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The Sonoma Men's Golf Association traveled to the Windsor Golf Club last Sunday for its penultimate tournament of the season.  The event saw players broken up into four-man teams with one best ball being counted on the par-5s, two on the par-4s and three on the par-3s. 

Leading the way was the group of Jerry Borchelt, Roger Rannikar, Dan Stites and Nate Reynes with their score of 119, four-shots clear of the group of Roy Jordan, Ian Tervet, Jim Braun and Eric Biggs with their 123. A 125 was good enough for third place, with the team of John Bogardus, Tom Martin, Kay Groft Jr. and Bob Wagner combining to grab the final spot on the podium. In closest-to-the-pin action, Woody Van Lackum sent his shot straight at the flag on the fifth hole, stopping 10 feet, 7 inches from the hole to claim the low-handicap division, while Martin made the most of his shot to 22-1 by grabbing the high-handicap division and also making the birdie putt. 

The difficult uphill seventh hole proved to be no problem for Nick Blonder as his tee-shot stopped just 11-8 from the cup, while Stites bested everyone else in the high-handicap division with his shot to 39-9.  The back nine opened with Jordan taking closest-to honors on the 11th with a shot to 6-11, while no one in the high-handicap division could find the green.  The final par-3 of the day, the water-guarded 13th, proved to be no match for Pat Connolley as he nestled his shot to just 10-7, while Kay Groft Jr. snuck his tee-shot on the green to 54-8, good enough to claim the high-handicap prize.

The SMGA returns to action for the last time in 2008 at the Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore on Sunday, Dec. 7. 

The club is also holding it's membership drive - club dues are $125 and include membership in the NCGA.  Anyone interested in becoming a member or for more information, contact Tom Martin at tvm1930@sbcglobal.net. THE CHAMPIONS TOUR 2009 schedule has been announced and it will open the season at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai from Jan. 19 through 25, while the tour's top-30 will return to close the season at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Sonoma Golf Club from Oct. 26 through Nov. 1.

Events with 26 official Charles Schwab Cup points will see players jockeying for position, while Jay Haas goes for an unprecedented third Charles Schwab Cup.

The players will visit 15 states as well as Puerto Rico and England, and $51.4 million will be up for grabs, with the average purse per tournament at a record $1.98 million.

ONE PLAYER WHO was a major story throughout the Champions Tour season might take a smaller role in 2009. Fred Funk made it known that he is going to go back to the PGA Tour essentially full time, at least early in the 2009 season. 

"I got my exemption for winning the Players in 2005 and I don't want to leave the (PGA) tour while I still feel like I have a chance to compete," Funk said at the recent Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma. "I still have a lot of friends out there, so I want to be able to see them." 

Funk said his plan is to play a fairly full schedule on the PGA Tour through the Verizon Classic in April and then re-evaluate his decision. 

A couple of Champions Tour players are already second-guessing Funk, notably Jay Haas and John Cook.  Haas tried the same thing in his early Champions Tour career, but quickly found out that the place for him to play was the Champions Tour, while Cook, who won his last event on the PGA Tour in 2001, was a little more candid about Funk's decision, saying, "I like Fred, but I think he's crazy."

Even with a smaller schedule on the Champions Tour in 2009, Funk could still make a run at the top-30 and if the PGA Tour experiment doesn't pan out early in the season, could still go full-time during the summer months when the Champions Tour plays the majority of it's major events.  In 2008, for example, he only played 18 events on the over-50 circuit and finished second on the final Charles Schwab Cup points list to Haas, who played 21 events, by just 12-points, the closest race in the history of the Charles Schwab Cup.  

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