a really good job of using them to protect the golf course, and they're definitely a penalty if you end up in them. That can really keep you from shooting low scores there. The greens are also very undulating and sloped, so there are a lot of different areas they can use for pin placements. Controlling your irons to make sure you're where you want to be on the greens is key." uuu RECREATION PARK "My strategy is to be aggressive throughout the round. If you're going to shoot low scores — and you can definitely go low here — you have to be dialed in with your driver, wedge and putter. If they're working well, you can really take advantage and make a lot of birdies. In tournament play, you really have to stay patient — there are a lot of scoring opportunities, so it's easy to feel like you need to force things if you're not making birdies. You can't get thrown off your game if you don't get hot from the start." uuu EL DORADO PARK "It's a traditional golf course that's lined with trees, so you have to keep the ball in play and you end up hitting the greatest variety of clubs off the tee here. It can get a little tricky in the afternoon be- cause when the wind picks up, it can be hard to judge because of all the trees. It has one of the best back nines around — it's a really great finish. It provides the best test of the three courses." .......................................................... > VISIT Skylinks Golf Course. .......................................................... > VISIT Recreation Park. .......................................................... > VISIT El Dorado Park. ROAD MAP TO SUCCESS n How to approach the three courses in the Long Beach Golf Festival rotation Skylinks El Dorado Park Recreation Park

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