Gregory Victorious at Yamaha Golf-Car Company & Srixon / Cleveland Golf / XXIO Match Play Championship, Strueber Claims Senior Title
FORT WORTH, Texas –
Greg Gregory, PGA assistant professional at Hidden Creek Golf Course and the #2 seed, bested #1 seed Stuart Deane, PGA professional at Maridoe Golf Club, 4&3 to claim the Yamaha Golf-Car Company & Srixon / Cleveland Golf / XXIO Match Play Championship. This marks Gregory’s second Match Play Championship victory and seventh NTPGA individual major championship. He also won the Northern Texas PGA Professional Championship earlier this year. For the win, Gregory took home $6,000 of the $40,000 Open Division purse.
After rain and lighting in the area cancelled all of day two’s matches, the Quarter Final Matches took place on Wednesday morning, with the Semi-Final Matches and the Championship Match following in the afternoon.
The morning Quarter Final Matches featured three of the top four seeded professionals advancing to the afternoon Semi-Final Matches.
During the morning’s opening match, #1 seed Stuart Deane bested #8 seed Jon Antunes, PGA director of instruction at Hot Golf, Inc. 1UP. The second match of the morning took extra holes, but #13 seed Britt Patton, PGA director of golf at Vaquero Club, was able to defeat #5 seed Matt Lohmeyer, PGA teaching professional at GolfTEC- Montgomery Plaza, in 21 holes. #2 seed Greg Gregory topped #26 seed Jordan Ferguson, PGA assistant professional at Vaquero Club, 6&5, and the final match of the morning also took extra holes with #3 seed Brian Norman, PGA teaching professional at Gleneagles Country Club, winning in 20 holes over #27 seed Reid Parrish, PGA head professional at River Crest Country Club.
The Semi-Final matches featured Stuart Deane versus Britt Patton and Greg Gregory versus Brian Norman.
In the first Semi-Final match, Patton made birdie on hole #1 to take a quick 1UP lead, but he then made bogey on #2 to bring the match back to all square. Deane then took a 1UP lead after hole #3 and never quite let Patton back in match by going 3UP through seven holes and eventually 4UP through 13 holes. After a bogey on hole #15 by Patton, Deane secured a 5&4 victory to advance to the final match.
Gregory and Norman faced off in the other afternoon Semi-Final Match, which came down to the wire. Gregory was 2UP through seven holes, but after Norman made birdie on hole #13, Gregory’s lead was down to 1. Gregory then made birdie on #14 to go 2UP, but another birdie by Norman on #15 meant the two headed to #16 with Gregory 1UP. Each took pars on #16 and birdies on #17 taking the match to the final hole. Norman put himself in good position on #18 green, but his birdie putt rolled past the hole securing the 1UP win for Gregory.
Gregory carried his momentum straight into the Championship Match and took an early lead going 3UP through six holes, and never let Deane back in the match. By hole #10, Gregory had a 4UP lead. On hole #11, Deane made par to bring it back to 3UP, but a birdie by Gregory on #12 put him back to 4UP. Three holes later on #15, another birdie putt sealed the match for a 4&3 win.
The Championship included a Senior Division that featured eight of the top professionals from the 2018 OMEGA & XXIO Senior Points Challenge competing for their own $10,000 purse. In the Championship match, #1 seed Stuart Hendley, PGA director of instruction at Dallas Athletic Club, squared off against #7 seed Tom Strueber, PGA Life Member. The match was back-and-forth with both competitors never gaining more than a 1UP lead on the other. The match was all square heading into the final hole, and Strueber made an 18-foot birdie putt to clinch a 1UP victory. He took home a crystal trophy and a check for $3,000.
The Yamaha Golf-Car Company & Srixon / Cleveland Golf / XXIO Match Play Championship was contested October 8-10 at River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, a 6,512-yard, par 70 layout. The Championship was presented by Adventures In Golf, AT&T Byron Nelson and PGA TOUR. The top 32 players on the final 2018 Yamaha Golf-Car Company & Srixon / Cleveland Golf / XXIO Player of the Year Points Challenge were invited to compete in the season-ending major championship.
Results
