Sunday’s winner would be crowned the 2021 Texas Mini Golf Champion and be awarded a very nice-looking Belt Buckle.  Lee Messinger continued his hot play from the day before and shot a 32 to have a 2 stroke lead over Don Parker with a few other players also being able to shoot under par.  Messinger played even better in round 2 with a 31.  His 2 round score of 63 was good for a 4-stroke lead over Geoff Mosk and 7 over Parker.  Messinger struggled the last round and had his only over-36 round of the weekend with a 37.  Mosk, playing a few holes behind Messinger, knew what he was shooting and what he needed to do to catch him.  Mosk was 2 under after 5 holes.  Coming into hole 7, which he had seen Messinger ace, Mosk knew he needed to ace or deuce the hole to have a chance.  The ace putt missed badly and so did the deuce.  Mosk ended up with a 5, essentially putting him out of the tournament.  Playing for 2^nd place Mosk was still able to finish his round at 35 and just 2 strokes behind Messinger.  Had he played hole 7 smarter he may have been able to prevent Messinger from winning his 4^th event of the year.

In the APA, Alan Sahmel continued to get better with each round he played by starting off the event with a 35.  This was good for a 2-stroke lead over his son and playing partner Adam Sahmel who was in at 37.  Alan wasn’t able to keep improving but had a solid second round of 38, but Saturday’s winner Mike Huckaby who fired an outstanding 34 to put them in a tie.  Adam was just 4 strokes back and Chris Conradi 6 back as we headed into the final round.  Alan again played great, shooting 34 for the last round.  That score was just too much for anyone to catch him.  Alan’s score of 107 was 4 strokes better than Huckaby. Adam Sahmel finished 3^rd, one ahead of Conradi.  It should also be noted that Alan’s score made him the low Sahmel of the day as he also beat his youngest son who we lovingly refer to as Amelie’s dad (Wade) who shot a 111 in the pro division.  It should also be noted that Honorary Sahmel, Olivia Prokopova did beat Alan with a score of 104 in the pro division. 

Our next three events, two on Saturday, May 22^nd and one on Sunday, May 23^rd, will be in Tyler, Texas, where the tour championship will be held in September.  We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Messinger Defeats Prokopova in a Playoff

After having to take Longview Greens off the 2020 schedule due to Covid, the players were happy to return to this beautiful course that offered many challenges not found on a typical Putt-Putt course.

In the Pro division, Geoff Mosk, who had won 3 of the 4 previous events held on this course, was the first round leader with a 33.  All of the other competitors were at 36 or below so everyone was still in it.  In rounds 2 and 3, Mosk stumbled to a 40 in each round and quickly fell out of contention.  Lee Messinger and Olivia Prokopova were the only players who were able to keep their scores below par on the difficult course for all 3 rounds.  They came to the 18^th hole of the last round tied.  The 18^th hole isn’t difficult but it takes a very precise putt to make the hole. Push or pull the putt just a smidge and the ball will miss.  Prokopova plays the hole first and hits a perfect putt that finds the bottom of the cup.  She tells Messinger “no pressure” as she picks up her ball and walks off the hole.  Messinger then proceeds to hit a perfect putt of his own to send the two into an 18-hole playoff.  In the playoff, Messinger had the best round of the day with a score of 30 to win for the 3^rd time this year.

In the APA, the defending champion was Mickey DeLucca.  His last win came at this course in 2019.  His name was first on the score sheet to remember our friend who passed away earlier this year.

Mike Huckaby was able to take a 1 stroke lead over Chris Conradi in the first round with a 38.  No other APA player was able to shoot under 46.  Huckaby had a stellar second round with a 34 while Conradi found some trouble on the course and was 14 strokes back.   With the pressure off, Huckaby was able to stroll in with a 38 to secure a 19-stroke win.  Alan Sahmel improved every round to tie Conradi for 2^nd place at 129.

