StoneRidge Recap

Stillwater - As usual the greens at StoneRidge were quite the challenge to our members regardless of flight. The blowing wind didn't help matters much either. The day started out with clouds and a cool mist and ended up in bright sunshine. 

The smallest flight of the day, Hogan, was also the most competitive and ended with a playoff stunner. Darren Kress and Anthony Hugelen had matching 88s. Darren led after the front nine by 4 shots and Anthony had the better back nine by 4 shots. Both 
hit good drives on the first playoff hole. Darren's approach found the bottom of the cup from 79 yards to end the shortest playoff in local tour history. 

Todd Klocke made it 2 in a row with a one shot victory over Pete Rojas in Sr. Snead. Jeff McVay led at the turn with Todd 3 back and Pete 4. Todd and Pete matched scores on the inward 9 featuring a birdie on the barn hole by Todd.

Sr. Sarazen was a fight to the finish. George Hardgrove and Steve Springer had the best front sides with 44s. Ed Favorite was 6 back of the leaders but shot 41 on the back nine to match George at 91. The victory went to George when Ed wasn't available for the playoff.

 Fredy Alvear returned to the winners circle for the first time since last fall. He was 1 shots back of Jeff Loeffler after nine. His final 9 holes was two better than Jeff. Jon Sanz posted a flight best 43 on the back to take 2nd.

Sr. Hogan looked like a 2 horse race at the turn between Dan Barrett and Robert Gardner. Dan cruised to a 5 shot victory while Jason Topp finished a length ahead of Robert to place. 

Kyle Gangelhoff, of the Palmer flight, grabs his first Am Tour win in only his 3rd event. His 38 on the front gave him all the room he needed to hang on for the 2 shot victory over Steve Schubert.

Mike Kelley earned his first victory since getting a promotion to Championship flight with the low round of the day at 79 but it wasn't easy. 3 players turned at 37. Mike suffered a triple on 10 while John Juntilla and Jason Rhoades limited the damage to bogies. But the golf gods evened the score throwing a quad at Jason on 11 and a triple at John on 12 while Mike went through the same stretch even. Mike beat John by 1 while Jason finished 2 back of John.

Closest to the pin winners were Ben Kodadek and Steve Springer.

Steve Springer also won the 50/50 raffle in support of Feherty's Troops First Foundation to the tune of $180. That puts our season total at $835. Thanks for your continued support.

Thanks to everyone who played today and especially for the good pace of play. 

Our next tournament is at Willingers on July 9. Please register before you head out of town for the holiday weekend.

While your at it please give consideration to joining us at Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City (near Des Moines). This is a team challenge event with the KC tour. It is a regular stroke play tournament with the team aspect added. We will level the number of players on each team per flight by using a blind draw to determine who's scores will count for the team competition. It's a 3-1/2 hour drive to Polk City from the 35E/35W split in Burnsville. Tee times don't start until 11AM so there is time to drive down in the morning if your prefer. We have 10 members currently registered including me. Won't you join us?

As always, thanks to Mary, Val and Deb (who came in before her business trip) for all their help.