Gsl Golf Format Gets Mixed Reviews

Ferris’ girls won last year’s Greater Spokane League golf title with an 18-0 record.

That won’t happen this spring.

The Ferris boys won the 1998 league title with a 16-2 record.

Bet the farm that they won’t have a repeat performance.

Not because the Ferris boys and girls graduated their talented golfers. They didn’t. In fact, Ferris may be loaded with the state’s best talent, for boys and girls.

But the format for GSL golf matches has changed, and some say not for the better.

League standings, such as they’ve been known, are out the window.

The new focus is on a tournament atmosphere.

The GSL was a nine-team league for more than two decades, starting in the mid-1970s. Its weekly golf competitions were spread among three courses, with three teams at each course.

The addition of Mt. Spokane last year made the GSL a 10-team league. But a little jockeying kept in place the weekly format, with competition at three courses.

But schedule-makers knew they couldn’t maintain the status quo because next year’s addition of East Valley will make the GSL an 11-team league.

So they chose to install a change this season, to see what happens if all GSL golfers compete at one site.

Starting April 15 at Liberty Lake Golf Course, 120 golfers will gather for a shotgun start to usher in the GSL’s new era.

Former University coach Dale Bouge will tabulate team and individual scores, but team records will become passe’.

Proponents of the change say that comparisons among golfers will be more accurate because all will compete on the same course, hard or easy.

But Lewis and Clark’s Bob Lobdell, with nearly three decades of coaching experience in golf, doesn’t approve of the change.

Lobdell said slower golfers will hinder play. A little tinkering, he said, would have kept the old format in place.

“I’m reserving judgment, obviously, to see if this is for the kids or for the convenience of the people who didn’t like the old format,” Lobdell said.

“I can’t say this is the answer,” agreed Mt. Spokane girls coach Eleen Northcutt, “but it’s an option to look at.”

The other league competitions will be April 21 at The Creek at Qualchan Golf Course, April 27 at MeadowWood Golf Course, and May 3 at Indian Canyon Golf Course.