Waco is always a favorite tour stop on the SWPT.  The course was built in 1959 and has some hole designs that we don’t see anywhere else on tour.  The date for the Waco stop was moved into April because it can get extremely hot during the summer months and the players appreciated the cooler temperatures. 

Messinger and Huckaby win the Allan Thomas Memorial

The first event on Saturday was the Allan Thomas memorial.  Allan passed away several years ago and was a Waco local He shot a course record of 21 on the tournament course. That record will very likely never fall, or even be approached. 

In the Pro division, Jeffrey Smith, who went winless last season for the first time since anyone could remember, came out hot and was confident that he was going to get a win this weekend.  His first round score of 29 was good for a 2-stroke lead over Lee Messinger.  No other player was able to break 34 in round 1.  In Round 2 all but 1 player shot between 31 and 33.  Smith maintained his 2-stroke lead over Messinger heading into the final round.  Smith had found himself in or near the lead several times over last year and the early part of this year but had not been able to finish off the event and get the win.  This event would be no different.  Smith struggled in his last round with a 34 while Messinger was having the best round of any pro for the early event with a 28.  Messinger’s great round had him finish at 91 which was good for a 4-stroke victory over Smith.  Don Parker came in 3^rd at 96.  Geoffrey Mosk and Jerry Medina shared the crumb at 97.

In the APA Steve Willmann looked to win on the course he grew up playing in his youth while Chris Conradi looked to continue his APA dominance and Mike Huckaby was eying his 9^th APA Tour Championship in the 2021 season.  While this was going on, Steve Yancey took the first round lead with a 33.  Ken Stanfill was just 1 stroke at 34.  Steve Willmann was determined to get his first win of the year after finishing in 2^nd place in both events at Cool Crest 2 weeks ago, jumped into the lead after shooting a 30 in his second round.  His 2-round score of 67 was good for a 1-stroke lead over Steven Yancey and 2 strokes over Stanfill and Huckaby.  In the last round almost half the field had their best rounds of the event.  Conradi shot a 29 to come in at 101, which was just 1 stroke behind Willmann and Huckaby who finished at an even 100.  In the playoff, Huckaby and Willmann were close the entire way.  With just 2 holes to go, and neither being an easy ace, it looked like we were going to head into sudden death.  But Huckaby hit a great putt on hole 17.  His putt was a little left of the hole as it went by just as it was supposed to be.  His ball came off the back rail at very good speed and rocked into the hole off the hill.  It was an excellent putt and gave him a 1-stroke lead.  Both players made the typical deuce on hole 18 and Mike Huckaby had secured the victory.

Smith calls off retirement, Conradi dominates, in “The Brice”

Jeffrey Smith was more than a little frustrated that he had not been able to put 3 good rounds together in quite some time and had vocalized his frustration.  He is the all-time leader in wins on the SWPT and the 2014 National Champion.  Winning on a consistent basis is what he is used to doing.  In the 4^th annual “the Brice” event, Smith was intent on ending his drought.  He again came out hot with a 29.  This time it was good for a 1-stroke lead over Jerry Medina and a 2-stroke lead over Lee Messinger and Greg Everly.  Brice Bergesen, who had won his event 2 of the 3 previous years, was only 3 strokes back at 32.  Smith continued his great play in round 2 with a 28.  This gave him a commanding 4-stroke lead over Lee Messinger with only Geoff Mosk and Greg Everly able to stay withing 6 strokes at 63.  It looked like the drought was over for Smith, especially with him shoot a very respectable 15 on the front 9 the last round, except that Messinger shot an 11 to pull into a tie with Smith.  When Messinger made hole 10 to be an unbelievable 8 under after 10 holes it looked like victory would again slip through Smith’s fingers.  But we all know the drought couldn’t last forever as Smith is just too good of a putter.  He showed his championship grit and made 5 of the last 8 holes.  This allowed him to pass Messinger and finish at 85.  Messinger easily hung on for 2^nd pace at 87 while Mosk had his best round of the day, a 29, to hold on for 3^rd over Everly who finished in 4^th.

