SATURDAY: MANTHEY GOES FOR HIS EIGHTH STRAIGHT MMGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Ron Manthey opened his defense of his seventh straight MMGA club championship win last year at the Palms golf course on Saturday. This year’s tournament director had the championship players all teeing up from the middle tees. Is this going to be an advantage for Andrew Yeh to end Manthey’s seven year streak? After Saturday’s first round it may be in Yeh’s favor. But don’t count out new member Jon Hawkins. Even though Yeh turned in a one over par 37 on the front, his back nine of four under par 32 could mean the end to Manthey’s reign. Hawkins actually beat Yeh by one shot on the front side and almost matched Yeh’s superb sub-par on the back with his own great two under par 34 for 70 leaving him just one shot back heading into Sunday’s predicted windy cold round at the CasaBlanca. Manthey had a consistent round of 38-39-77 but being down eight and seven strokes with the weather predicted I should think it will be very difficult for him to repeat.
SUNDAY: MANTHEY’S MMGA STREAK ENDS AT SEVEN
Overall MMGA club low gross winner Jon Hawkins, left, with the overall low net winner, Andrew Yeh, on the right. Photo by Bill Irace.
The weather for the second day of the 2014 MMGA club championship was as exactly as predicted, strong winds and very cold temperatures for this early in November. And the weather could not have delivered a more severe blow to Ron Manthey’s eighth straight club championship title. If you could see the score card of the four contenders it very realistically portrays the eventual outcome. The miserable conditions were tough to say the least. But two of the final four players played extremely well for 11 holes. New member Jon Hawkins trailing by one shot after Saturdays round took the lead by one shot after the first nine holes. Hawkins shot 38 to Andrew Yeh’s 40. When Hawkins birdied the 11th hole and Yeh took a double bogey, Hawkins led by four strokes and it was pretty much over. Yeh tried to stay close by tying Hawkins on the next four holes and even birdied the par three #16 while Hawkins bogeyed to close to within three but couldn’t close the gap. With those gusty terrific 18 holes in those conditions, Jon Hawkins (77) was well-deserved to be named the 2014 MMGA club champion. After the match, Yeh summed up his round. “I lost this on the par fives. With my length I should not have played them six over par.”
Yeh (81) was still a winner as he took home the overall MMGA first place net score of 144. Ron Manthey summed his weekend as “I had a long run at this for seven years. I had a lot of fun during this time and my whole-hearted congratulations go out to our new young champion, he really deserved it under these conditions.” To further sum up how miserable Sunday’s play was there were only three rounds under 84. Hawkins at 77, Yeh with 81 and Ed Hoepfner’s 84. Twelve players scored over 100 and the other 15 members were in the 90’s. Here are the flight results:
Champions’ Flight LG Jon Hawkins LN Andrew Yeh 2G Ed Hoepfner 2N Tim Miller 3N Bob Chambers
Flight A LG Gary Denhalter LN Lew Roney
Flight B LG Jon Meyer LN Roger Mueller 2LN Jim Naccarato
Flight C LG Russ Clark LN Marv Gielen
Flight D LG Joel Reilly LN Manny Lira 2LN Ray Rodgers
Next scheduled outing for the MMGA is Thursday, Nov 20th at 8:30 at the Palms. Anyone interested in joining the MMGA can call 702-346-6363. Also check out their website at www.mesquitemensgolf.com.
