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Dick Engel made the most of his three-day trip to Yorba Linda’s Black Gold GC, winning the SCGA Senior Match Play Championship by taking down top-seeded Tim Hogarth 4&3 in the championship match. Entering the championship as the seventh seed, Engel would make light work of his first two matches, winning both 3&2 before capturing a 2&1 victory to advance to the semifinals. Engel would find himself 2-down heading onto the back nine against Trae Cassell, but a late surge allowed him to earn the right to compete in the final with a 1-up victory. This set Engel up for a championship match against reigning SCGA Senior Player of the Year and the top seed in the championship, Tim Hogarth.
The front nine started with both players making par on the first four holes. The fifth hole is where the breakthrough for Engel would come, with a par being enough to put him 1-up in the match over Hogarth. Things would continue to trend for Engel on the sixth, with his birdie beating Hogarth’s par to extend his lead to 2-up in the blink of an eye. Both golfers would make par on the par-3 seventh, but Engel went to 3-up on the eighth and took that advantage to the turn, just nine holes away from securing his first individual SCGA Championship.
Hogarth wouldn’t go down without a fight, carding a birdie on the par-3 10th to trim Engel’s lead to 2-up with plenty of golf left to play. Pars from both golfers on the 11th and 12th holes would leave Hogarth with just six holes to mount a comeback, but all hope would start to fade on the tricky 13th. After a wayward drive left him needing to take a drop, Hogarth would finish the hole with a bogey and Engel would restore his 3-up advantage. Engel would close out the match and his bogey-free final round on the 15th hole with a birdie, winning 4&3 to claim the SCGA Senior Match Play Championship title.
