Gary Averett
The SaddleBrooke Men’s Golf Association (SMGA) held the annual SMGA Match Play Tournament February 27 to March 5 at the SaddleBrooke Golf Course.
Match play is a much different game of golf than normal stroke play in which only the total score determines the winner. In match play, whoever of the two competitors has the lowest score on a given hole wins that hole. Each hole counts the same toward the end of the match, so even if a player has a high score, but it is still less than his opponent, he wins that hole. If each player has the same score, that hole is “halved.” The player who has won the most holes over the 18 hole match is the winner. If tied at the end of 18 holes, extra holes are played until one player has won the final hole. Matches can be completed earlier rather than completing all 18 holes. For example, if player A has won nine holes and his competitor has won six, then player A is said to be “three up with three holes to go.” If he wins the next hole, then he wins the match “four and two,” meaning that he has a lead of four with only two holes to go and his opponent cannot win enough remaining holes to beat him or even tie.
The competition started with a qualifying round on February 24. The top 64 qualifiers were placed in the Championship Flight series and the remaining qualifiers were placed in the Consolation Flight series. There were four flights in the Championship series and three in the Consolation series. All matches were played with 100% handicap.
The first round of matches was played on February 27. Thirty-two winners in the Championship flights and twelve winners in the Consolation flights moved on to the second round of matches.
The second round of matches was played on March 2 with 16 winners moving on in the Championship flights. The six winners in the Consolation flights moved on to the Consolation Finals. The Semi-final Championship matches were played on March 3 with eight players moving to the Finals in the Championship flights.
Championship Flight Results: The Finals on March 5 saw Jerry Neely two up over Ed Moisio in Flight 1; Dean Werstler six and five over Dennis McCabe in Flight 2; Ronald Curtis five and three over Gary Hillerud in Flight 3 and Flight 4 Howard Good one up over Garry Clapp.
Consolation Flight Winners: The Consolation flights final matches were held on February 29. The winners in the Consolation flights were: Flight 1, Fred Pilster; Flight 2, Richard Snyder and in Flight 3, Glen Peterson.
Congratulations to all Match Play winners.