Golfers can try out new gear and help kids Saturday

Agostini On Golf

By Ron Agostini
ragostini@modbee.com

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Local golfers are promised a good time Saturday without a shot being struck.

Two unique events are scheduled for Modesto and golfers can attend both.

The first is the Valley Golf Expo Demo Day and Liquidation Tent Sale from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Creekside. Del Rio Country Club answers with its Tour Players First Tee Benefit, a fundraising clinic and auction featuring appearances by PGA Tour pros Matt Bettencourt of Modesto and 2007 U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost, from noon until 3 p.m.

The events have cross-marketed, in effect asking golfers, "Why not go to both?" We agree.

The Creekside practice range will be packed with tents filled with apparel and equipment from every private club in the area other than Del Rio. Equipment representatives from Titleist, Cobra, TaylorMade, Callaway, Nike, Cleveland, Adams, Tour Edge and PowerBilt also will be there.

For demo day enthusiasts, this means one thing — a chance to try out a club or two and possibly walk away with a stroke-saving deal.

"You can try it, hit it and buy it," promised Oakdale CC pro Mike Dowd, the event director who put everything together in seven weeks. "It's going to be a big golf day."

One even can purchase new equipment and then tee it up at Creekside, where discounted green and cart fees will be available. It's probably one of the final demo days of the season, one last chance to get the feel for state-of-the-art clubs.

After you sample the wares at Creekside, travel north to Del Rio and say hello to Bettencourt, Knost and the people supporting The First Tee of Modesto. The pros will put on a clinic and sign autographs and an auction will be held featuring items such as drivers signed by Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, a shirt autographed by Lee Trevino and rounds of golf with Bettencourt and part-time Modestan John Merrick at area golf clubs.

Bettencourt is ranked 106th on the PGA Tour money list ($729,737), with two tournaments left in the Fall Series after this weekend. He's trying to stay in the top 125 and keep his exemption for 2010, though he tied for 69th after a final-round 76 last weekend at Turning Stone.

Knost, responsible for one of the greatest-ever summers by an amateur in 2007, is 193rd and must return to the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. Merrick, who will not attend has donated items, is secure at 54th ($1,420,392).

There is no charge for either event.

• THE SHAG BAG — The second annual Golf World "Reader Choice Awards" has named Stevinson Ranch as the No. 1 public golf course in California for the second straight year and fifth-best in America. Golf World wrote that Stevinson is "located in the middle of nowhere" but is an "endlessly interesting" course that is "worth the drive."

• HOLES-IN-ONE — George Ismail, Modesto, 150-yard 12th at Stevinson Ranch, 7-iron. ... Bob Ackerman, Oakdale, 172-yard eighth at Del Rio CC (Bluff), 5-iron. ... Dan White, Modesto, 150-yard 16th at Oakdale CC, 7-iron. ...Harley McCoy, Oakdale, 135-yard 16th at Oakdale, 3-wood.