Midlothian, VA – The E-Z-GO MAPGA Team Championship is one of the favorite events among our professionals. The unique team format is a fun way to end our tournament season. Played over two days, the two-person teams play 27 holes each day. Each nine holes has a different format: four-ball, alternate shot (Foursomes), and scramble. This event seems to always come down to the wire.
Salisbury Country Club hosted this year’s event for the ninth time. Andy Bonn (Trump National Golf Club) & Troy Thorne (Hobbs Hole Golf Course) got off to a hot start. They started on the four-ball nine and made eagle on their 2nd hole of the day. They carried that momentum into the scramble nine, making three birdies and two more eagles for a 7-under 29. That brought them to the toughest format, alternate shot. They played great team golf and managed to go one-under in that format on day one. They finished back on the four-ball side and Bonn made three birdies in a row to give them a total of 13-under par. That gave them the overnight lead by four shots over Frank Ferguson (Washington G&CC) and Rick Schuller (Stonehenge G&CC).
The final pairing of Bonn/Thorne and Ferguson/Schuller played the four-ball nine first. They each shot even par and that brought them to the scramble nine. The two-time MAPGA Team Champions in Ferguson & Schuller knew this was their time to make a move. They made that made that move right away by making seven 3’s in a row (5 birdies, 1 eagle, 1 par). Bonn & Thorne made 5 birdies themselves during that stretch and still had the lead by two. However, they failed to birdie the last two holes on the scramble nine while Ferguson & Schuller did. That brought them to the alternate shot nine all tied at 18-under par.
Defending champions Billy Hoffman (Westwood CC) and Josh Speight (The Club at Viniterra) also entered the mix after a 7-under par on the scramble nine. They entered the alternate at 16-under, trailing by just two shots.
Ferguson/Schuller lost their momentum with a bogey on their first alternate shot hole. However, a birdie on the fourth alternate shot hole got them back even with Bonn/Thorne.
A bogey on the fifth hole for Hoffman/Speight proved to be too much to come back from. They made one last valiant effort on the final hole, with a Speight birdie putt that ended one revolution short.
The same could be said for Bonn/Thorne’s bogey on the par-5 6th hole. That put them one shot back as each team made par coming to the last hole. On the last hole, Thorne put a drive in the first cut and Bonn hit a great approach shot to 15 feet. After Ferguson missed a long birdie attempt, Thorne had a chance to send it to extra holes. He hit a great putt that just didn’t break back enough. Schuller made a scary comebacker down the hill the give Ferguson/Schuller their 3rd MAPGA Team Championship title.
Thank you to Mike Hott and his staff at Salisbury Country Club for being fantastic hosts.
Thank you to title sponsor E-Z-GO, as well as supporting sponsors Cleveland/Srixon, Sterling Cut Glass, and Fore to Feet for sponsoring the event!