El Niguel Country Club

THE DIVOT | WINTER 2022 • 7 Close finish Team of Chris Robles and Mike F Davis wins ENCC Champion's Cup I t came down to the wire, but in the end it was the team of Chris Robles and Mike F Davis that won the El Niguel Country Club Champion's Cup on December 11. The event pits the winners and runners-up from ENCC's major men's team events into a one-round winner- take-all tournament with an all-expense paid golf trip to a resort of their choos- ing on the line for the winning team. Playing some fantastic golf, Robles and Davis made the turn at 4-under- par 32 and saw themselves holding onto a single-shot lead over the teams of Tom Chun and Geoff Gillon and Ryan O'Kane and Ryan Grant. Sitting two shots back at the turn was John Snedegar and Steve Murphy. After carding birdies on Holes 10 and 11, Robles and Davis tried to pull away from the field, but a net birdie by Gillon and back-to-back birdies by Chun on holes 13 and 14, and another net birdie by Chun and Gillon on the 15th hole, saw them keep pace. Snedegar and Murphy tried to mount a charge, but trouble on holes 11 and 12 dashed all hope for their twosome. Not to be left out, O'Kane and Grant notched net birdies on No. 10 and No. 12 to keep within shouting distance at one shot back. After an untimely bogey on the 14th hole, O'Kane and Grant fought back with a birdie on No. 16, but it was too little too late as Robles and Davis never took their foot off the pedal. A clutch birdie by Robles on the 17th (his seventh birdie of the day) took the team to 8-under par and they held a single-shot lead with only the final hole left to play. Knowing they needed birdie, Chun and Gillon played aggressively to the 18th green, but came up short and right to the back-right pin location and ended up carding a bogey. After a solid drive down the middle, Robles calmly put his approach to 12 feet and had no problem two-putting for a closing par and a 2-shot victory. Congratulations to Chris and Mike for their great play. Enjoy your trip! C ongratulations to John Test and Saul Blau for winning the 2021 Men's 4-Ball Tournament. John and Saul were able to get past Mike Davis and Mikio Tsutsui in the final match with a 3&2 victory. The match see-sawed through the first few holes with Saul winning the first and Mikio winning the second. Mike put the Davis/Tsutsui team solidly ahead winning four consecutive holes going birdie-par-par-birdie to close out the front nine and take a 3-up lead. From there it was all Test and Blau. A net birdie on 10 and gross birdie on 12 by John followed by a net birdie on 13 by Saul flipped the match back to even. John and Saul kept the pedal to the metal winning holes 14-16 to close out the match. Chris Robles and Mike F Davis took home the Champions Cup with stellar play. EL NIGUEL COUNTRY CLUB MEN'S 4-BALL TOURNAMENT Test & Blau take title Champions John Test and Saul Blau.

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