I'm still not sure how this happened... but Guest and Chandler tied on Saturday, resulting in the first Major victories of their careers.
We were hoping to dodge the rain but a monsoon appeared out of nowhere on the 6th hole. After a 30 minute delay, Darren withdrew from the tournament because there was water on his driver and ball. He definitely couldn't play in those conditions, and Brendan refused to tee up the ball for him. The rest of us finished the round (thankfully with no more rain) in soggy conditions.
Guest was on fire all day, carding 12 pars/bogeys to take a commanding lead. Unfortunately, the most used club in the bag is the putter. After the rain-forced reshuffling of groups, Chandler got to #18 first at even par (net)... and down 6 strokes to Guest. A one-putt par gave Chandler the clubhouse lead at -1, but still 5 strokes behind.
The first group didn't even stick around to watch the finish, opting instead to go inside and drink beers. What they didn't know was that Guest had a 5-putt on #17 for a quad... and followed it up with a 4-putt on #18 for a triple. To my knowledge, Guest missed at least 4 putts from about two feet during the round.
The result was our 3rd tied Major in history (Gary/Reid, Faz/Reid, Chan/Guest). And definitely the biggest collapse of any tournament in history.
And we almost had a 3-way tie, as Reid finished one back. He might have notched a record 6th Major title... but he showed up late and didn't get a chance to warm up. The +6 start on the first two holes basically ruined his round.
Geoff was in the mix too, but an insanely ugly 9 on the first hole and double-pars on #13 and #16 took him out of contention.
Gary was +2 on the final 8 holes and still only finished 4 strokes off the lead.
And then there is Brendan... who had a tough day... all day.
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Big John finally qualified for the Official Golf Rankings, joining the list at #10. Faz also ascended to #1 for the first time in his career, despite not playing in the Masters.
Great season everyone. Be sure to report your scores in the off-season... and post anytime you need players or are looking for a game. Most of us still play every week.
Finally... Ryder Cup draft will be held September 20th. You don't need to attend the draft... but you DO need to attend the actual Ryder Cup on September 26, 27 and 28. Geoff... put it on your calendar.
Not sure a tie counts as a win though. Need to have a tie breaker in place for future events. Chug off in clubhouse?
ReplyDeleteEstablished long ago that ties are OK.
ReplyDeleteWe've only had 4 in history (one a 3-way tie). Courses usually frown on us playing bonus-golf. And you'd have to handicap it which would be a pain.
And everyone hates "going to the scorecard" to settle it.