(Shawn DeMain, Collin Yelich, Luke Larson & Mike Miezin)
The countdown to the end of the WPGA tournament season continued on Monday, as the always popular Oliphant Golf Management Pro-Am Championship made its visit to The GC’s of Lawsonia.
For the eighth straight season the event put a cherry on top of another successful WPGA Four-Player Pro-Am Series. It brought together the top finishing teams from throughout the nine regular season events, to see who could take home this year’s title.
Once again the event was set to take place on The Links Course at Lawsonia, with twenty-nine teams from throughout the Section in the field.
This year’s format would be 1,2,3 net best ball. Each team would take their best net score on the par 3s, two best net scores on the par 4s and the three best net scores on the par 5s, to create their 18 hole total.
Heading into the event the team to beat was the Golf Galaxy Appleton / Butte des Morts CC team of Brian Brodell, John Lukas, Nick Vangrinsven and Marty Bonneson. The foursome had won outright or shared a piece of the three last titles.
They’d make a valiant effort to get title number four but ultimately come up short with a tie for fourth place.
With such a heavy emphasis on the par 5s the champions surely would need to dominate some of the most gettable holes on the Links Course. Doing just that and setting themselves up in a prime position to win was the group from X Golf Brookfield. Mike Miezin, Luke Larson, Shawn DeMain and Collin Yelich would post an impressive 22-under-par 132 total on the breezy and cool day. On the five par 5s they would go 13-under-par. Over the course of the day the foursome would make twenty-three net birdies and one net eagle. Their scorecard showed that each team member would provide key contributions on the way to the win.
Finishing three shots back in tie for second was the Ryan Helminen and Joe Leonard led groups.
The low professional stableford contests would feature some more great golf. Coming out on top in the low pro game was Davis Jensen of North Shore CC. The 28-year-old would shoot a very impressive 6-under-par 66 on the way to earning 42 stableford points. He would hold off Brodell and Andy Hansen by just one point to get the win.
In the over 50 crowd it would Charlie Brown with the top mark. He would shoot a 1-under-par 71 and accumulate 37 stableford points.
As with the past events, they day featured several enhancements courtesy of Oliphant Golf Management. One of those was the closest to the pin contests. Taking home the prizes on the par 3s were:
#4 – Craig Czerniejewski
#7 – Mark Voeller
#10 – Marty Bell
#12 – Jonah Curtis
#14 – Blake Seider & Ron Long – HOLE-IN-ONES!
In addition, they also provided some great raffle prizes for a random draw among the amateur participants. Dave Halverson, Aaron Perkins and Nick Schulz all took home some new merchandise via the raffle.
Once again a great deal of appreciation goes out to everyone at Oliphant Golf Management and The GC’s of Lawsonia. They did a fantastic job of making sure all the attendees enjoyed the day and got plenty of bang for their buck.
To host both the Pro-Am Championship and the WPGA Professional Championship in the same year shows their terrific commitment to supporting golf in Wisconsin.