After several months of intense competition, two champions emerged to etch their names in the SCGA record books in one of the Association’s oldest events. The Team Play Championship is a culmination of a four-month long regular season and month-long postseason that ends at Rams Hill GC, where the last four teams standing battle it out in the desert.
Of the 200+ teams and 8,000 players that participated this year, Antelope Valley captured yet another Team Play title while Los Verdes clinched its first victory in this 123-year-old event.
Thursday Division
Antelope Valley picked up where they left off in 2022, clinching their third consecutive Team Play championship by defeating Dove Canyon GC in the final match on Sunday, 30-18.
The four-ball matches were split evenly, and it looked like the singles matches were headed in that direction until Antelope Valley took over, starting with a 5&3 win for David Hutchison. From there, Antelope Valley went on to win seven of the final nine singles matches, including a 6&5 win from Greg Cich and Justin Rockey’s 4&2 victory.
“We don’t have a lot of team members but we have a lot that are dedicated to play every year,” co-captain Ray Munoz said. “SCGA does a great job. Love this facility (Rams Hill), great layout. The people here are awesome and I love my team.”
Saturday Division
It was a first-time feeling in the winner’s circle for the Los Verdes GC squad, who defeated Hacienda GC in a tightly contested final match, 26-22.
The singles matches ended in a deadlock, 16-16. After dropping the first four-ball match, Lewis Simon and Alec Todryk got it back in the second match with a 3&2 victory. From then on, Los Verdes lost just one of the remaining six four-ball matches, which was good enough to establish the four-point advantage needed to clinch the championship.
“This is not a four-month journey, this is a 12-month journey,” captain Mike Eastman said. “It’s an all-year journey for us. Every one of these guys committed. This is just icing on the cake. The journey has been fun. Being with these guys every week has been fun.”
