Adam Pfeiffer was thankful for a couple of Westview “member bounces” on Sunday that helped him beat Luke Guthrie by two shots.

The first break came at the par-4 13th hole. Pfeiffer bombed his tee shot at the 359-yard hole just 25 yards short of the green. His chip shot didn’t travel as far as he intended. It hit in the rough and then got another hop in the fringe. Fortunately for Pfeiffer, the ball wound up rolling straight and settled just 3 feet from the cup. He easily converted the shot for a birdie for a one-shot lead.

The next break came at the par-5 17th hole. Forced to layup after an awkward tee shot, Pfeiffer faced an approach shot from about 80 yards out in the left rough. Again, his ball hit well short of the green. But the ball managed to avoid any trouble and wound up 10 feet short of the cup. That shot was key as Pfeiffer rolled in a birdie putt from that spot after Guthrie had drained a 20-footer to force a momentary tie.

“I wanted to bounce it up there (on No. 13),” Pfeiffer said. “The greens were really hard and firm today, so you had to chip it short and let it roll up. On 17, I was trying to fly (the ball) to the hole, but got the bounce.

“I got a good member’s bounce on both of those.”

The next big thing?: Both Pfeiffer and Guthrie made their marks as junior golfers. Each won individual state championships when they were at Quincy High School.

The next generation of Quincy golfer was in field this weekend in the form of 14-year-old Cory Boots. A freshman-to-be at Quincy Notre Dame, Boots shot a 2-over 73 on Saturday and followed that with an 8-over 79 for a 10-over 152, good for a tie for 15th in the 27-player field championship flight.

Boots was able to better his father, Gary, by five shots. That’s pretty good considering Gary Boots was in the final foursome during the 2008 city tourney.

Staying in the loop: One of the troubles in an event like the city tournament is that none of the spectators know where things stand in the lead group until word filters to them when the group hits the last hole.

As a public service, I updated hole-by-hole was happening with men’s leaders during the back nine on Sunday via my Twitter account. At least some people knew what was going on. Six-time women’s city champion Emily Powers wound up following the action via Twitter. While caddying for Tim Schrage in the championship flight, she kept his group and the groups around them up on what was going on behind them.

A sister act: While Powers carried around Schrage’s bag for two days, her younger sister, Rachel, also got into the caddy act on Sunday. Right after finishing her tournament, she hustled off to caddy for Tom Castillo in the men’s tournament. 

DOBservations: Emily Powers likely will not play in another women’s city tournament. The University of Kansas senior plans to turn pro after her senior season next spring. … Guthrie, who had missed the last two city tourneys, didn’t know when he’d be able to play in the men’s city again. His future availability depends on what his amateur tournament schedule looks like in future years. … The first year of having the men’s and women’s events on the same weekend wound up in less women than normal playing. The women’s field usually is somewhere between 25 and 30 players. Only 14 players started this weekend.

With everyone playing “up” from a set of modified white tees during the first round of the Quincy Men’s City Tournament at Westview, golfers can’t help but salivate a little bit.

All of the top players play from the championship tees whenever and wherever they play. The city tournament has done it differently for the last several years. Still, scoring was hard to come by at Westview during Saturday’s opening round.

Though it was a perfect day temperature-wise, the wind was steady all day long, making the course play longer than it usually does. Add in fast greens and tough pin placements and Westview wasn’t a very forgiving track.

“It’s still Westview,” said 2005 champ Adam Pfeiffer, who was one of the few to finish under par with a 3-under 68. “They cut the greens and they were fast. It was difficult putting today.”

Pfeiffer said the Westview greens were probably a 10.5 on the stimpmeter. A long-time Westview player, Pfeiffer guessed the greens usually play around a 9.5. To put that in perspective, most PGA Tour courses are set at least to at least 11 on the stimpmeter.

