Left to right: Tim Munson, Sandro DeSimone, John Craven, Don Matosich, Ken Whitney, Steve Roseman, Albert Williams, and Jim TackettPCM9GA
Erv Stein
The first ever PCM9GA Match Play Tournament event concluded several weeks of competition on March 6 with both Ken Whitney and Albert Williams emerging as the surviving champions out of 64 initial PCM9GA participants. Most golf tournaments are conducted in the more common stroke play format with the winning player or team gross or net scores determined by the fewest number of strokes completed for single or multiple 18- or 9-hole events. That being said, the Match Play format offers intriguing competitive challenges in head-to-head 2-golfer competition, with the player winning the majority of a 9- or 18-hole event will advance to compete in subsequent rounds or achieve champion status for the final round. Match Play formats were deployed for PGA Championship Tournaments from 1916 through 1957 and are still utilized for the prominent Ryder Cup Tournaments co-sponsored by the USA and Europe. Also, the woman’s version of the Ryder Cup is the Solheim Cup, likewise a biennial event with joint USA LPGA and European LET participation.
The PCM9GA Match Play format of course was based upon player-to-player competition starting with two 32 player matched groups with the first round conducted on Jan. 16. A total of 32 golfers advanced to the next round on Jan. 30 and the 16 players surviving round 2 golfers competed in the successive Feb. 20 round followed by 8 players competing on Feb. 27 and culminating with the final championship round on March 6. Adding to the intense competition for the final 4 consisting of Ken Whitney and Steve Roseman for the white tee championship and Albert Williams and Jim Tackett for the red tee winners was surprisingly quite violent windy conditions that intensely contributed to unusual related driving and putting challenges. What normally would be a dead straight drive in the center of the course or even a simple 6-foot putt for example would result in erratic behavior of the driven or putted golf ball.
Kudos to Ken Whitney, the white tee champion for prevailing over Steve Roseman with most vigorous competition from Steve with two extra holes required and the sudden death ending after two extra tie-breaking holes. Likewise hats off to Albert Williams who defeated Jim Tackett in an intensely competitive match for the red tee championship. Tim Munson and Sandro DeSimone prevailed as 3rd place consolation white and red tee champions and John Craven and Don Matosich followed as 4th place winners.
Our PCM9GA Pairing Team likely has the most challenging job for our tournament and regular play events, but given the quite daunting task of optimally pairing the 64 players, tremendous praise is in order for John Mazzukelly, John Clemens, Bill Lansing, and Alan Hatfield for the incredible accomplishment in pulling off so successfully our first ever PCM9GA Match Play Tournament.
Our PCM9GA group, founded way back in 2005 now has close to 400 members. We highly encourage that interested prospective PCM9GA members in our exceptional fun-loving low-key group of golfers to contact our membership chairman, Tim Munson, at 503-460-7618 or Dusty Howard at 805-218-6461.