Western States Shootout Results

The Western States Stableford Shootout was the seventh event for the Northern California Chapter of the Amateur Players Tour. As you may know the modified stableford is a scoring system based on gathering points and generating a HIGHER score, not the normal scoring method of fewest strokes. When you see the winning scores keep this scoring method in mind. We played under the following scoring rules:

Double Bogey and up = -1     Bogey = 0     Par = 2

Birdie = 4    Eagle = 9     Double Eagle = 15

Joining our local North Cal members were players from seven other chapters throughout the APT family. Our first day was at Old Greenwood, site of the PGA Tour's Barracuda Championship. It is a special opportunity to play a PGA tour venue, but a bit more excitement is added when you play the venue with the stands in place knowing the pros will soon compete on the same course. The second day was held at Toiyabe Golf Club which is a favorite place to play in the Reno area. In addition to the two golf rounds we had a welcome reception, chipping contest and limo ride to and from Toiyabe for a select few on the second day of competition.

A competitive field of six teed it up in Division 1 looking to score the Tahoe Blue trophy and a $350 Visa Gift Card. Day one was held at Old Greenwood where three players scored in the 30s led by Ony Velez (North Cal) scoring 34 aided by his round of 5 birdies, Dillon Rafferty (North Cal) scored 31 including a 9 point eagle on hole 12, Kent Kao scored 30. Lurking in fourth was Jeff Clifford (Rocky Mountain) with a 27, his field best 22 points on the back nine should have put everyone on notice Jeff was starting to roll.

On day two Ony completed the front nine with a solid 16 points while Jeff gathered 17 points making a slight gain. Dillon stayed within striking distance after finishing the front with 15 points. It would be the 10th hole where momentum would make the first shift of the day where Jeff made birdie collecting four points while Ony and Dillon made double bogey and lost a point. The competitors left the 10th one point apart with Ony at 49 and Jeff at 48. Both Jeff and Ony traded pars for the next four holes, while Dillon unfortunately had a ride on the bogey train. The 15th would be another point swing where Jeff made par for two points and Ony made double for -1 points resulting in a swing of 3 points and Jeff taking the lead by 2 points 58-56. The remaining three holes would be tightly contested with the end result of Jeff making two pars and Ony making one resulting in the final margin of 62-58.

A fun filled group of 6 teed it up in Division 2 looking to take home the Tahoe Blue Trophy and a $350 Visa Gift Card. Day one at Old Greenwood was a challenge for the Division 2 group.  Mark Lytle (South Cal) was the best of the group scoring a 17 while Jody Barrett (National Chapter Owner) scored 16 and Van Mortensen (Rocky Mountain) scored 15 to round out the top 3. The common theme for everyone was how we enjoyed the day and course but each of us would have liked to play better and posted a higher point total. The upshot to everyone leaving points out on the course was the opportunity was still available for anyone to win on Saturday.

Day two had an early move in the standing as Russ Donaldson (Birmingham) collected 14 points on the front nine and took a four point lead over Jody. Hole 10 is where we saw the standing move again with Birdies by Jody, Van and Phil Caccamise (South Cal) which tightened up the standing with these four separated by two points. Jody and Phil would make 8 points over the next four holes bringing their total to 34 and 33 respectively. They would each finish the remaining four holes on the negative side leaving the door open for Russ who only collected two points down the stretch to finish one point behind Jody.

A strong field of 15 teed it up in Division 3 looking to score the Tahoe Blue trophy and a $550 Visa Gift Card to first. Taking on the challenging PGA Tour stop Old Greenwood on Day 1, several players put up great scores but it was Nathaniel Berumen (North Cal) and Andy Sturdivant (Phoenix) leading the way with matching 21’s. Nathaniel got off to a slow start on the front but jumped right into contention with a birdie-par-EAGLE stretch to start the back nine, good for 15 points in a three hole stretch! Andy was steady all day, posting one birdie and ten pars. Josh Smith (North Cal) was also in the mix with a two birdie 19 point day. On day 2, it was all Berumen as he cruised home to win by 13 points on the strength of his second straight score of 21. Junior London (Phoenix) put up the third best score on Day 2, collecting 18 points on the strength of two birdies and eight pars, jumping into 2nd place overall and earning a $250 Visa Gift Card. Josh Smith hung on for third and the $100 prize with it, holding off Shawn Larsen (Rocky Mountain) by a single point. Shawn put up the second best score on day two with a 20 to jump into the mix. Congratulations to Nathaniel on securing his first two day championship win!

In Division 4, Joe Smolira (Nashville) was our winner. Joe was uncontested and took home the Tahoe Blue Trophy and $100 Visa gift card for his efforts and making the trip out west.  Joe and I played quite a few courses during his time out west and I appreciate him coming out to play with us.

In Division 5 we had four competitors tee it up to purse the Tahoe Blue trophy and $250 Visa Gift Card. Day 1 was a competitive day where three competitors ended the day within two points.  It would be Michael Cosselman (Las Vegas) taking the lead with 4 points over both Felix Monjes (North Cal) and John Spradling (North Cal) with 2 points. Michael was excited to learn at the Friday night reception he was able to take the limo to and from the course which he made sure to enjoy! Day 2 saw three of the four competitors take the lead at some point on the front nine. Things would begin to take shape after John took the lead after making a two putt birdie on the par 5 9th. Things did get close on the back as Felix and John left the 15th green tied. Similar to Division 1, it would be the closing three that decided the winner as John made pars on both 16 and 17 while Felix made bogey and double bogey.  It did come down to one last chance for a playoff where Felix's attempt at birdie on 18 was unsuccessful and he settled for par. Congrats to John for his first two day championship win!

The Northern California Tour's next stop is at Half Moon Bay's Ocean Course. This is one of my favorite venues in the Bay Area. Our member price is only $200 which is the same as the general public rate. Enjoy a tournament experience, prize pool and trophies for the same cost as a Sunday round with no prizes, no trophies and no special experience. I encourage you to ask your friends to come check us out. I will be eliminating the guest fee for anyone who is referred by an existing member.