In the APA, Chris Conradi dominated the field.  His 1^st round score of 30 gave him a 4-stroke lead over Trevor Lewin, who was the only other player to finish under par.  Chris had 2 more fine rounds of 31 and 30 as he finished with a score of 91 for the event.  His 2-round score of 61 was good for an 8-stroke lead over Yancey.  Chris walked the proverbial dog the last round and was never threatened.  Steven Yancey was able to hold on to 2^nd place with a 3 round score of 104.  Trevor Lewin hung on for 3^rd place at 105 to collect the final cash spot.

On Sunday 4/11 the SWPT had it’s first match-play tournament in quite some time, a double-elimination event.  The seedings were based on the combined scores of the previous day’s events.  The top 3 places in each division would get paid and all matches were 18 holes in both the winners and losers brackets.

The top 2 players in each division got a Bye their 1^st round leaving 2 1^st round matches to be played in each division.  In the PPA, Mosk had 8 aces on his way to a 4-2 victory over Jerry Medina.  Brice Bergesen and Don Parker came to the event together, then had practice matches against each other all morning with Bergesen winning most of the practice matches.  So of course Parker won their 1^st round match 3-2.  In the APA, Lewin continued his good play from the 2^nd event the previous day and beat Ken Stanfill 3-2.  Huckaby was able to get by Willmann 1up, very much like he had done in the playoff in the previous day’s 1^st event.  The 2^nd round saw all but one of the favorites win their matches.  Messinger defeated Parker 1-up on the pro side. On the APA side, Conradi defeated  Lewin 5-4, and Yancey defeated Huckaby 5-4.  The only upset was Mosk holding off Smith 1-up in a match that neither player very well in.   A video of holes 5-18 is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiYqgpAays ).  The last 4 holes of the match (1-4) were not captured .  The winners bracket took a break while the losers bracket had its 1^st matches. 

Bergesen was able to defeat Smith 4-3 as Smith’s struggles continued with him not making an ace until the 14^th hole of his match.  Parker was able to get by Medina 4-3 in the other losers bracket PPA Match.  In the APA Stanfill was able to defeat 8-time tour champion Huckaby 1-up while Willmann was able to squeak by Lewin 1-up. 

In the next round, we again had 2 matches in each division with 1 match in each winners bracket and 1 match in each losers bracket.  In the pro bracket, Messinger and Mosk had a great match.  Messinger won hole 1 and then the players traded aces and deuces with neither player winning a hole until hole 11 when Mosk was able to pull even.  Mosk took the lead on hole 13 with an ace but lost the lead on hole 15 when he missed and Messinger made his ace,  Both players deuced 16 and 17 and it looked like sudden death was where the match would be decided.  But Messinger pushed his putt on 18 and ended up in the valley of sin on the plateau with a long putt with a small but steep hill to navigate.  Messinger was not able to get his deuce to drop and Mosk advanced to the Finals while Messinger went to the losers’ bracket.   In the match between Bergesen and Parker, Parker was again able to defeat Bergesen 4-3 to move to the finals of the losers’ bracket.  In the APA Conradi continued to go through the APA like a hot knife thru butter in beating Yancey 2-1 to move to the finals.  Stanfill was able to move to the losers’ bracket finals with a fine victory over Willmann 3-2.

In the losers’ bracket finals matches Yancey played great in his defeat of Stanfill to set up a rematch with Conradi in the APA Finals.  On the PPA side, Parker and Messinger had a great match that went all the way to the 3^rd hole of sudden death where Messinger was able to make his ace after Parker missed.

In the Finals matches the winners of the losers’ bracket would have to defeat the winner of the winners bracket twice to claim victory.  In both divisions, the winners of the winners brackets, Mosk and Conradi, were able to compete their perfect days with wins and claim victory.

It was a fun event and one we hope to do each year as match play isn’t something we get to do much, and it is a fun way to compete against each other.  We look forward to seeing everyone in 2 weeks at Longview Greens for the Texas Mini Golf Championship.