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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Brown named golf ‘Merchandiser of the Year’
Caps winning week
after golf pro wins
Gearhart mayor
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
In his own words, “it will be a
crazy week” for Matt Brown, golf
professional at the Highlands Golf
Club in Gearhart.
Because Brown, who was elected
mayor of Gearhart on Tuesday, is
spending his week in New York City,
where he received the 2016 PGA
National Merchandiser of the Year
award for public golf courses.
“I’m totally looking forward to it,
and I think it’s going to be a ton of
fun,” Brown said over the weekend,
just before leaving for the East Coast.
He is spending the entire week in
New York, where he was for Elec-
tion Day, and the awards ceremony
Wednesday night.
The PGA of America announced
the recipients of their 2016 National
Awards in August. And for the third
year in a row, Brown’s name was on
the list of winners.
His latest national award comes on
the heels of Brown receiving the 2014
and 2015 Pacific Northwest PGA Sec-
tion Merchandiser of the Year Award
for public facilities.
The Highlands Golf Club is a
nine-hole public, executive-style golf
course in Gearhart, where Brown has
served as the golf pro since 2007.
“We took over in 2007, and we
take care of not only the pro shop, we
take care of the greens crew and the
course,” he said. “It’s been a lot of
fun. We have a great group of people
who work there.”
Meanwhile, his time in New York
will be spent with his girlfriend, Julie
Visser, and his sister Molly Brown,
who works for CBS Sports and lives
in New York City.
Wednesday’s awards ceremony
took place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel
in Midtown Manhattan.
The Wednesday night awards are
in conjunction with the PGA’s 100th
annual meeting, which takes place
at the Grand Hyatt, and features golf
legend Jack Nicklaus.
“We’re going to get to meet a
lot of the other PGA professionals,”
Brown said before the event. “It’s a
great opportunity for people in the
industry to get together, talk about the
state of the game and things we can
do to improve the game.”
The Highlands course has a year-
round, 1,500-square-foot golf shop.
With a philosophy of keeping things
simple, Brown and his staff man-
age the pro shop and an active online
store, which has led to an overall 40
percent increase in sales since 2008.
Brown has served previously at the
Astoria Golf & Country Club, Ban-
don Dunes Golf Resort and Pumpkin
Ridge Golf Club.
“I’d like to thank all of our cus-
tomers at the Highlands who come
and play every day, and shop at the
shop,” he said.
“Special thanks to our staff, espe-
cially Todd Payne and Adam Wood,
who are both in the pro shop full time.
They’ve done some great work this
year.”
Montana Pritchard/PGA of America
Matt Brown speaks with Dave Marr III during the 2016 PGA of America
National Awards for the 100th annual meeting held at the Grand Hyatt
New York on Wednesday in New York City.
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Voters reject
Chargers’ new
stadium
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Voters have
called the San Diego Chargers’
bluff, leaving the NFL team to
decide whether to try one more
time to get a new stadium built here
or pack the moving vans for the
trip up Interstate 5 to Los Angeles.
Measure C, which would have
raised $1.15 billion from increased
hotel occupancy taxes to help pay
for a $1.8 billion stadium and con-
vention center annex downtown,
was defeated 57 percent to 43 per-
cent. It needed 66.7 percent to pass.
The 110-page plan was written
by the Chargers without input from
City Hall, the powerful tourism
industry, their would-be neighbors
the Padres or other stakeholders.
Team chairman Dean Spanos,
who angered fans last year with a
failed attempt to join with the rival
Oakland Raiders to build a sta-
dium in the Los Angeles suburb
of Carson, conceded defeat early
Wednesday morning with half of
the votes still to be counted. He
released a statement Wednesday
afternoon saying he wanted “to
give the stadium debate a rest and
enjoy some Chargers football.
“So I’m going to put aside any
discussion of our possible next
steps until after the season, to allow
everyone to focus on football and
to give my family and me time to
think carefully about what is best
for the future of our franchise,”
Spanos said. “Over the coming
weeks you may hear news about
steps that we must take to pre-
serve all of our options. But please
know that I don’t intend to make
any decisions until after the regular
season ends.”
That means fans could be put
in the same position as they were
last year, when they thought that
the last game of the season might
be the Chargers’ final game in San
Diego. The Chargers (4-5) have
four home games left, including
the finale on Jan. 1 against Kan-
sas City.
Spanos has until mid-January to
exercise his option to move to L.A.
and join the Rams in a stadium in
Inglewood set to open in 2019. If
the Chargers moved, they’d have
to find a temporary home.
Or Spanos could negotiate with
Mayor Kevin Faulconer and other
stakeholders on a new plan in San
Diego. The Chargers have been
trying since 2000 to replace aging
Qualcomm Stadium in Mission
Valley.
