CLUB NEWS
8.8.2011
WEEKENDER '11: TEAM BLACK REPEATS AT BAYONET
FORT ORD, Calif. - The Dragons GC gathered at Bayonet & Blackhorse in Monterey for the second annual Weekender, and once again, Capt. Lawrence Ma's Team Black prevailed, 11 1/2 to 9 1/2, over Capt. Wes Chong's Team Red.
The Weekender is an intra-club match play (Four Ball on Saturday, Singles on Sunday), as well as a 36-hole medal play championship. Last month, the 28 entrants were picked in a draft conducted at Lake Merced GC following the club's July tournament. The Red Team had 7 out of the Top 10 Dragon Cup points leaders, had a bonus captain in the form of Uncle Loui, and was loaded with 13 Weekender veterans -- their lone rookie, Carter Mau, anchored last year's NCGA Associate Club Championship squad that reached the finals.
Lawrence's bunch, meanwhile, had eight Weekender rookies, four brand new Dragons members, the "player-to-be-named later" in the form of a newly-wed Paul Lee, and the defending Men's High Gross champion, Martin Chang.
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And Saturday began true to form, as Red Team's Jonathan Wong and Jim Hwang defeated Alex Chong and Joe Marquez for the first point on the Blackhorse course. But Team Black would go on a big time run, beginning with Jason Kung and Howard Choy's 8 & 6 win over Paul Loui, who had to play one-on-two as his partner, Fuzzy Pourahmadi, could not make his tee time due to a blown tire. Lawrence and Martin then defeated Aaron Wainscoat and Tim Lohse, 4 & 2.
Tommy Chong and Brian Sue were tied with Red Team's Judy Wu and Jonathan Chong coming into the long Par 5 18th, and won the hole with two solid pars. Carol Lee and Paul Lee jumped all over Ken Lum and Carter Mau early, and cruised to a 4 & 3 win. After Song-Min Wang and Po-Jen Lin drew their match with Chris Chong and Angie Wong, the Black Team held a commanding 4 1/2 to 1 1/2 lead. The Red Team's bloody Saturday was salvaged by Wes Chong and A.T., who beat Angela Wong and Miyoung Park, 3 & 2.
Still, 14 points were on the table for the Sunday singles. The subject no doubt came up at the Monterey Airport (yeah, the airport), where Uncle Loui arranged for dinner for 30 (!) at the Golden Tee. The finicky Dragons dined on sand dabs, veal parm, and the rib eye special, on one very, very long table that must have been quite the sight to the locals who frequent the appropriately-named Golden Tee.
Day 2 began on a good note for Team Red, as Ken Lum crushed (nicely) Miyoung Park on the long and tough Bayonet course, 8 & 7. Lawrence was 3-down to Jonaroo nearing the turn, but fought his way back to a 2 & 1 win, which allowed Team Black to maintain its 2-point team match lead.
Momentum swung again toward Team Red, as Fuzzy, new tires and all, showed up to beat Paul Lee, 3 & 2. Martin then tied A.T. to maintain Black's one-point lead. That lead then disappeared as Wes Chong defeated Howard Choy, 2 & 1. Team Red then took a 1-point lead with Jim Hwang's 1-up win over Joe Marquez.
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The fourth group saw Po-Jen bringing the Black side back into a tie with the Red side, with a 2-up win over Judy. The matches stayed tied, 7 1/2 to 7 1/2, as Song-Min halved with Carter. By now, a good number of Dragons have finished, and they gathered in the clubhouse, dining on the awards reception buffet, while monitoring the matches on the scoreboard. The matches stayed tied at 8 1/2 points each, as Brian's 5 & 3 win over Team Red's Chris Chong was met with Jon Chong's 2-up win over Team Black's Jason Kung.
The Red Team momentarily took a 9 1/2 to 8 1/2 lead, as Tim beat Carol, 5 & 4, but Black leveled the matches again as Angela demolished Aaron, 7 & 6. With 11 points needed for an alright victory for either team, it came down to the final group of the day. The Red Team's Angie Wong, who had taunted Team Black's Alex Chong on Facebook the previous week, was served with an 8 & 7 humble pie, as Alex easily clinched the tying point. With Black leading 10 1/2 to to 9 1/2, the Red Team needed Paul Loui to come through with a full point just to tie Team Black. But it wasn't to be, as young Tommy Chong bombed and gauged Uncle Loui, 3 & 2, for the final point.
In the medal play championship, the story had to be 28-hanidcapper Martin Chang's First Low Net win in the B Flight. Martin posted a first day 104/net 71, which curiously put him in a tie for first low net with Song-Min Wang (88/net 71), but also in a tie for high gross with Aaron Wainscoat. Martin said he focused entirely on his singles match on Sunday against A.T., but the by-product was a 105/net 70, and a net 141 total for his first golf tournament win. He almost pulled off the more dubious distinction of repeating as High Gross -- Aaron, unfortunately (depending how you look at it), shot 106 Sunday and "beat" Martin by 1 shot with a two-day 210 total for that "honor."
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Alex Chong shot the Sunday field low net score of 84/net 67 and finished at 143 net for 2nd low net in the B Flight. Third low net went to A.T. (net 75-71 146). The ladies high gross went to Angela Wong, who accepted her bobblehead trophy with grace and dignity.
In the B Flight Gross, Jim Hwang, who won B Flight Net last year, was the pre-tournament low gross favorite given the rapid maturation of his game. True to form, "Slim Jim" added another Weekender trophy with an 88-86 174 performance. 2nd Low Gross went to Song-Min Wang (88-91 179), and 3rd place went to Angie Wong (89-84 190).
Over in the A Flight, two rookies served big time notice to the veterans, as Brian Sue and Howard Choy both opened with field-leading 75's on Blackhorse. However, Wes Chong fired a Sunday 3-under 69 on Bayonet to take first low gross, again, with a total of 145. Paul Loui finished at 77-82 for second low gross, and third low gross went to Tommy Chong (83-78 161).
Howard and Brian were well-positioned in the A Flight Low net race. In the end, it was Howard who claimed his first big trophy, going 75-81 for a net 67-72 139 finish. Brian closed out a fine weekend at 2nd low net, going 75-82 for a net 68-75 143 finish. Carter Mau (82-99/net 72-77 145) took third place.
The Guru is now crunching the numbers for the Dragon Cup points list, and no doubt there will be dramatic changes. Members of Team Black, who counted only one player in the Top 10 among them, will each get 100 points for the winning effort. In the case of a Howard Choy, the A-Flight Low Net champ, it was a 300+ points weekend.
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It was a fun weekend down in Monterey for the members who competed. We played a pair of great courses at Bayonet & Blackhorse, which will host the 2012 PGA of America Championship. It was a spirited but cordial competition on the courses, and it was lots of laughs at the big dinner. We even celebrated club president emeritus Ken Lum's birthday at the awards buffet. Special thanks to Judy Wu, who documented the weekend on her camera, and posted her album to our Facebook Group Page -- a group photo is attached here. Lawrence and Wes would also like to thank the Weekender Committee members -- Jonathan Wong, Rob Dang, Martin Chang, Alex Chong and Paul Loui -- for their hard work. None of it happens without a lot of planning, a fair number of emails and phone calls, a couple of contracts, runs to Kinko's, and even hand-marked dots on your scorecards, all of it having started at least a year in advance. And the planning for Weekender 2012, now led by A.T., is well under way -- he said we shall turn to the north and the east, and up the mountains next July. More details will surely follow, and we hope more members will join us next July, when the factions of Black and Red meet again.
