The return of the Mediocre Golf Association to the Yellowknife Golf Club was a welcome sight for some and it couldn't have been a better start.
All things considered, of course.
The opening tournament of the season saw 32 players tee it up on Saturday for the Rebel Beach Am-Am, the MGA's play on the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and it went a bit longer than expected. Playoff golf was the theme of the day as Randy Langer and Dennis Bourke ended up having to play a bonus hole to determine who would win the 'Big Cheque' of $1.12 as both finished with scores of 94.
It would be Langer who would make bogey on the extra hole to snatch the win, which was a tough one for Bourke as he had a chance to win it himself.
“Dennis missed a two-footer (putt) to beat Randy,” said Shaun Morris, the chapter's president.
There was a three-way tie for third place as Dave Hurley, Hughie Graham and Rick Savard all had identical scores of 95.
photo courtesy of Shaun Morris
There was a team competition within the solo play – the Am-Am event – with each player having a partner that they chose before the tournament began. Their solo scores would be added up once the round was completed to make their team score and even then, there were three teams tied for the lead: Langer and Craig Sheppard, Chris Hewitt and Daryl Snow and Hurley and Cory Holzer. All had team totals of 194.
Langer and Sheppard would be the first team to bow out as they combined for a 12 on the first playoff hole while the other two duos carded 11 each. The second playoff hole solved nothing, meaning a third sudden-death hole and it would be Hewitt and Snow who would eventually come out on top as their 11 was good enough to see off Holzer and Hurley, who shot a 12.
Just like the solo playoff, Morris said it could have gone the other way.
“Cory missed a two-footer himself to win on the second hole,” he said.
Morris and Graham were partnered up and they could have actually won it outright, said Morris, had it not been for a meltdown on the final two holes.
“I ended up with nine on the 17th and eight on the 18th,” he said. “We ended up losing by two strokes and it was because I fell apart. I didn't know that then but when you look back, 17 on the last two holes did us in.”
A total of 32 players were out for tournament no. 1 of what's going to be a busy stretch for the chapter and Morris said it went as expected.
“There were some rough rounds but it's the first tournament of the year so in theory, it should get better from here,” he said. “It was breezy out there and that didn't help but the first tournament is always the one with the highest scores.”
Next up is a doubleheader this coming weekend with the Bastards (Masters) on Saturday and the FORE! Championship, the association's version of the Midnight Classic, the following evening.