The Professional Putters Association

04/13/2026

Southwest Putting Tour
Hurst Texas, Harbor Course
Sat, April 11th, 11am and 215pm.

We had originally scheduled two tournaments in San Antonio at the Cool Crest course, but a change of ownership there resulted in our moving the events to Hurst on the Harbour course. As the tournaments approached, the weather forecasts became ominous. Saturday saw some rain predicted, but Sunday looked scary, with heavy thunderstorms, hail, and possibly tornados. This resulted in a late decision to play both tournaments on Saturday.

Only nine players showed up due to an unfortunate combination of events—a player with a torn rotator cuff, a player recovering from cataract surgery, a player on a fifth anniversary trip to Japan with his wife, a player working, two players with family commitments, etc. On the other hand, we had a surprise appearance by Greg Everly, who had retired from putting due to back issues, but who, after treatments, decided to try playing again.

There is a saying that it’s not the putter (equipment), it’s the putter (player). However, the morning tournament seemed to put the lie to this. Jeffrey Smith opened with a 26 for the first-round lead by one over Geoff (Groff) Mosk, both playing with new putters this year. Jeffrey widened it to four strokes with a 27 in the second round, but Geoff’s 27 in the last round was enough to best Jeffrey by one, with Joe Lea finishing third.

Then, when we took a break before the second tournament, the rain came. It poured for about 20 minutes, and then, like one of those pop-up Florida showers, it was gone. We played the second tournament on wet carpets. Jeffrey had disappeared to watch the Stars play hockey, and Geoff’s new putter stopped working. Joe Lea and Lee Messinger opened with 28s, then Terry Simpson grabbed the second-round lead with his own 28. But Joe’s last round 25 gave him a three-stroke victory over Lee and Terry.

In the APA, Greg Everly, with almost no practice, made short work of Chris Conradi and swept.

03/31/2026

Lake Charles Louisiana
Friday, March 27th, 7pm tee off
Course 2

Has the SWPT ever had an after-dark tournament before? Not that I can recall. We held this one
on Friday evening to accommodate the many players from other parts of the country who had
come to Lake Charles to play in the Western Open, a national PPA event. We played Course #2.
We had nineteen pros in one of our strongest-ever fields, including hall-of-famers Greg Newport,
Rainey Statum, and Brice Bergesen; prior winners of the Al Simpson Memorial Tournament of
Champions on this course including Joe Lea and Terry Simpson; and last year’s SWPT player-
of-the year Lee Messinger.

In the opening round, Geoffrey Mosk was low with a 24, followed by
three players one stroke back: Brian Johnson, Frank Bisesi, and Lee Messinger. But 24 wasn’t
low enough, as the second round saw Greg Newport and Rainey Statum shoot 23s, and after two
rounds, Greg and Joe Lea led at 50, Geoffrey and Danny Tatum were one back, and four others
were within three strokes of the lead. Good play continued in the last round, with eight players
finishing under 80, but it was Joe and Geoffrey who tied at 76 and went into a playoff.

And what a playoff. Both made the first seven holes before missing hole 8. But they started right
back up, and Joe would miss only once more (hole 15) to shoot a 20 for a two-stroke win over
Geoffrey, whose 22 would otherwise have been the best score of the evening.

In the APA, Charles “Sharkey” Cox opened with a 27 for a one-stroke lead over Tommy
Phillips, with Mike Huckaby and Charles Tarbell another stroke behind. Sharkey then shot a 26
to widen his lead to four over Charles and Mike, with Chris Conradi closing to within two
strokes of the lead. But Sharkey would put up a 28 in the last round to complete his wire-to-wire
win. His total of 81 gave him a four-stroke win over Chris, with Charles and Mike another stroke

03/29/2026

Day 2 of the western open. Coverage to start in round 5 so we can make sure there is enough battery to get the finish.

2026 Professional Putters Association Western Open @ Lake Charles LA Putt-Putt Day 2 - Rounds 7-8

03/28/2026

Live stream of the Western Open /youtube.com/live/6iosSY9JlSs?si=NjcMEphFLocGh-hi

2026 PPA Western Open @ Lake Charles Putt-Putt Day 1

03/26/2026

Entry fees for the Western Open will be taken from 1pm to 3pm at the Lake Charles Putt Putt on Friday.

