The highlight event for the SunBird Men’s Golf Association, a/k/a Men’s Club, in January was the annual Match Play Challenge. In match play, rather than determining a winner by the total strokes during the 18-hole round, the winner is determined by who wins the most holes. In other words, the player with the least number of strokes on a hole wins the hole, and so on.
This year’s three-week Match Play Challenge started on January 19 with a total of 72 players, divided into nine fights according to handicaps. Each flight contained four brackets, two on the left and two on the right, with the players assigned a position, by draw, into one of the brackets. The two players in each bracket competed against one another to determine a winner for the week, who then proceeded into the next bracket and on to play the next week. The result is that half of the field was eliminated each week until there were only 18 players, two in each flight, left going into the finals on February 2, where the two players left in each flight played each other for the flight championship. Players eliminated each week went to play regular weekly men’s club events.
This year’s winners and runners up in each flight, respectively, were Championship Flight, Fred Nixon and John German; Flight 2, Wes Terry and Jerry Chamberlin; Flight 3, Jim Seaman and Dan Moran; Flight 4, Gary Hall and Tom Fargo; Flight 5, Fred Fraga and Cal Macpherson; Flight 6, Howard Anderson and George Richardson; Flight 7, John Franklin and Dean Wilson; Flight 8, Ernie Anderson and Gary Metzger and in Flight 9, Gordon Olson and Earl Ferguson.
As the saying goes, “When it Rains it Pours.” In November, we reported that there were four holes-in-one by Men’s Club members. As all golfers know, holes-in-one are quite rare and, therefore, not reported often, but here we go again. In January, members of the Men’s Club found the bottom of the cup in one stroke. They were Jack Cooper on 11 in open play, David White on 13 in Rattlesnakes play and new member Mel Terechenok on 13, also in Rattlesnakes play.
The month of March has a full slate of tournament events. They are March 2, second and final round of the Club Championship; March 8 and 9, Home and Home with Sunland Village East; March 16 and 23, SunBird Cup and March 30, the Men’s and Ladies’ combined scramble and awards patio lunch.
The next business meeting will be held on March 7 at 9:00 a.m. in the ballroom. The club will vote on a proposed change to the constitution and some new rules. Also, the election of officers for the 2017-2018 season will be held.