Sports ------------------------------------------------ John Vinson looks to Mars for link with state golf title By Paul Glover, Guard Sports Editor Published on 10/7/2003 Maybe it's a rare celestial event, John Vinson said of his winning the Arkansas State Golf Association's Mid-Senior Player of the Year Award. "Jay Fox (ASGA Director) asked me why I had been playing so well. I told him, 'Gosh, I don't know. Maybe it's because Mars is so close. I'll be 287 years old when it comes this close again,'" Vinson said with a laugh. Vinson, 52 and a longtime resident of Batesville, clinched the title two weekends ago with a third-place finish in the River Valley Classic at the Russellville Country Club. Vinson won a series-high four events on the 12-stop tour. He competed in eight. The 5-time winner of Batesville's J.K. Southerland Stroke Play Championship also scored enough points in ASGA events to earn a spot on the Arkansas Cup Team, his third time to do so. The amateur team is scheduled to play the Arkansas PGA Professional Team at Hot Springs Country Club on Oct. 24-25.

Sometime next spring, the Arkansas Cup Team is scheduled to play their counterparts from Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma in the Mid-South Golf Association region event. The dates and the site for the mid-south event will be announced later. This was Vinson's first season to compete in the Mid-Senior Division (40-54).  "I didn't even know the ASGA had a player of the year competition for mid-seniors until last year," Vinson said. "I saw Bruce Dickey, from Paragould, who won it last year, at the (ASGA) hall of fame dinner and he asked me, 'Why don't you play in it this year?' He and I played some pretty good matches this year." Dickey finished third in the points, 111 behind Vinson. Phil Parker of Jonesboro finished second, 80 points back. Vinson said a more-relaxed attitude about the game may have had more to do with his playing well than anything.  "I played with a better attitude, a better train of thought. Really, playing more just to have fun than anything else. When you do that, you usually do well," he said. And the competition and camaraderie he found in the mid-senior events were to his liking.  "You know, I told Jay that the big difference in playing in the mid-senior tournaments was the camaraderie you find with those guys. When you're playing good, they're actually rooting for you to continue to play good," Vinson said. "Also, you play the ball down (you're not allowed to move the ball a short distance to improve your lie), you putt out and people call penalties on themselves," Vinson added. "It's just a good competitive atmosphere." But still relaxed enough for the laid-back Vinson.  "No. I don't play practice rounds and I don't warm up. My warmup is an ibuprofen and a Budweiser," Vinson said with a laugh.