The Hamel-Broadfoot Open

April 30, 2011

Camas Meadows Golf Course (Camas, WA)

Format:  four-man scramble

Camas, WA (AP) -  The second stop on the 2011 Tailgate State Golf Tour found 16 of the Northwest’s finest golfers assembled for the first annual Hamel/Broadfoot Open. The first drama of the day began well before the first tee ball was struck with a blind draw to see who would be grouped together.  With this formality done (and a few predictions of favorites identified) the tourney began.

First off the tee was Team Ninja captained by Brett Hamel. Ninja got off to an early lead capitalizing on a Tal Wold drive on #2 to find a birdie and red numbers.  From there the team of Hamel, Wold, Bob Albright and Tim Tyvand stagnated a bit until a roar reminiscent of Augusta occurred at #7 as a result of Hamel’s 100 yard chip in.  When Bob Albright's 20 foot birdie putt went in at #9, Team Ninja turned in a respectable -3 but found few birdies coming in until birdieing the final four holes to find themselves in the clubhouse at -8 and a chance at the championship.

While Team Ninja got off to a quick start at #2, it was Team Bushwood who got the course and scorekeeper extraordinaire Dave Charbonneau buzzing with some cagey play at the short, yet difficult par 4 fourth.  Using a Dann Sonne drive from the red tees to find the putting surface, captain Jason Wold then buried a 40 footer for an early eagle to vault Bushwood into an early lead at -2.  With the help of teammates Jake Miller and Lance Meyerink in addition to Wold and Sonne, Bushwood continued going low by making birdies at #5 and #8 (thanks to a KP from Wold).  When Bushwood found the green in two at the difficult par 5 9^th and then found paydirt with another Sonne dagger to go to -6 this was indeed their tourney to lose on the back nine.  Having ridden the shoulders of team MVP Sonne to a few more birdies coming in (plus another Wold KP at #13) it was apparent that a final posing of -10 was going to be hard to beat.

The team of Jeff Albright, Seth Harris, Larry McKenna and Lance Rocker must have been mesmerized by the birdie barrage of teams Ninja and Bushwood because early birdies on their card were hard to come by.  Despite an LD from Harris at #7 the first birdie from the team didn’t occur until the par 5 ninth.  However, spurred on by what was no doubt a rousing pep talk at the turn by captain Albright, Team Albright started to get things going in a hurry.  Birdies at #10, 11 and 12 capped of with an Albright putt of over 30ft, pulled this team to -4 with some very accessible pins to come.  From there however, Charbonneau hand operated scoreboard shows no more funny symbols denoting dazzling shotmaking and Team Albright limped into the clubhouse at a disappointing -4.

Rounding out the field was Team Charlo captained by Charlie Broadfoot and most ably assisted by the sober and supportive trio of Steve Tuebner, Dave Martinez and Ian Lamont.  Perhaps it was a late-night bar session or an early wake up call, but Team Charlo started out of the gates slowly and didn’t find a birdie until Martinez drained a curling 20 footer at #5 to get things rolling.  After a laser-like approach from Lamont on the following led to birdie, Charlo continued to inch up the leaderboard and tuned at #9 in a respectable -3, yet this was a seemingly insurmountable 5 shots behind Team Bushwood at the time.  However, just like most TGSers at the bar late-night, there was no quit in this team's approach.  With birdies at #14 and #1, Charlo stood at -6 and looked capable of late round heroics.  Following another birdie at #17 (Martinez KP) it would take a double eagle on the reachable par 5 18^th to tie Bushwood and force a playoff.  With the field assembled at the clubhouse deck overlooking action, Lamont nearly brought the house down with a second approach from 215 yards that nearly found the cup and immortal glory.  Instead, a tap-in eagle vaulted Team Charlo past Ninja into a solo second and put an end to an exciting day.

Following the on course fireworks, the Hamels graciously hosted an after party that mixed sumptuous shish kebobs with stiff drinks to the delight of all family and friends assembled. 

Following a weekend off, the TGS tour next heads to beautiful Broadmoor Golf Course for the 2011 Rinker Rodeo & Rader Roundup (Quad R) on Saturday May 14^th.