12 - The Morrisville and Preston Progress, Wednesday, June 21,1995
Chappell, Tickle shine at Pinehurst
By BILL KIRKLAND
Raleigb’s Paul Simson c£y)tured
the 9Stb North and South Auteur
at Pinehurst, but not before a pair
of Prestonwood golfers shared the
spotlight in earlier rounds. .
Prestonwood veteran Dean Chan-
nell reached the quarterfinals.
Chuck Tickle, a club member for a
year and a half, was one stroke off
the lead after the first day of
qualifying for the June 6-12 event
at the fabled No. 2 course at
Pinehurst Resort & Country Club.
And while Tickle intends to com
pete again in 1996, Channell said
he probably won’t return for rea
sons other ttian golf.
"My wife, Kathy, is expecting
twins in mid-August," Channel
said. "We also have a three-year-
old son, so I don’t think I’ll be in a
position to take that much time
off."
Channell qualified for the 64-
player field with a two-day total of
146, then picked up three consecu
tive 3 and 2 victories.
The first was over Harley Hen
ning, a Fbrida International Uni
versity golfer who is the son of
long-time PGA pro Harold Hen
ning. The two also met in 1994
when Channell advanced to the
final 16 in his first North-South ^-
pearance. "I beat him two years in a
row," said Channell, "but I doubt if
I could do it again. His game is
really improving.”
After eliminating Henning, the
35-year-old Channell then ousted
two more collegiate golfers: Clem-
son’s Charles Warren and Florida’s
Gary Shankland. He then fell in the
quarterfinals, 1-up, to SMU’s Jason
Enloe.
"We were even after nine, but
then I bogeyed the next two holes
to go two down," recalled Chan
nell. "I couldn’t get any closer than
one after that."
Channell bad chances to pull
even on both 16 and 18, but missed
a pair of 15-foot putts. "I wouldn’t
have bad a chance to tie at 18,
though, if I hadn’t come out of the
bunker and one-putted on the 17th
to stay within one," he said.
Channell’s success at FHnehurst
came as no surprise to his Preston
wood competitors. The Preston
Pines resident has won three club
championships in the last six years
and captured five straight match
play titles before losing this year.
Channell, who is a sales represen
tative for Potpourri Designs of
Greensboro, didn’t take up golf un
til after graduation from Virginia
Tedi, where he was a member of
the tennis team. He credits Vance
Heafner, the director of golf at
Prestonwood, as a major factor in
bringing his game to a
championship level. "Vance is so
good I can just watch him and learn
things," Channell said.
Despite bis dominance at Preston
wood, Channell was in awe of
Chuck Tickle’s performance in the
qjening round of qualifying. Tick
le’s par round of 71 was good
enough for second place after day
one.
"What Chuck did was
phenomenal," Channell said. "It
was raining so hard fhar all you
could do was just run out from un
der the umbrella and hit. I kqjt
thinking that they were going to
call the thing, but the sandhills just
kept absorbing all that water."
"It was the most miserable
weather I’ve ever played in," smd
Tickle. "All I tried do was hit the
ball and bold onto the club. I just
kept hitting the fairways and
greens."
The next day, Tickle finished
wifli a 74, which put him in a five-
way tie for sixth, one stroke ahead
of Channell. He was scheduled to
play Jody Vasquez the next day,
but had to witiidraw.
"It was over a business matter,"
he said. "Some things you have no
ccaitrol over and I hated to with
draw. But business had to come
first"
The 33-year-oId Tickle, who will
move from Apex to Preston Arbor
after his September wedding, in
herited his love of golf from his
father, Charies "Bugs" Tickle of
Puladd, Va. The senior Tickle has
several titles to his credit in
Pulaski, and Cbudc Tickle first at
tracted attention as an amateur
when he earned Division 2 All-
America hona^ at Radford Univer
sity. The Tickles have a common
business thread as well: both are
State Farm Insurance agents.
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