Only four players broke par on Saturday — leader Luke Guthrie (6-under 65), Pfeiffer, Tim Eaton (2-under 69) and Parker Freiburg (2-under 69).

The entire championship flight will be moved back to the customary championship tee markers for Sunday’s final round.

Injury to insult: A tough day on the course turned into a painful one for defending men’s city champion Ryan Franks. 

He was hit by a ball form one of his playing partners, Nathan Russell. While trying to punch out from under a tree on No. 16, Russell’s ball caromed off a tree and hit Franks in the left side. He had a small welt on his left forearm as a result of the hit.

“My belt saved me,” Franks said. “I actually started hit the ball better after that though.”

Franks finished with a 6-over 77.

Who’s your caddy?: Five-time defending women’s city champion Emily Powers plopped down on a bench behind the Westview clubhouse Saturday and couldn’t help but smile.

“I didn’t miss a shot today,” she said. 

Instead of playing in the women’s event, she caddied for Tim Schrage in the men’s event. Schrage has caddied for Powers several times, including last year’s city tourney win.

With Powers doing the heavy lifting, Schrage finished with a 6-over 77.

Women’s first-round leader Trina Casburn got a little help, too, during her opening round. She had Katie Dorsey, the executive director of the First Tee of Great River, on her bag. 

“Katie made a huge difference,” Casburn said. 

Chuck Mahon didn’t need any human help. Playing in the group behind the marquee pairing of Luke Guthrie-Ryan Franks-Parker Freiburg, Mahon let his electronic caddy do all of the rough work.

Best headware by any caddy — heck anyone on the Westview grounds on Saturday — belonged to Guthrie’s caddy, Sean Huebotter. Huebotter was sporting a some type of straw hat. If you didn’t already know who Guthrie was, all you had to do was look for the guy with the hat.

“He wore it to play poker one night and decided to wear it out today,” said Guthrie, who was asked by some spectators on the 18th tee box if he would wear the hat for Sunday’s final round.

Huebotter will not be on Guthrie’s bag on Sunday. That honor will go to Guthrie’s older brother, Zach, a former city champion in his own right who is now an assistant coach at the University of Illinois.

DOBservations: There were 11 former champions in the men’s city field. I inadvertantly left Dennis Cashman, who won in 1967, out of my list in Friday’s preview story. … Among the notable scratches on Saturday was two-time men’s city champion Ryan Graff, who couldn’t play because of a back injury. … The women’s field lost one of its players when 12-year-old Lucy Clark, who has played well on the junior golf circuit, withdrew on Saturday morning.

Can it really be more than a month since my class was in session? Hope the summer break was a good one. We’re back to break down the good, bad and ugly in the sports world. To listen in to WGEM SportsCenter, check us out daily between 7 and 9 a.m. on ESPN 1440. I’ll talk Mid-Week Grades around 8:20 or so Wednesday. If you have a grade, email us at sportscenter@wgem.com or text us at 217-617-9437.

Here are this week’s grades:

A — MLB Network. During my vacation, I found my TV glued to channel 213 on DirecTV — the new MLB Network. It might be the best of the sports-league funded networks. They are what ESPN Classic used to be, showing old games in their entirety. This month has been a lot of old All-Star Games. They do a great job with their studio shows, too. Having Harold Reynolds, a favorite of mine when he was with ESPN, is a bonus. It’s not on Quincy cable, just another reason to go dish.

B — Lance Armstrong. He’s not going to win the Tour de France, but you have to admire how he’s come back after a four-year hiatus from the event. He’s not going to win this year, but figures to finish in second place. In the realm of sports comebacks, it’s not going to match what George Foreman was able to do when he came out of retirement to win the heavyweight title, but it’s still not too shabby.

C — British Open. Yes, Tom Watson gave us a great story to follow and root for after Tiger Woods surprisingly missed the cut. Stewart Cink is a worthy champion and you have to love a guy who tweets as much as he does on Twitter. Still, you have to wonder about Tiger’s supposed challengers when a 59-year-old man is the story of the weekend when Woods isn’t around. Sergio, where were you?

