Member-Guest at Lake Monticello ends in fascinating shoot-out

By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent

The annual Men’s Member-Guest Golf Tournament at Lake Monticello was held on June 10 and 11 and was won in a fascinating shoot-out by member Paul Seehaver and guest Dan Beckhard. The shoot-out involved the winning team from each of five, six team flights. The first round involved playing the 18th hole from the regular tees, with the best score of the two players from each team counting, handicap included. The second round was played from about 110 yards out of the 18th hole, a shot that required your first ball to carry the small pond in front of the green.  The final round was again played from in front of 18, but this time from only about 65 yards out. As these rounds progressed, any team that did not tie for the best score was eliminated. Surprisingly, in the last round, the only teams left were from the highest and the second highest handicapped flights. A putt by guest Beckhard won the tournament in the third shoot-out round.

The weather was almost perfect. A total of 30, two-man teams, were divided into five six team flights. In each flight, every team played all the other teams in the flight in a nine-hole match. On Saturday, all teams played three nine-hole matches, for a total of 27 holes. On Sunday, each team played two nine-hole matches for a total of 18 holes. The format was the best score of the two teammates on each hole, with handicaps taken into account. One point was awarded on each hole. Obviously, stamina was a factor, especially because most of the players were in the over 55 years old category. The low handicapped teams played each other, as did the high handicapped teams.

After all the matches were over, the scores for each flight were totaled and the team with the most points from each flight went to the shoot-out. The lowest handicap players were in the Woods flight. The winning team in this flight was member Jim Beach and guest Kevin Blake. They won the flight by a safe margin, scoring 7½- 2½ in their first match, and 6-4 in their next four matches. Next came the Nicklaus flight. The winners there were Mike and Andrew Mundell. They also won their flight easily with an impressive score of 34-1/2. They won all their matches with 6-1/2, 7 or 7-1/2 points.

The third lowest handicap players were in the Hogan flight. The winners in this flight were member John Roeder and guest Tom Stafford. This flight had a tie for first place. The Roeder-Stafford team and the team of Jerry Heiser and Todd Kalinosky both finished with 31-1/2 points. The flight winner was decided by the head-to-head match-up of the two teams, which the Roeder-Stafford team won 6-1/2 to 3-1/2. The fourth flight was the Watson flight and it was won by the ultimate over-all winners, member Seehaver and guest Beckhard. They won the flight with an impressive scoring of 6-1/2 and 8 points. They were tied for third in their flight at the end of play on Saturday. The highest handicap flight was the Sarazen flight. The winner of this flight was the team of member Dan Atkinson and guest Gerry Kiernan. They won their flight by a slim two points, but showed well in the shoot-out, finishing second.

An excellent dinner at the Ashlawn Grill, for a reasonable price, was included in the Member-Guest weekend, as was an outdoor lunch on Sunday. Golf Pro Mark Marshall conducted the tournament in his usual excellent fashion, with the help of Assistant Pro Chandler Marshall.