Kennewick golfer falls short of making final round in U.S. Senior Open
For the record, Jim Furyk won the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday.
Furyk finished at 7-under par for the four rounds of golf held at Omaha Country Club in Nebraska.
Kennewick’s Lionel Kunka, who qualified for the tournament 10 days ago after USGA officials moved him from being an alternate and into the main event, missed the cut after the second round.
After shooting an opening-round, 9-over-par 79 on Thursday, he ended up with an 81 on Friday. That gave him a plus-20, two-round total of 160, placing him tied for 134th out of 154 players in the field.
Kunka himself admits that’s well below his own standards.
“It’s a little embarrassing to play that way,” he said. “(My family and I) went out to the course (for Sunday’s final round). I wish I had my A game this week.”
Kunka needs to be reminded that very few golfers got to do what he did this past week: play in a national tournament. And he earned that rare opportunity.
“But my friends have all told me, ‘We know how good you are, Lionel,’” Kunka said.
The golf course just did a lot of damage to the field.
Only five golfers shot under par over the four rounds. The USGA, which runs the tournament, has a tendency to make its courses incredibly hard on the field.
“It kinda caught me by surprise home long the course was,” Kunka said. “It was long, the rough was deep.”
For Sunday’s round, the course was much shorter. That might have been the result of a number of complaints from players.
Kunka, 55, has played on the Canadian Tour and competed in the Ben Hogan/Nike tour events here in the Tri-Cities.
And even though he didn’t make it into the weekend portion of the tournament, his head is held high.
“This has been such an amazing experience for sure,” he said.
Amazing enough that he believes he’s not done with the PGA Champions Tour.
“It really started a fire in me,” Kunka said. “The kids are grown up. My wife, Jamie, is great. She’s worked 33 years at Costco. After seeing me out there, she said ‘Lionel, you can do this.’ ”
So this isn’t a one-time thing.
In fact, Kunka is eyeing the Boeing Classic, set for The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge outside of Seattle on Aug. 20-22.
“I think I’m looking for sponsors,” he said. “I want to be a player of the people. We’ve got some ideas.”
The idea is that anyone could Venmo Kunka’s team and that person can be a part-owner of Kunka the golfer. Thus, a Player of the People.
Snoqualmie would not be near as tough at Omaha Country Club was.
And Kunka, the general manager of Golf Universe in Kennewick, has plenty of confidence in is game.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “Sitting next to (other golfers) and listening to them, you quickly realize they’re no better than you. They put their shoes or socks one foot at a time.
“There is no secret sauce,” he continued. “It’s about how much you really want it.”
Kunka said he couldn’t do any of this without Dave Retter, who is a broker and owner of Retter and Company Sotheby’s International Realty in the Tri-Cities.
It was Retter who convinced Kunka to make the attempt to qualify for the tournament, and also sponsored him.
“Dave was a big part of this,” Kunka said.
Retter was going to be his caddy. But the heat, humidity and hilly course Monday took its toll on Retter. A local caddy stepped in, and Retter ended up managing the team.
“I woke up one morning this past week, and I counted 102 texts,” Kunka said. “Dave was really cool about it. He told me to answer a few of them, and then we had work to do.”
In Friday’s second round, Kunka had a great run on the back nine.
He had pars on holes 13, 14, 15 and 17; and he birdied No. 16.
Notes
▪ Tri-City Dust Devils left-handed pitcher Hector Yan played in the MLB Futures Game on Sunday in Denver as part of the week’s MLB All-Star Game activities.
Yan pitched two-thirds of an inning for the American League team, getting two outs while walking a batter and facing three hitters.
The National League team beat the AL squad 8-3.
Yan is 0-5 with a 6.02 earned run average for the Dust Devils, who are in last place of the six-team High-A West league right now with a record of 22-37.
Yan, though, has 51 strikeouts in 46.1 innings pitched for Tri-City, and opposing batters are just hitting .231 against him.
▪ Mikayla Ferenz, a Walla Walla High School grad as well as a graduate from the University of Idaho, completed her European women’s professional basketball season in May by leading her Musel Pikes team to a 14-3 regular-season record in the Luxembourg Total League.
The team lost in the playoffs, but Ferenz led the team in scoring with 17.2 points per game.
She also averaged 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists a game.
▪ Hermiston senior Jayden Ray has signed a letter of intent to play women’s basketball at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.
Ray was named to the second-team Mid-Columbia Conference girls basketball team this past season.
In 2020, she was named the MCC’s Defensive Player of the Year as a junior..
▪ Connell senior Madison Smith completed an outstanding girls high school basketball career this spring.
But she’s not done. She’ll be attending the Air Force Academy this fall, and she’ll be playing for the women’s basketball team as well.
▪ Ottawa University in Arizona has grabbed two Kennewick Lions for its football program.
Wide receiver Max Mayer and linebacker Josiah Barajas have signed letters of intent to play this fall for the NAIA school.
▪ Payton Graham, the standout pitcher for Kamiakin’s baseball team, has been invited to play for the Kansas City Royals in the Area Code Games, which will be held Aug. 7-11 in San Diego.
The event features more than 200 of the top underclassmen high school baseball players in the nation.
The Royals are one of eight Major League teams to be involved, and all of the players on their roster hail from the Pacific Northwest.
▪ Tri-City Americans General Manager Bob Tory announced Monday that the contract of Head Coach Kelly Buchberger will not be renewed for the upcoming 2021-22 hockey season.
“We would like to thank Kelly for the three years that he spent with our hockey club and wish him nothing but the best in his future hockey endeavors,” Tory said.
Buchberger joined the Americans before the 2018-19 season, which was his first year coaching in the Western Hockey League.