June 8, 2005

POTTSVILLE, PA — The Carl Spackler Open plays its 2005 version of the tournament practice round today in Barnesville, PA. Rick Dosky of Ohio and Trent Cooper of Virginia Beach plan to lead the 44 players through the course. The optional round will be used to work out those final swing flaws and get to know the tight, but short Mountain Valley design.

"I really would like to not only play well today, but make some very important notes along the way", says Casey Nelson. "I really think the woods will stay in the bag more than usual and I will rely on my 5 and 7 iron."

Surinder Punia, Jay Dilks, Greg Long, and Grady Walters on the other hand have played the course before and plan to have fun and get to the know the course in a much bigger way. "I think my bad shots are out of my system", said Walters. "Hopefully things will be getting better with less sleep and more beer."

The Carl Spackler Open will be begin Round 1 tommorrow afternoon at 12:30PM. There are 63 players that signed a letter of intent in 2004 are arriving to the tournament this morning for practice or tonight.  The other 5 alternates are also expected to arrive throughout the day.  Mike Trojanowski is the tournament honoree and will deliver his speech to the field first thing in the morning.  Tom McCauley's Wednesday clinic has been cancelled because he is a hacker now.  Jason Ridgeway has stepped up to replace him.

Steve Hoden, winner of the 2004 Golden Jacket has already arrived and plans to get a full day of Mountain Valley.  Greg Long, winner of the 2001 Jacket and rookie Surinder Punia arrived yesterday morning for a long day at Mountain Valley.  

Scorecards are scheduled to be published sometime before 8:00PM tonight.