2006 McKinleyville Open

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- 2006 McKinleyville Open -
"The Greatest Round Ever Played"

- Prologue - Odds - Final Scores - Epilogue - Full Scorecard - Pictures -

The 2005 Open featured three players for the second consecutive year and Josh brought home the trophy on his own merits for the first time since 2001. You can read more about the open by clicking here. Will the 2006 open again feature only 3 players, will the defending champion even be able to defend his title? We will see. The 2006 McKinleyville Open is scheduled for the week of July 9th - 15th. We know that Carl and Micah will be there, but will Greg and Josh? And who will be the big winna, or winna's? We shall see.

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Odds

June 10th, 2006 - The early, "opening-gate" odds are as follows: Carl-104; Greg 105;Josh-96; Micah-102

June 12th, 2006 - Greg and Josh played a quick nine earlier and both shot around 46; a good number for two players who havent made it out in months.

June 24th, 2006 - Carl and Micah went out to Wildhawk for a tune-up round in the hot, hot sun. Carl shoots a 101 and Micah comes in with a 102. Details are on a need to know basis.

June 26th, 2006 - Breaking news. It has been confirmed by Mrs. Defending Champion that Josh will be playing in the Open. The Board of Directors is awaiting the submittal of Josh's entry form prior before any official discussions can begin on the format of the 2006 Open. The submittal must also take place before the date of the open can be set; however unconfirmed reports have the date as Tuesday, July 11th.

June 27th, 2006 - New Odds...Carl-103; Greg-104; Josh-96; Micah-103

July 3rd, 2006 - Recently, Carl posted a 51 at Cherry Island golf course. Josh also played at the Island (on a different day) and shot 51-47-98. Unfortunately, however, his 4-iron is on the verge of death and it will not be usable in the Open. Josh is now in a mad scramble to learn how to hit his other clubs as well as he could his 4-iron. New Odds...Carl-103; Greg-104; Josh-97; Micah-103

July 5th, 2006 - Don Harling, the Director of Golf at Beau Pre, has just been confirmed that the start time for the 2006 McKinleyville Open will be July 11th, 2006 @7:52 AM.

July 6th, 2006 - The Board of Directors have concluded their all night meeting and have come to a decision on the format of the 2006 Open. Since Greg will be playing this year, the Open will return to the team format and, as it was in 2002 and 2003, the teams will be Josh and Greg vs. Carl and Micah. Based on the odds, Carl and Micah will haVe some work to do on July 11th as they are currently favored to come up 5 strokes short. Stay tuned, because the final odds will be made on Friday, July 7th.

July 6th, 2006 - Carl played Cherry Island (again) and shot a 51 (again). In his last 4 rounds, Carl has shot 51, 102 (51 & 51), and 51. Add that all up and his nine-hole average over the past 4 rounds is...wait, lemme check...where is that scientific calculator...umm...lemme see...carry the one...51.

July 7th, 2006 - It should be a very interesting Open this year what with everyone playing and all. Can Josh overcome his 4-iron break and win back-to-back championships for the second time in his career? Can Greg overcome the lack of play and finish with a surprisngly good round that will get him the title for the second time in 10 years? Or, will Carl's recent string of shooting 51 lead him to the trophy in 2006 as he did in 2004 and 2002? Perhaps Micah will climb back on top and claim the title for the first time since 2002, we shall see. Final Odds!!! Josh 49-48-97. Greg 54-50-104. Carl 51-51-102. Micah 53-48-101. Odds are that Greg and Josh will win the 2006 McKinleyville Open by 2 strokes.

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Final Scores

- Carl: 62/49/111 - Greg: 54/47/101 - Josh: 43/44/87 - Micah: 49/47/96 -

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Epilogue

McKinleyville, CA - Josh Van Der Kamp won his second consecutive Open championship as he and Greg edged out Carl and Micah by 19 strokes in the first team format Open since 2003. The 2006 title gives Greg three titles to his name, which ties him with Micah for second most behind Josh, who now has seven; Carl is last with two titles.

It didn't take too many holes before the writing was on the wall for Josh and Greg to take home the trophy as finished the first four holes triple-quad-quad-triple. He couldn't seem to find his swing and hit the ball solid at all as shot after shot stayed on the ground and often times not in the fairway, or passed the ladies tees. After those four holes Carl slowly started hitting the ball more and more solid, but the damage had already been done as he and Micah trailed by 10 strokes.

It was still early and picking up 10 strokes in 14 holes is very possible, but it never happened mostly due to Josh's strong play. After the front nine was over Josh and dropped 5 pars, including three in a row to conclude the front nine. After nine holes Greg and Josh were up by 14. Micah posted a respectable 49 and tried everything on the front nine to keep it close and managed to par three holes of his own, but still trailed Josh by an unacceptable 6 strokes. Greg played a good round on the front nine and finished only 5 stokes behind Micah despite a quad on what will from now on be referred to as "The Brody".

Starting the back nine, Micah and Carl knew it was all over and all they could do was try to improve on their own personal scores. Micah still had a shot at catching Josh and taking home the low score for the Open, but those dreams were gone after picking up two strokes on #14, Micah lost a ball on his drive on the short par 5 #15 and ended with a triple while Josh made par. Carl, meanwhile, found his stroke, made par on #11, and finished the back under 50. Greg also picked it up a bit and made pars on 14 and 17 and went in with a 47, equal to Micah on the back.

But the story of the day was Josh. While the back nine wasn't as impressive as the front, he only made 2 pars, Josh made shots when he needed to and protected the lead while playing bogey-golf and went in with a 44 for a round total, and McKinleyville Record, of 87. Josh broke the record of 90 that was previously set in 2001 by himself. With one more score under 93, Josh will sit alone in the top 3 best rounds ever and his McKinleyville Open round average is now at an impressive 96.

The story that is not so good, which is why is isn't the story of the day, was Carl's poor performance. Although he had exhibited some good golf lately posted round after round of 51, Carl couldn't get it together until the back nine and because of it now owns the highest front-nine score at the open and is now tied for the highest 18 hole score. And, Carl is now tied for the highest average on the front nine, back nine, and course with Greg at 55-51-106.

Because of the lopsided victory it could be claimed that the McKinleyville Board of Directors got paired up the wrong contestants, especially because if the teams were Greg/Micah versus Carl/Josh the victory would have gone to Greg and Micah by one stroke, and things could have been really interesting going into the last hole, but the directors deny any wrong doing or rigging of the open. Research has indicated that the directors did not benefit in any way from the lopsided victory and no charges have been filed. In either case, you can assume that this years results will really have an impact during the spring meetings of 2007 when the board begins discussions on the format for the 2007 open.

Tournament Notes

After the trophy was presented there were discussions among the players about changes to the trophy...Despite his play on the front nine, Carl holds the record for lowest back nine score; a 43 in 1999...Greg played well, but failed to break 100 again. He hasn't shot under 100 in all of the documented years of the Open...Micah broke 100 for the 6th time in the past 8 years, a record.

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