Conrad Roberts, winner of the past five Lawrence Amateur Golf Association’s city tournaments, isn’t in the field, and neither is his talented friend Tyler Cummins. Instead, they entered the 101st Kansas Amateur, the Kansas Golf Association’s signature event.

The unfortunate scheduling conflict doesn’t mean a hack will take home the title Sunday after the 36-hole stroke-play competition that gets under way today at Eagle Bend and concludes Sunday at Lawrence Country Club. It does make picking a winner more difficult.

Mike Rack, who plays out of Alvamar, has two Nebraska Amateur championships to his name.

Spencer Wilson hits the ball a long way and can go low when his putter catches fire.

Tom Rainbolt and Bo Gollier, a pair of dentists who have tight short games, know the breaks of the greens, the trouble spots to avoid and shortcuts to take at LCC, so if they play well enough at Eagle Bend to be on the leaderboard, they have a shot.

Anybody good enough to play in the championship flight has a chance, but for the sake of making a prediction, let’s say Greg Sharp will win it, provided he hits the right ball.

Playing in the first round of the Lawrence Country Club match-play tournament Saturday against Connor Klutman, Sharp tattooed his drive 310 yards on the par-4 No. 5 and was sure it was on the right side of the fairway.

“I hit the second shot, it went in the hole, and Connor said, ‘Hey, I think you hit my ball.’ Not real smart. I’ll definitely make sure I’m hitting my own ball,” Sharp said.

He went on to win the match, but got knocked out of the championship flight by Rainbolt, who lost in the final to Curt Wright (not entered in the city tournament.)

Not that getting an eagle would have been such a big thrill for Sharp, 53. He twice has made an albatross, also known as a double-eagle, at LCC, most recently Aug. 10, 2008, on the third hole, on which he likes to play his second shot from the 12th fairway.

Senior environmental scientist at Geotechnical Services, Inc., a Lawrence resident and Kansas University graduate, Sharp doesn’t complain that LCC is too difficult. (That makes one of us.)

“Being at LCC gives me a better chance,” Sharp said. “I know the greens, and I think the course is easy. It’s right in front of you. No blind tee shots, except 16 is a little goofy for guys who haven’t played here, and 7 is a little goofy, because of the wind, but every other tee shot is easy. You can play well here if you figure out the greens. They have a lot of double breaks.”

Tom Watson won his first British Open in 1975 and nearly won his sixth 34 years later.

Sharp won the city tournament 29 years ago, and also shows that, more than in most sports, age is not golf’s most important number.

Sharp has played in Monday qualifiers for the Sony Open seven times in Hawaii, attempted to qualify for the Senior British Open and also tried the Honda Classic in Fort Lauderdale. After 10 years of “spending a lot of money” in qualifers and never making a PGA Tour field, he said he has realized he’s “not good enough.” He’s good enough to win the city tournament.