03/24/2026

Southwest Putting Tour
Western Open
March 28 and 29th

For players who will be playing in the Western Open at Lake Charles, LA on Saturday & Sunday, March 28 & 29:

A $10 daily greens fee will be charged for practice on days prior to the tournament days. However, the SWPT will be holding a tournament on Friday evening, March 27, at 7:00 PM, and the greens fee on Friday will be waived for anyone who signs up to play in that event. Entry fees for this 3-round tournament are $60 for pros, $25 for APA players, and the greens fee is included in the tournament entry fee.

03/05/2026

62nd Al Simpson Tournament of Champions
Lake Charles Louisiana
Feb. 28 – Mar. 1, 2026

The Al Simpson Memorial Tournament of Champions is a unique event. We play 16 rounds over
two days, or four four-round mini-tournaments. We play four rounds on Course #1 on Saturday
morning, then move to Course #2 in the afternoon. On Sunday, we reverse the order. We had a
total of 27 players, 19 pros and 8 amateurs. The weather on the weekend was clear, with
temperatures in the upper 70s – low 80s in the afternoon, but we did have wind in the afternoons.
Last year’s event ended in a tie, and even the playoff went to sudden death. Not this year.

Joe Lea shot the low round of the day—22—in the first round, and by the end of the morning, he sat
at 96 with an eight-stroke lead over Wade Sahmel, nine over David Chisum, and eleven over
both Danny Tatum and Rainey Statum. Then in the afternoon, he shot the low 4-round set again,
coming in with an eight-round total of 199 for the day. His lead was now 11 over David and 15
over Danny.

Joe cooled off a bit on the second day, shooting 216, but it didn’t matter. Despite a great effort
by Brice Bergesen, shooting 204 and wining both the third and fourth set, Joe cruised to his 5th
win in this event, shooting 415 for the 16 rounds, with Brice finishing second, 13 strokes back.
Lee Messinger and David Chisum tied for third.

In the APA, it seemed at first like old times, with former winners Chris Conradi and Sharkey
Cox tying at 112 after the first set of four rounds, seven ahead of Charles Tarbell. But after that
set, they couldn’t do anything, and Tommy Phillips and Jeff Huffman rose up. At the end of the
first day, Jeff led at 234, four ahead of Tommy. On Day 2, they continued to pull away, and with
two rounds to play, Jeff led Tommy by one stroke. But then Jeff’s play crumbled, as he shot
back-to-back 35s, and Tommy cruised to a 14-stroke win.

Our turnout was helped by the appearance of several east-coast players who showed up, partly to
get practice for the Western Open, which will be played in four weeks on course #2. I will fuel
the East-West rivalry by pointing out that none of these, except for Danny, who was a long-time Louisiana resident, cashed. Bulletin board material.

03/03/2026

Southwest Putting Tour
The Al Simpson Tournament of Champions
Lake Charles Louisiana
Feb 28th and March 1st

The complete story of the 2026 “Al” and photos will be coming in the next few days, but here are the scores of the 288 hole tournament. Sets one and four are on course one, sets two and three are on course two.

02/04/2026

The final schedule for the 2026 Southwest Putting Tour has been finalized:

Here is the “final” schedule for the 2026 SWPT tournaments. Please note that:

The Arlington tournaments have been moved one week later, to July 18 & 19
No changes were made to the Cool Crest tournaments
The entry fees were fixed on the entry for the Mike Baldoza Texas Open at Dallas
The date for the Texas Minigolf Championship at Longview Greens is firm, but other details aren’t finalized. (This is not an official SWPT tournament; the owner is responsible for the details.)

01/17/2026

Here is the tentative SWPT schedule for 2026. The items shown in green have not been confirmed. Please don’t make travel arrangements yet for either Cool Crest or Arlington.
Note that a new course has been added to the schedule this year: Don-L’s Putt Shack. If you haven’t heard about this yet, Don-L’s is a semi-private indoor course in a barn-like structure at Don Lovelady’s home in Whitehouse, Texas. (Whitehouse is southeast of Tyler, and Don was a longtime local player at the Tyler course.) Several of us have played there and are enthusiastic about adding this course to our schedule. We are also very pleased that this year’s tour finals will be on the Harbour course at Hurst.

01/13/2026

Happy New Year everyone!! As many of you know, 2026 membership applications are being accepted. As always, we're receiving applications without payments, and payments without applications. Please don't do one without the other. If you have made a payment, please go back and do the online application. If you have done the application, please go back and make payment. This only clutters up paperwork and is not following proper procedure. Effective today, all payments without accompanying applications will be refunded, and all applications without accompanying payments will be denied. There will be an additional processing fee due for the additional paperwork involved if you duplicate work. Remember that you can always print out a paper application and mail it with a check per the instructions. Thanks for understanding!!