Seaside High School
Seaside senior Maddi Utti made it official Wednesday morning in the school library — she signed a letter-of-intent to play basketball
at Fresno State beginning with the 2017-18 season. The Bulldogs were second in the Mountain West Conference last season.
Utti takes game to Fresno State
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
S
EASIDE — The multi-talented Maddi
Utti will be a “Bulldog” next year,
as the senior athlete at Seaside High
School will take her game to Fresno State
University.
Utti signed a letter-of-intent Wednesday
morning to play basketball at Fresno State,
with a fairly good-sized gathering on hand
to witness the officially signing ceremony in
the Seaside High School library.
“It was good. There was a lot of people
that showed up, and I wasn’t expecting that,”
Utti said. “It was nice to see all the support
Conference for second place. The Bulldogs
advanced to the second round of the NIT.
Meanwhile, Utti averaged 17.4 points per
game last season for the Gulls, to go with
6.7 rebounds, 4.7 steals and 4.2 assists in 24
games.
As a sophomore in 2014-15, she was the
Cowapa League Player of the Year as well
as the Defender of the Year. Utti has played
a key role in leading the Lady Gulls to the
state tournament in each of the last three
years, and is healthy and ready to go for her
senior season.
Mike Hawes replaces Wally Hamer as the
coach at Seaside. The Gulls open the season
Dec. 2 at Gladstone.
Clippers roll past Blazers for fourth straight win
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
Football — Class 4A Quarterfinal:
Cottage Grove at Astoria, 7 p.m.; Wash-
ington 1B Playoff: Naselle at Rainier
Christian, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
Football — Washington 2B Playoff: To-
ledo vs. Ilwaco, 5 p.m., at Centralia HS
of the community and my family.”
After visits to several schools, Utti had
narrowed her choice of schools down to
Fresno State and the University of Idaho.
“I just really liked the campus and the
coaches,” at Fresno State, she said. “That
was pretty much the deciding factor. And I
really love California.”
Utti also made visits to Idaho and
Cal-Poly.
The Bulldogs are coached by Jaime
White, and graduated three of their starting
five from the 2015-16 season. White is in her
11th year.
Fresno State was 22-12 overall last sea-
son, and went 15-3 in the Mountain West
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan,
bottom, dunks on Trail Blazers
forward Noah Vonleh during the
first half Wednesday in Los Ange-
les. Clippers won, 111-80.
LOS ANGELES — The Clippers
are playing stingy defense and having
fun doing it.
Blake Griffin had 22 points and 13
rebounds, Chris Paul added 19 points
and Los Angeles rolled past the Port-
land Trail Blazers 111-80 on Wednes-
day night to improve to an NBA-best
7-1 with its fourth straight victory.
“When you play defense the way
we have been, it’s a lot of fun,” Grif-
fin said. “We enjoy getting stops and
look forward to getting stops. Guys
are just flying around, and even if
someone makes a mistake, there’s
another guy to cover up for them.
When you are playing basketball like
that, it’s a blast.”
It was the second time the Clip-
pers beat the Trail Blazers this season.
This one was never close.
UP NEXT: BLAZERS
• Sacramento Kings (4-5)
at Portland Trail Blazers (5-4)
• Friday, 7 p.m. TV: CSNW
Note: The Kings have lost to the
Blazers in six straight games and
10 of the last 12 matchups.
The Clippers stunned Portland
from the opening tip, shooting 59 per-
cent in the first quarter. They built a
32-point lead in the first half, when
Griffin had 17 points.
Los Angeles’ bench opened the
second quarter on a 14-2 run to go
up 50-18 before extending the lead to
61-32 at halftime.
“We got our (rear ends) whupped,”
Blazers guard Damian Lillard said.
“They had a lot of energy and they
wanted it more than we did. They
hurt us on the glass and we didn’t take
anything away from them.”
Lillard, the NBA’s second-leading
scorer at 32.8 points per game, was
held to eight. CJ McCollum, who was
averaging 22.9 points, also scored
eight for the Blazers.
They didn’t have anyone in dou-
ble figures until Shabazz Napier hit a
3-pointer with under 2 minutes left.
He led the team with 11 points.
DeAndre Jordan had 16 points and
nine rebounds and J.J. Redick added
10 points for the Clippers, who sat
their starters for good at 3:54 of the
third quarter while owning a 44-point
lead.
It was the fourth straight game that
the Clippers had at least an 18-point
lead in the first half.
“We kept telling each other to not
play the score and respect the game,”
Jordan said of keeping up the defen-
sive pressure. “We wanted to make
shots they took tough.”