MGA 1st Men’s Night & Champions Dinner: Thursday April 6, 2023
We are now just one week away from our 1st Men’s Night of the 2023 season and the MGA Champions Dinner we’ll be having that night. All MGA members are welcome, especially all the new MGA members for the 2023 season. We’ll have the 2022 MGA Champions trophies to hand out that night so we hope to have a great turnout.
Thank you to Chef Lois for helping us put together a Champions Dinner menu that both parallels some other guy’s menu and holds strong to our NGC traditions!
Our Champions Dinner hors d’oeuvres buffet will be available starting around 5:30 PM on April 6th so early to mid-afternoon will be a great time to play your Masters-themed, 1st Men’s Night round and then enjoy some food and celebration while watching the Masters.
1st Men’s Night: Play anytime on Thursday, April 6th Champions Dinner: Hors d’oeuvres buffet starting at 5:30 PM
Another New Year’s Day in the History Books at NGC
The 1st day of the New Year and the 2023 golf season at NGC got off to an amazing start yesterday with a tremendous edition of the Mike Miller Tournament. In its 11th annual playing as the Mike Miller and with a half century of playings in the history books, the ritual of January 1st golf at NGC is a tradition that we all truly love. Champagne was popped (and used as a tee), warmth and cheer filled the air, our shoes got a little wet, and some very good golf was played.
Thank you to all the members, former members, guests, and especially all the NGC staff that made yesterday such a great success. Thank you to Norm Brunelle for opening the season in style and to Maureen Brady & Carolyn LeCrone for providing some great NGC history. Also a huge thank you to Betty Sussmann and all those who brought food to share after the round! We are so excited for what the New Year has in store for the club — can we place an order for this warm weather to carry on straight through to April?
In the Team Net competition, the team of MORE CHAMPAGNE PLEASE — Jim Prendergast, Matt Nolan, Eric Fleming & Bruce Sedlak — shot a very impressive 52 to capture victory. Well played gentlemen! And, with a score of 59, the team of Average Drive: 238 yards — Weston Happ, Patrick Escalambre, Will Keyes & Calvin Harkless — took home the team win in the Gross Division. We heard they made 18 birdies as a team!
In the individual competition, 18 holes were not enough to determine Gross or Net champions and playoff holes ensued. After 2 shamble playings of #18 to break the ties, Victor Grinev edged out Travis Handerson to take the Net Championship. For the Gross Championship, Matt Hollerback was able to go back-to-back and defend his 2022 title defeating Weston Happ in a sudden death chip-off that followed the 2 playoff playings of #18.
Congratulations to all our 2023 Mike Miller Champions!
Mike Miller Tournament Sign-Ups close tonight at 8:00 PM
Sign-ups close tonight at 8:00 PM for the Mike Miller Tournament which is set for this Sunday, New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2023. For this tournament, 4-player teams compete playing a shamble format with Net + Gross divisions for both Individual and Team awards.
If you are an individual player, please sign up ASAP so we can set you up with a team.
11th Annual Mike Miller Tournament: Sunday, January 1st, 2023 — 10:30 AM shotgun start with annual champagne tee shot off 1st tee at 10:20 AM
Format: 4-Player Shamble — All players in foursome tee off, select the best tee shot to play 2nd shots from and, from the selected tee shot, all players play their own balls into the hole recording individual gross scores. Awards in Net + Gross divisions for both Individual and Team categories.
Cost: $20 entry fee for members (walking) — $45 for guests (with cart)
Please sign up online as a complete team foursome if possible. If you do not have a team of 4, sign up online with as many as you have and we will set you up with a group!
All credit book payouts for both the 2022 Match Play and Points Chase final results have been distributed to all MGA member accounts. A big thank you to Pete for taking care of these distributions throughout the year!
Credit Book Carryover into 2023
All credit book balances that have been accumulated in 2022 will be carried over into 2023. Credit book balances can be found by logging into the NGC Member Billing Portal, selecting My Profile and viewing the Account Summary → Credit Book Balance section.
We would like to thank all of our MGA members for their outstanding participation this season. We had 88 MGA members take part this year over the course of 9 tournaments and 30 Men’s Nights. Overall, the MGA collected and distributed $16,940 in credit book payouts for 2022.
Congratulations to our 2022 MGA Points Chase Senior Champion, Ed Clark, and 2022 MGA Points Chase Champion, Weston Happ.
Thank you again to all our members who make the MGA the awesome group that it is — we are already looking forward to the 2023 season!
Once again for this season, in lieu of a winter awards banquet, we will hold a “Champions Dinner” for the 2022 season on Thursday, April 6th, 2023 in conjunction with the 1st Men’s Night of the 2023 season and the 1st Round of the Masters. Is it April yet?
The 2022 edition of our Match Play tournament is now officially in the books. A big thank you to all the competitors who participated this year and did a great job of getting all the rounds of matches completed by our deadline dates. We had 59 players to start the tournament making the Match Play our largest field of the season and, in the end, 2 men stood atop their respective brackets.
On Saturday, October 22nd, Phil Martin & Matt Doherty took to the course to play the Main Bracket Final. In another epic match, Matt birdied the 16th hole to bring the match to all square. This also meant the match was guaranteed to go all 18 holes and, on the 18th green, Mr. Doherty captured the victory and is our 2022 MGA Match Play Champion. Well played to both our finalists and congrats to Matt Doherty on completing his 6-0, six-win run to stand alone as our only undefeated Match Play player of 2022.
And in the Wildcard Bracket Final, Jim Sussmann took on Erik Rosales to determine the final MGA tournament result of the season. When all was said and done, Erik Rosales put together a great round and took the 2022 Wildcard Bracket win.
