A Two-Man Scramble Decided on the Edge
There are golf tournaments where somebody gets hot early, runs away from the field and turns the final few holes into a formality.
This was not one of them.
On Saturday, the Poplar Creek Golf Club sent 22 two-man teams onto the course for the Two-Man Scramble, and what followed was the kind of day that reminds you why tournament golf is different from an ordinary Saturday round.
Every shot mattered. Every bogey left a scar. Every birdie changed the math.
And when the final cards were turned in, Flight 1 had been decided by one shot.
The first seven teams finished 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 and 69.
That isn't a leaderboard.
That's a traffic jam. A 5pm Highway 101 intersecting with Highway 92 eastbound traffic jam.
And somewhere inside those numbers were charges, collapses narrowly avoided, an eagle, strings of pars, back-nine comebacks and enough late birdies to keep the outcome uncertain until the scorecards were complete.
FLIGHT 1: THE CHASE
Skip Sanzeri and Rob Carballar did not make their move quietly.
They opened with a 37 and were hardly running away with anything. Worse, the back nine began with 5’s on Nos. 10 and 11, and another 5 came at 13. A tournament can disappear during a stretch like that.
Instead, they suddenly caught fire.
Par-5 14th: birdie.
Par-3 15th: 2. Birdie.
Par-5 16th: birdie again.
Par at 17.
Then, on 18, needing one last exclamation point, Carballar sticks the green from 165 yards out and slams in a 15 foot birdie putt. Sanzeri and Carballar didn’t know it, but that one stroke sealed the flight and gave them the low gross score of the day at 71.
Four birdies in the final five holes.
A closing 34.
A net 64, six under par.
And first place in Flight 1 by a single shot.
But there was absolutely no room to relax, because Keith Schumacher and Ken Witsoe were right behind them.
Keith and Ken were perhaps the model of steadiness all day: 36 going out, 36 coming home. They struck early with a birdie 2 on the fifth, added another birdie at the eighth, and then did something almost as valuable in tournament golf—they refused to go away. From 13 through 18 they finished with six consecutive pars. Their net 65 was five under par, one shot from the top, and it forced the winning team to earn every bit of that closing charge.
One shot behind them were Felila Esikia and Justin Rouspil, and for nine holes they played some of the best golf in the entire flight. Their front side was an even-par 35, highlighted by a birdie at the sixth and another at the ninth. They also piled up pars—11 of them for the round—and their net 66 left them four under par and alone in third. When a team turns in a 35 on the opening nine of a scramble, everybody behind them knows the target has moved.
Then came Alfred Bogenhuber and James Abayon, whose card was a lesson in refusing to make mistakes. They went 36-37 for a gross 73 and net 67. But the remarkable number was this: 15 pars. Fifteen. They parred eight of the first nine holes and later ran off seven more pars between 11 and 17. There were no spectacular fireworks. There was simply relentless pressure—the golfing equivalent of someone knocking on the door for four straight hours.
Joe Cioni and David Butzman found their fireworks in the middle of the front nine. First came a 2 on the par-3 fifth. Then, before anyone could catch their breath, a 3 on the par-4 sixth. Back-to-back birdies. They paired that burst with matching 37s on each nine, added a long collection of pars on the back and finished at net 68, two under. Their card had exactly what a good scramble card needs: a run where two good holes suddenly become a surge.
At 69 came two very different challenges.
Joshua Baltor and Kirk Hansen produced birdies at the eighth and the par-5 16th, shot a solid 37 on the opening nine and accumulated nine pars along the way. Their 69 was one under par, and they remained in red numbers despite a difficult finish. The ability to absorb damage and still post under par is tournament golf in its purest form.
Beside them at 69 were Jeremy Bianucci and Michael Shaffer, and their accomplishment was particularly impressive because they were working with just a three-shot team handicap. They shot an even-par 35 on the front, made birdies at both the eighth and the 16th and posted a gross 72. They also recorded 12 pars. With fewer handicap strokes available than almost anyone around them, they kept themselves in the fight through ball striking and consistency.
Saad Saleem and Dave Koons may have produced the most symmetrical card of the day: 38 out. 38 in. They opened with four consecutive pars, made 13 pars in all and finished exactly at net even-par 70. There was no wild nine-hole swing, no dramatic rescue mission. They simply kept putting pars on the board—and in scramble competition, where one bad hole can infect the next three, there is considerable value in never allowing the round to unravel.
Jerome Jacky and Jim Toth wasted no time announcing themselves. They made birdie on the very first hole, then struck again with another birdie at the sixth. Their front-nine 37 kept them very much in the conversation, and they later steadied the back side with pars at 11, 16 and 17. They finished with a net 71, but their opening birdie ensured that, from the first green onward, the rest of Flight 1 knew somebody was already moving.
Brian Cresta and Artie White played what might have been one of the strongest gross performances relative to handicap in the field. With only two handicap strokes, they still shot 74 gross, including perfectly matched 37-37 nines. They birdied the eighth and made an extraordinary 13 pars. From 11 through 14 they made four straight pars, and they closed with pars on 16, 17 and 18. With virtually no handicap cushion, their score had to be built the old-fashioned way.
And James Lambrechts and Bill Stevens had stretches that would make any team proud. After an opening six, they answered immediately with five consecutive pars from Nos. 2 through 6. They added pars at eight and nine to complete a strong 37 on the front, and later made another important par at the par-5 16th. Their day was proof of one of golf's oldest rules: one bad number only becomes two bad numbers if you let it.
