MGA Team Play - Semi-Final Match
Griffith Park G.C. vs. Sepulveda G.C. @ Encino
September 19, 2019
The MGA post-season is finally here! After a long and windy regular season, today's semi-final match featured #2 seed Sepulveda G.C. hosting #3 seed Griffith Park G.C. at Encino. Driving out today, I felt nervously confident. Now I know that's totally an oxymoron... like jumbo shrimp! But an accurate description of how I felt. Was nervous about the result, but at the same time was confident in our lineup, And even though we were the travelling team, I knew we would give Sepulveda all they could handle.
But first thing's first. Let's take a team picture!
Brian Mason and Ted Johnson led us off. Brian was playing on scholarship today after a wonderful performance in a prior match. He shot a very serviceable net 75 and grinded his way around the course as Brian always does. After winning the front 2 up, Ted was able to hang on and tie the back - resulting in a 2 up overall victory with a net 73 and securing 5 points from his individual match.
Our second group had two brothers from different mothers in Matthew Nicklaw and Josh Temple. Matthew shot a spectacular round and was our gross-leader today with a gross 70. Heck, he was almost our net-leader today too with a net 67 (yes we did have someone go lower!). Matthew had a very nice day and went on for a comfortable victory in his individual match. Josh Temple shot a great round too with a gross 75 / net 70. And boy, did Josh come through in the clutch. On the 18th Josh had a must-make 45 footer for birdie to tie the team fourball match. DRAINED IT. Damn, wish I had a video so you could see the jubilation. Chest bumps and all. Great putt Josh.
Paul Robinson and Steve Bloom in our third group both navigated around the course pretty well with a net 75 and net 74, respectively. Both Paul and Steve won the front side and together, they were able to pretty much split the points available in their individual matches.
Our fourth group featured Will Urie and Dan Graham. Not sure what Will had for breakfast but he was on FIRE today shooting a gross 77 and was our net-leader today with a sizzling net 65. Took all 6 points from his individual match. Dan won all 6 points from his match too, although he had a slightly harder time doing it. Dan narrowly won the front 1 up. The stress continued on the back but he was able to squeeze out another 1 up win on the back, resulting in a 2 up overall victory. Will and Dan delivered some much-needed fourball team points too, bringing in the first fourball win of the day.
With one match remaining we were well ahead on individual points, but well behind on the fourball team component. So we all looked to Albert Grant and Karl Kaul to bring home the bacon. It was the team points that we so desperately needed, and it was a tight one! Their fourball match ended all-square on the front. And it stayed all-square all the way until the 17th hole. Just an incredible match! But the 17th hole didn't go our way. Albert and Karl put forth an awesome effort, but we just didn't have enough team points acquired from the previous matches.
The result of today's semi-final match came down to a tie-breaker. Griffith Park won individual 37 - 23, but we lost team 10 - 20. Because there cannot be a tie in a playoff match, we went to the tie breaker formula which = (individual points) + (2 x team points). So the final result was Griffith Park's 57 points vs. Sepulveda's 63 points. Sepulveda G.C. advances to the MGA Finals.
We had 29 unique GP players participate in the 2019 MGA season and I want to thank all of you for being part of the journey. Hopefully you enjoyed the competition and the team camaraderie we shared. Don't forget - we have the annual MGA scramble coming up in November. A real cool event since they mix the teams up from the diffierent clubs. So instead of competing against members from other clubs, you're cheering each other on! It's an interesting dynamic and a lot of fun so save the date - Nov 14. More to come on that...
Regards,
Jensen Lee
MGA Captain,
Griffith Park Golf Club
If you would like to sign up to play in our Municipal Golf Association ("MGA") golf league, please e-mail: jensenlee213@gmail.com
xx
