Either way, match play brings a type of excitement to the game like no other. No wonder the most important amateur tournaments in the world are played at match play.
Originally, this tournament was not in the calendar for this year, however, when a couple of members saw that this weekend was tournament free, they asked if we could add a match play for the weekend, and, after the board's blessings, we added it. The result was that 16 players entered whom we divided into two flights of eight players. To win your flight, you had to win three matches in a row, two of which had to be played on Saturday, with the finals coming on Sunday (probably the reason that match play is difficult to schedule).
In the Championship flight, young Logan Gore won by defeating David Dyson, Cole Bynum and Jordan Williamson. However, Logan almost did not get past the first match when David Dyson took him to the last hole where he, once more, missed one of several short putts during their match that would have given him the match. But that is the nature of the game, if you don't putt, it is kind of hard to win matches and Logan made the putts and got to the second match against Cole Bynum where he won 2 up. Logan seemed to get better and gain confidence as the tournament went on, in the final match, Logan was four under par when he won his match against Jordan Williamson on the 13th hole.
In the Championship Flight, Andrew Albert won 3rd place against Cole Bynum, and Jeremy Gray won Consolation Flight by defeating a tired David Dyson who decided to get ready for his match by running 5 miles instead of hitting 50 balls (David, an avid athlete and pretty good golfer who has been on the top three in the Sunday Shuffles, ran in the "Relay for Life" race). To his credit though, Jeremy was even par for the holes played.
In the "A" Flight, the championship match went 20 holes (the closest of all matches in the tournament), where Ann Cowan opened the door by missing a short putt for a par, while Bob Miller made his to win the match and the flight. Bob also went to extra holes in his first match against Charlie Kauk whom he defeated 1-up in 19, then beat close friend Jeff Smoot 3 & 1 before winning his match against Ann Cowan. In her bracket, Ann reached the finals by first defeating Gary Jennings in 13 holes and then Rocky Andresen, in a "all in the family" match. For those who don't know, Rocky is the father of one of Ann's daughters in law! When they asked their grandson Ryder, "who are you going to root for", the eight year old showed political leanings by answering, "I want you to both win!"... in a way they did, Ann won against Rocky, then Rocky won third place against Jeff Smoot. The Consolation Flight was won by Keith Hulen who had lost his first match to Jeff Smoot, Keith defeated Neil Hohnke in that match.