D — University of Iowa. I guess I’ll never figure out the Hawkeye state’s infatuation with Kirk Ferentz. Earlier this week, Iowa announced that Ferentz had signed a contract extension through 2015. He won’t get a salary bump from the $3.02 million he makes per year, but will get use of a private plane as part of the new deal. The school long has been worried about Ferentz jumping to an NFL team. Why worry. He’s only 70-53 during his 10-year tenure in Iowa City, including a 4-3 record in bowls. If he’s getting $3 million-plus a year for that, imagine if he actually won something.

F — Hannibal Cavemen. The team is finally starting to get things going in the right direction on the field, taking a four-game winning streak into Wednesday’s doubleheader at Danville. The fans are still filling up Clemens Field on a regular basis as expected. The Cavemen get dinged here for their handling of the firing of general manager Mark Sanders. Specifically, one of the team’s co-owners, Larry Owens, penned a letter to the editor to the Hannibal Courier-Post that had to make some cringe in America’s Hometown. It wasn’t very flattering and really shouldn’t have been put out there.

Five-time defending Quincy Women's City Tournament champion Emily Powers is not going to play in next weekend's tournament. (H-W File Photo)

When the Quincy Women’s City Golf Tournament is held next weekend at Westview Golf Course, the event is guaranteed to have a new champion for the first time in six years.

Five-time defending champion Emily Powers says she is not going to seek another championship. Powers has won every title since 2004. She also won in 2001 as a 13-year-old, giving her six city championships.

Powers and Lynn Schlepphorst have combined to win the last 10 city titles. The move by Powers, who will caddy for Tim Schrage in the men’s tournament, could open the door for her younger sister, Rachel, to win her first city title.

Rachel Powers is a senior at Quincy Notre Dame who recently gave Illinois State University a verbal commitment. Rachel has finished in the to three in all three of her previous city tourney starts. She was runner-up to Emily in 2005 (by 12 shots) and 2006 (by nine shots) and finished third in 2007. She did not play in last year’s tourney. In 2006, Rachel was the 18-hole leader.

The men’s city tourney could also see a nice battle. Luke Guthrie, who hasn’t played in the city tourney since his win in 2006, told Matt Schuckman earlier this week that he plans to play next weekend. Should Guthrie play, he’d likely battle friend Ryan Franks, the defending city champ, for the title.

These aren’t anywhere near as good as what you’ll find on a daily basis by the Herald-Whig photography staff on their blog, but here’s a look at some of my favorite photos I took at Tuesday’s 80th annual All-Star Game at Busch Stadium. Enjoy.

After taking a ride down the red carpet, Albert Pujols gets ready to do an interview for the MLB Network outside the Musial statue. Bet Pujols was tired after all of the All-Star Game activities he had to be involved in.

Can't imagine this is what Harold Reynolds and the rest of the MLB Network hosts have to cruise around the country in, but this was set up right next to their set. They need to call Xhibit to pimp this ride.

This girl was one of at least a dozen who were forced to walk around with these huge Bud Light balloons. Sadly, none of them was lifted into the air by them. Now that would have been a sight.

If you didn't already know why you were at Busch Stadium, the scoreboard made sure to remind everyone.

Showing off my free All-Star Game seat cushion, which came in handy. Got to our seats around 3:30 and sat in them for a good 6 1/2 hours.

The National League All-Stars get ready for their team photo in center field.

The American League All-Stars take their turn for their team photo.

This may be one of my favorite photos with the Arch in it. These snipers were stationed on top of the left-field stands for the better part of five hours to protect President Obama.

Here is one of at least 50,000 photos taken of President Obama during his ceremonial first pitch. For the record, the ball didn't cross the plate. Pujols saved it from hitting the dirt. Pretty weak toss.