A day of high drama at the Yellowknife Golf Course on Sunday: two playoffs, leapfrogging in the money list and the first-ever disqualification.
Safe to say it was the craziest finish to a season the Yellowknife chapter of the Mediocre Golf Association has ever had.
The Last Gasp tournament brought this season's proceedings to an end and the big winner on the weekend was Chris Flannagan as he managed to outlast Shaun Morris to claim victory. Flannagan and Morris were tied with identical scores of 88 after 18 holes of play, forcing a sudden-death playoff between the two.
They went to the 14 th tee and as Morris said, it wasn't exactly the finest of playoff holes ever played.
“Let's just say he did less worse than I,” he said.
Flannagan put his tee shot to the left of the tee box while Morris shanked his into the trees off to the right of the hole. From there, it was a war of attrition of sorts to get to the hole but it would be Flannagan who double-bogeyed for the win.
Not only did Flannagan win the tournament, but he was also able to jump past Ryan Sheppard and Hughie Graham in the overall money list and win it all. Flannagan's winners cheque of $1.12 was good enough to give him a season total of $4.64, 35 cents better than Sheppard's total of $4.29. Sheppard was the money leader for most of the season but was unable to hold on to it as he tied for sixth place and netting just 40 cents.
Flannagan, Sheppard and Graham were the only ones with a chance to win the overall money title going into Sunday's action, said Morris, who's also the chapter president.
“Chris started the day 37 cents behind Ryan and he had to win in order to have a chance,” he said.
Morris also had a chance to play spoiler to Flannagan in a big way.
“If I had won the playoff, Ryan would have won the money list by three cents,” he said.
The other playoff came in the women's category with a trio – Pim Wangyao, Grace Lau-a and Robin Mercer-Sproule – heading to the 14 th hole for a playoff. In the end, Lau-a came out on top thanks to a bogey which not only gave her the tournament win but also the prize as the top female of the 2018 season.
“They were all tied in money so we had to play it off,” said Morris.
As for the disqualification, Andy Williams became the very first player ever given the boot for having too good a score. Yes, Williams shot 79 and because that's below the MGA benchmark of 80, he was DQ'ed.
With the business of the season now ended, the focus now turns to the MGA World Championship, which is happening in November in Las Vegas. As of now, eight players from the city are confirmed to go and four of them – Morris, Graham, Sheppard and Mike Auge – will be playing for the MGA World Championship Belt right off the bat.
“Anyone in the top 10 of a chapter money list or anyone who's won a tournament during the season can challenge for the belt,” said Morris. “If you also finish in the top half of the standings after day one of the tournament, you can also challenge for the belt on day two.”