FLIGHT 2: ANOTHER 64 APPEARS
Anyone who thought Flight 1 had monopolized the drama hadn't looked across the other half of the scoreboard.
Manny Casillas and Thierry Jahan matched the lowest net score of the day with their own 64, six under par, and they did it with a superb closing nine.
After a 37 going out, they came home in 35. Their card included a birdie 3 at the sixth, a 2 at the par-3 12th, and another 2 at the par-3 17th. They added 10 pars and finished with a par at 18. It was an emphatic Flight 2 victory and a score that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with anything posted all day.
Behind them, Bret Evans and Jeffrey Peachin supplied perhaps the most explosive single hole on the scoreboard.
On the sixth hole—a par 4—they made 2
Not birdie.
Eagle.
Two shots.
They added another birdie at the par-5 16th, matched 37s on both nines and finished at net 66, four under par. An eagle in a scramble is more than a number. It changes the entire mood of the round. Suddenly three ordinary holes don't seem ordinary anymore because you've stolen two shots from the course in one swing of the pencil.
Tied with them at 66 were Ed Ferguson and Joel Spielman, who put together a brilliant opening nine. Their front-side 35 was even par, and it included a birdie 3 on the fourth. More impressive still, they played the first eight holes without a single over-par score: pars at 1, 2 and 3, birdie at 4, then pars on 5, 6, 7 and 8. That's how a team gets comfortable near the top of a tournament leaderboard—by giving the course almost nothing.
George Kellner and Stephen Makishima turned consistency into a weapon. Like several of the day's strongest teams, they shot 37-37, but their card contained an astonishing 15 pars. They parred six straight from four through nine, three more from 10 through 12, then four consecutive pars from 14 through 17. Their net 68 was two under par. Sometimes drama arrives with a birdie barrage.
Sometimes it arrives because a team simply refuses to make a mistake.
Emil Picchi and Jay Denney were one over gross on the front with a 36, and they finished that nine in style with a birdie 4 on the ninth. Later, when the back nine threatened to get away, they punched back with a 2 at the par-3 15th. They also made pars at 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 and eventually posted a net 69, one under par. Twice during the round, when a birdie could change the direction of the card, they found one.
Michael Brosnan and Steve Rush also reached red numbers with a pair of timely birdies. They made 2 on the par-3 seventh, turned in a solid 37 on the front, and later birdied the par-5 16th with a 4. They backed those moments with pars at 1, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 11, enough to bring the card home at net even-par 70.
For David Lagerloef and Bill Capote, the middle of the back nine became their strongest stand. They made pars at 13, 14 and 15 in succession, including par on the long par-5 14th, and they had already collected pars at 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11. Nine pars in total gave them a foundation, and their front-nine 39 kept the round within reach before they finished at net 72.
Larry Shaw and Andy Maso had their best stretch early, answering the difficult opening holes with back-to-back pars at four and five. They added another par at the eighth and later made par on the par-5 16th. With a 12-shot team handicap, those steady holes mattered significantly to the net card, and they worked their way to a 73.
Joe Fernando and Bob Whitaker found one of the day's best sustained runs as they approached the turn. Beginning at the sixth, they made four consecutive pars—6, 7, 8 and 9. They later regrouped with another par at 11 and finished 16 and 17 with back-to-back pars. That ability to create multiple stretches without surrendering shots helped them post net 73.
Joseph Canepa and Dave Baltor created their own front-nine surge. They made par at six, par at seven and then struck with a birdie 3 at the eighth—a three-hole sequence that suddenly changed the look of the card. They also made pars at 1 and 4, added pars at 11, 12 and 14, and finished the entire tournament with a solid par at 18. Their final result was another net 73.
And finally there were Ken Gerstle and Dennis Reiser, who demonstrated exactly what competitors are supposed to do when the opening nine doesn't cooperate: they played the back nine two shots better than the front. They made consecutive pars at 11 and 12, then did it again at 15 and 16. Four back-nine pars, two separate par-par stretches, and an improved inward nine gave them something every golfer understands—the satisfaction of fighting the round all the way to the clubhouse.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE SHOT
When every card had been checked, every handicap applied and every last number entered, the board told the story.
Skip Sanzeri and Rob Carballar: 64, winners of Flight 1.
Manny Casillas and Thierry Jahan: 64, winners of Flight 2.
Two teams.
Two six-under scores.
But the path to those numbers could hardly have been more dramatic.
In Flight 1, Schumacher and Witsoe were sitting at 65. Esikia and Rouspil were at 66. Bogenhuber and Abayon were at 67. Cioni and Butzman were at 68.
There was nowhere to hide.
Sanzeri and Carballar had reached the 14th after making three bogeys in the first four holes of the back nine.
Then came 4 birdies.
The back-nine card that had threatened to derail the round instead read 34.
The 71 gross was the best gross score of the day and became 64 net.
And a tournament that had spent 18 holes refusing to reveal its winner was finally over.
By one shot.
That's tournament golf at Poplar Creek.
Twenty-two teams. Forty-four players. Hundreds of swings. A thousand little decisions.
And in the end, the difference between winning Flight 1 and finishing second was exactly what golfers know it so often is:
ONE SHOT.