SHARKS FINISH 2ND BEHIND EXTREME HEAT
September 29, 2007
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Saturday September 29th, the Sharks traveled to Palm Springs for the 5th SoCal Division Tournament in the National Golf League. The Extreme Heat hosted a great competition as they won in front of their fans with an exciting finish. The Sharks again finished in 2nd place ahead of the 3rd place Wedge thus gaining on them for the NGL Championship race.
The tournament began in 30 mph winds but later slowed and turned out to be a typical perfect day. "We felt the wind was definitely to our advantage," said Sharks player J.T. Kohut. "We have some real solid players that the wind does not bother. You can see by the way that we started that we had some momentum." Coach Wayne Merich said, "Our main goal was to to win and beat the Wedge to close the gap for the NGL Championship. I feel that we had our best guys playing today. But what we could not do is control what happened in the Scramble against the Heat since we did not play them in this format. However, in the one match that we played the Wedge we blanked them 2-0."
In the first match of Best Ball, The Sharks got off to a great start by winning the opening hole in all three matches. Brian Helton hit a 9 iron on the 178 yard seventh to 12 feet for his birdie. Brian and J.T. Kohut went on to win their match against the Stars 4-2. John Ray Leary and Steve Holmes scored very big 4-0 victory against the Styx and would again prove to be deadly partners for the Sharks. New Shark Brian Vranesh and Darren Angel had a tough match against Extreme Heat, but lost on their last hole scoring 2-3. The Sharks total of 10 points gave them the lead ahead of the Wedge at 7. While the Extreme Heat, Spikes, and Stars all scored 6 points each.
In the Alternate Shot, the Sharks won all 3 matches and scored 11 points which gave them a total of 21 points. Brian Vranesh rolled in a 70 foot eagle putt on #1 to help he and Darren Angel score a 2-1 victory against the Spikes. Brian Helton made a 15 foot putt on the 2-point 9th to win the hole that clinched a victory over the Heat 5-4. John Ray Leary and Steve Holmes also won the 2-point hole and scored another victory over the Stars 4-2. However, the Heat scored 13 points which closed the gap and vaulted them 2 points behind the Sharks. The Wedge were 5 back at 16 points. The scores going into the last round of Scramble format were: Sharks 21, Heat 19, Wedge 16, Styx 11, Spikes 10, and Stars 9.
The wind completely stopped for the the Scramble format where birdies were scored from every angle except against the Heat. The Heat scored an incredible 17 points to win the tournament by 9 points. In fact, they won all three 3-point holes in their matches which was punctuated by a great shot by Dave Magdziasz in the last group of the day. "It is unfortunate that the teams playing the Heat wilted. I am sure that the Heat players, who are very good, kept kicking them while they were down." In what was the biggest match for the Sharks, J.T. Kohut and Brian Helton won a convincing 2-0 victory against their rivals for the NGL Championship. Holmes and Leary lost their only match of the day 2-3 against the Spikes. While Angel and Vranesh lost 2-4 to the Styx who shot 9 under par for the match. For the Heat fans, it was a very exciting day that lead to some Extreme partying. "The party went from the Ninth to a pizza place to my shanty, and I was throwing them out just shy of sunrise, especially those Styx," Said Extreme Heat owner John Dandurand.
As for the Sharks, another 2nd place finish that leaves them wanting more. "We played very well. Unfortunately we can't control the other matches and the Heat got the best of them. Our secondary goal was to beat the Wedge to close the gap for the NGL Championship. Although we accomplished this, we only gained one point on them," said Merich. "We are now 2 points behind the Wedge and must beat them by 2 in the last tournament. If we tie them in the division, we will win the tiebreaker (total season points). Just like last year, we need to win. I think that these Sharks will come through again in L. A."