With the final tournament of the 2022 MGA season in the books, we’d like to thank all those who made this a fantastic year. Over the course of the season, we had 88 MGA members participate in our 9 tournaments and 30 Men’s Nights, none of which would have been possible without all the NGC staff who truly make our home course the place we all love. Thinking of where we were last year vs. where we are today should bring a smile to all! And finally, thank you to all the MGA members for always bringing the competition and camaraderie on (and off) the course.
Closing Day Results
31 players came out for our final Stableford battle of the season and we couldn’t have asked for better weather or fellowship. Thank you to John and all the grounds crew for all your hard work getting the greens rolling fast and true for our final event!
In the Net Division, Matt Nolan ended his 2022 season in style with a stellar 38 Stableford points, collecting the win and 1st place points (as well as big $ for a skin on #1 — one of only 2 skins on the day with the other being Ed Clarke on #3). Well played Matt! With very solid 36 Stableford points Micah Busbee finished 2nd and Carl Ford & Kevin Gates ended T-3rd at a tally of 34 — great playing gentlemen.
In the Gross Division, a very close leaderboard throughout the day came down to the final holes where Patrick Escalambre, who played the final 8 holes at 1-under, got up and down for 2-point pars on both #17 and #18 to secure the victory at 33 Stableford points. Finishing 2nd was Jared Powell at 32 points and Dave Krukowski was 3rd with 31 — a fun battle all the way to the end!
In a fantastic conclusion to the 2022 MGA major season, one of the best weather weekends of year was the perfect companion to great course conditions, excellent golf, and the camaraderie of team golf. We’d especially like to say thank you to Mr. Stearns for the ongoing legacy he created at NGC and to all the NGC staff who helped make the weekend a huge success. Thank you to Mary Ann and Pete for making sure all our bookkeeping and tournament logistics were perfect. Thank you to John and all his crew for getting the course and greens into great shape. Thank you to Donnee for keeping us organized and always on time with the whistle. Thank you to all the Pro Shop and golf staff who are the lifeblood of the golf course we love. And thank you to Jada, Basil, Chef Lois, Christine, and all the clubhouse staff for all the great food & drink and for always making the clubhouse feel like our 2nd home (because it pretty much is).
Net & Gross Division Results
19 teams battled it out in the 2022 edition of the Stearns Cup and, across the board, we had some very intriguing storylines. In the year of the repeat, word on the street is that the #11 & #12 pond has hired a PR firm for multiple trending “incidents”, but that’s a tale for another day…
In the Net Division, the fight for 1st place honors came down to the final holes and, when all was said and done, the team that came to repeat their 2021 victory showed what true champions are made of by capturing the 2022 title. Congratulations to Mike Reynard & Victor Grinev whose White Russian team finished at -14 just edging out the M&M’s Plain team of Myron Gibert & Mel Kince who finished 2nd at -13 and the Busbee/Helmer team of Mike Helmer & Micah Busbee who came in 3rd at -12.
In the Gross Division, one team was looking to threepeat and all others were looking to start a winning streak of their own and take home the cup. After some great golf from the 4 teams who finished under par for the weekend, the Can You Threepeat That? team of James Hsiao & Weston Happ was able to answer the question and take home the 2022 championship. Finishing the weekend bogey-free at -8, Can You Threepeat That? edged out the Dorkless team of Matt Doherty & Calvin Harkless who finished 2nd at -4, the AP🇺🇸⛳️🇨🇦⛳️ team of Adam Miller & Patrick Escalambre who finished 3rd at -3, and the Dirty Birdies team of Jim Sussmann & Brian Carlstrom who finished 4th at -1.
Thank you to all our MGA members who played this weekend and who took part in our majors this season. It’s been a great year and let’s have a great final 2 weeks!
Upcoming MGA Schedule
10/20 — 1-Club Challenge: Back 9 — Players choose only 1 club to use for all shots (including putting) for the entire round.
10/27 — E-9: Final Men’s Night of 2022. All players meet on the 1st tee at 4:00 PM for a traditional NGC E-9. Scramble teams will be determined by handicap index.
10/29 — MGA Closing Day Stableford: Final MGA event of the season, 18-hole Stableford format with gross and net divisions.
The Finals are now set for both the Main and Wildcard Match Play brackets. In some great matches that played out over the weekend, some very competitive and back-and-forth golf was played. In the Main Bracket, both Final 4 matches came down to the 18th hole where Phil Martin won 1-up over Calvin Harkless and Matt Doherty won 1-up over Daryl Stone. In the Wildcard Bracket, Jim Sussmann took the win over Steve Cuevas and Erik Rosales defeated Bob Debold.
Congratulations to our competitors in both Finals!
All $30 entry fees for the 2022 Match Play Tournament were charged to member accounts on 10/2/2022 under the line item Credit Book Tournament Fund: $30.00 — All credit book payouts will be distributed at the conclusion of both Finals matches.
We’d like to send out a thank you to all competitors for completing their matches to get us to the semifinals in both the Main and Wildcard brackets. Congrats and well played to all those who have now reached the Final 4:
Main Bracket Final 4:
Phil Martin vs. Calvin Harkless
Daryl Stone vs. Matt Doherty
Wildcard Bracket Final 4:
Erik Rosales vs. Bob DeBold
Jim Sussmann vs. Steve Cuevas
The next round deadline for Final 4 matches is Monday, October 10th.
Match Play Entry Fee
The $30 entry fee for the 2022 Match Play will be charged to all competitors’ accounts this week.
