An incredible back nine by the winning squad in Cathy Horcoff’s charity golf scramble lifted them to the title for the second year in a row, and first choice at the wealth of prizes available at the tournament-ending banquet Saturday night.
“Our first seven holes were all par going on to [hole] eight and then we went eagle, eagle and then after that we just decided to light it up,” said Devin Palmer, part of the winning team made up of himself, Dylan Palmer, Jared Andreesen and Bob Hays.
“[On the back nine] we made two pars and the rest were birdies,” said Dylan.
“Our first seven holes were pretty slow.”
The four buddies, who were all born and raised in Prince Rupert, finished with a score of 60 and 10-under-par. Even then they didn’t think they’d take the tourney.
“There were a lot of good teams this year,” said Andreesen, part of the group who last year, shot 13-under-par, their best-ever score at the Prince Rupert Golf Club as a team.
“When we shot that last year, we kind of walked off last year thinking, ‘if you don’t win with that…’,” said Hays.
The slim margin of error actually saw the group tie another team at 10-under, but Hays’ squad won on a count back.
“[The win] goes to whatever you shot on the back nine and we were six-under on the back and they were only two, so that’s the only reason we won. We tied them,” said Dylan.
“But we don’t like them,” he added cheekily.
The tournament’s earnings went to the Prince Rupert Marine Rescue Society and each team paid $90 per person.
“It’s a great tournament though, it’s probably the best tournament of the year,” said Hays.
“It’s a good charity and you get a tax receipt at the end of the year. I think they raised a ton of money for the Marine Rescue Society.”
The scramble, which sees every player hit a shot in which the team then chooses the best one, seemed to benefit the team as each individual might have a stronger long or short game so they compliment each others’ shortcomings.
“In this format, it’s such a huge advantage, because these guys can hit the ball so far,” said Hays, who was playing with a sore wrist.
