John Morales (center) SMGA Club Championship flight 3 winner with Troy Jewkes, head golf pro (left) and Mike Roddy, superintendent of golf and grounds (right)
Fred Pilster
The SaddleBrooke Men’s Golf Association (SMGA) had one of their main events for the year over three days in April. Sixty-eight golfers of all levels played in a three-day Club Championship tournament with over $2,500 in prizes awarded to 38 winners. This was a unique tournament under the new Golf Handicap and Information Network handicap system, because the handicaps actually changed over the three days that the tournament was played.
The 68 golfers were all placed in five flights based on their handicaps, with the 12 lowest handicapped players playing each other, then the next 12 lowest handicappers, and so on. These five flights were essentially A, B, C, D, E brackets, with the lowest handicappers in the first flight and highest handicappers in the fifth flight. The tournament was played on three different courses over the three days. The first day saw some exciting play in the first flight as Terry Edwards proceeded to put two balls into the beautiful lake on our SaddleBrooke hole No. 2 par three and then three-putt for an eight. For a view of this hole, see www.saddlebrooke.org/sb_courses. But Terry persevered and played hard for the rest of that day and the next two days and ultimately tied for second place behind “Sleepy” Schliepsiek in the first flight net division. The first flight gross division was won by Larry Tollman who pretty much led from start to finish. He got to see his handicap go from a four the first day and because of his good play it decreased to a two handicap the last day of play. Way to play, Sleepy!
The “Ringer Award” was in flight five, where Joe Kasile beat out the runner ups by 11 strokes and was never threatened over three days. How can a guy who always hits a driver on most of the par threes score like this? Congratulations, Joe. Great play!
All of these matches were played over three days and three different courses in one week with daily winners with the final winners being determined on Wednesday, April 8.
Flight 1 Gross division: Club Champion Larry Tollman, runner-up Doug Swartz
Flight 1 Net division: champion Sleepy Schliepsiek, runners-up Terry Edwards and Mike Turner
Flight 2: champion Stan Manzanares, runner-up Ron Bouchard
Flight 3: champion John Morales, runner-up Mark Steinsdoerfer
Flight 4: champion Nicholas Mares, runner-up Ron Curtis
Flight 5: champion Joe Kasile, runner-up Virg Rogge
We had the typical April winds, but the days were mostly sunny and great golf weather. As a concession to the coronavirus, there was no awards banquet, but box lunches were passed out as the scorecards were turned in. Thanks to Vinnie Ryan and John Pavlak for coordinating the tournament. Looking forward to the next big event in the fall and disappointed that the annual Member Guest Tournament had to be cancelled.
Stay healthy and hit ’em straight.