Four Teams Win Titles at 2022 SNGA Tour Bear’s Best Four-Ball
The teams of Scott Lytle-Matt Mitchell (Championship), Jeffrey Gilliame-Gordon Schiring (Senior), John Kelley-Mark Dopheide (Silver) and Adam Pion-Nathan Park (Net) won titles in the 2022 SNGA Tour Four-Ball Championship.–By Bill Bowman, www.LasVegasGolfInsider.com
The tournament, with a best-ball format for the two-man teams, was held June 30, 2022, at Bear’s Best Golf Club. The event used modified Stableford scoring. A double eagle was worth eight points, an eagle was worth five points, a birdie was worth three points, a par was worth one point, a bogey resulted in zero points and teams lost two points for a double bogey or worse.
Championship
Scott Lytle and Matt Mitchell didn’t have a blemish on the scorecard as they cruised to a seven-point victory.
The team put six birdies on the scorecard as they picked up at least one point on every hole.
When Mitchell birdied the first two holes–good for six points–the duo was off and running.
“You sure you don’t want to talk to Matt,” Lytle said with a laugh after the round. “He’s the one who carried us, especially on the front nine.”
The twosome had four birdies on the front, three by Mitchell and one by Lytle, and Lytle said it was, literally, a pleasure to watch.
“I look at myself as being a perfect recruiter,” he said of his playing partner choice. “Matt played flawless on the front nine and got us off to a great start.”
But they weren’t counting on winning just yet.
“We were worried down the stretch that we didn’t have enough points,” Lytle said. “We played steady down the stretch and gave ourselves good looks but couldn’t get anything to drop until the last few holes when we had birdies on two of our last three holes.”
In the end, Lytle said he had the best seat in the house.
“I was happy to ride along, watch him hit it 50 yards past me, hit it close and make a birdie or two,” he said. “Matt just played flawless golf. He’s playing in a different league right now.”
Championship
Lytle-Mitchell, 30 points
Jacobs-Andl, 23 points
Sweat-Butler, 22 points
Senior
Jeffrey Gilliame and Gordon Schiring put up three birdies on the back nine en route to a three-point victory in the Senior Division.
“Jeff was really happy,” Schiring said. “It was his first event in the Senior Division and his first win. It was great.”
Schiring said the team had to battle a slow start.
“I hit it in the water twice on the first hole but Jeff almost made a birdie,” Schiring said. “So we got a par early and really held it together over some tough holes.”
Schiring said they knew they needed something special on the back nine.
“We let one get away on No. 8 (a par-5) when we didn’t birdie it,” Schiring said. “On 10, I told Jeff we needed two, if not three or four, birdies on this side. We wound up with three to get back into position.”
He said it all came down to a few par putts.
“It seems like it always works out that when a team wins you make par putts under pressure,” he said. “We made them and it kind of spurred us on. Even though we may not have gotten all the birdies we wanted, the pars wound up making a big difference later.”
Senior
Gilliame-Schiring, 24 points
Koch-Garness, 21 points
Bobroski-Whatley, 17 points
Silver
John Kelley and Mark Dopheide won the Silver title in a three-way playoff.
It wasn’t easy.
In fact, the duo had to wait until the seventh hole to put their first birdie on the scorecard.
Four birdies (two by each of them) were enough to get them into the scorecard playoff which they wound up winning.
“First off, Mark’s the reason we won,” Kelley said. “He played really, really well and kept us in the game.”
Kelley said the key was consistency.
“We didn’t have any blowup holes and that’s big in these tournaments,” he said. “We didn’t try to force birdies…just take them when you can get them.”
He said the duo could have made it easier on themselves at the end.
“We knew we probably needed something good down the stretch,” he said. “We birdied 17 but then made a bogey on 18 which wasn’t good.”
Silver
Kelley-Dopheide, 23 points
English-Woerner, 23 points
Acker-Williams, 23 points
Net
Adam Pion and Nathan Park saved the best for last in winning the Net Division.
Park put up a net albatross (8 points) on the 17th hole and added in two net eagles (5 points each) as the team wound up with 40 points on the scorecard. That was good enough for a one-point win.
Pion and Park had 16 points on the front nine before putting up 24 on the back nine.
“I’ve never had that before,” Park said of his net double eagle. “I had about an 80-yard chip for my third shot and they were like ‘oh my gosh, it went in.’ It was pretty crazy.”
The eight points moved the team into a tie with one hole left.
“On 18 I hit it into a bunker and was able to get up and down for a bogey (net par and one point) and that wound up being the difference,” he said.
He added both he and Pion played solid golf from start to finish.
“We both play a lot of golf together and we both played better than we normally do,” Park said.
He said the double eagle and both eagles certainly made a difference.
“That’s a lot of points,” he said. “The first eagle I was about six feet off the green and about 25 feet from the hole. I was as surprised as anyone when it went in. The second eagle was about 12 feet away and then the double eagle from 80 yards. Just crazy.”
Park added the duo concentrated more when they found themselves in trouble.
“The biggest thing we tried to do was keep our cool when mistakes did get made,” he said. “Like one of the long par 4s I had 115 yards in and duffed a shot. Luckily, Adam came through and got us a par. We really helped each other out.”
Net
Pion-Park, 40 points
Noya-Berydas, 39 points
Ship-Allen, 31 points
