Tribute to Payne Stewart

Sunday, November 3, 2012
Fast greens and ominous hazards result in challenging conditions!

Branson, MO - The greens were immaculate and lightning fast, rolling at a 13!  Add to that two of the hardest opening holes anywhere, the true winner was the Payne Stewart golf course!  Holes #1, #2, and #17 all played 2.66 strokes above par on average!  Only one hole, the short par 4 #13 played even par across the entire field.  Read on to see how each flight performed.

Flight Winners:

Jared Jordan

Championship Flight (0-3.9) – The three championship flight scored 8 over par on the first hole and 8 over on the next par 3.  A rough first nine was going to reward whoever could settle down and score.  After starting with a triple-bogey on the first hole, Jared Jordan of Rolla, MO finished the last six holes of the course only two over to win his first event on the AM Tour.

Don Karl

Palmer Flight (4.0-7.9) – It was back and forth all day between Don Karl of Lees Summit, MO and Wayne Baldwin of Russellville, AR.  A birdie on the difficult par 3 by Karl and a double by Baldwin on thee same hole.  A birdie by Baldwin on the difficult #17 wasn't enough to recover and Karl pulled away with a victory by 3. 

Chad Schuschmann

Hogan Flight (8.0-11.9) – It looked like Michael Quesenberry of Wentzville, MO was going to recover from a shaky start by making nine pars in a row from #8 to #16.  Chad Schuchmann also scattered eight pars throughout his round with one birdie.  The two most important ones were the finishing two which gave him the three stroke margin which surpassed Quesenberry's faltering finish.  Schuchmann's final score of 84 was the low round of the day and was good for his second victory in a row.  Schuchmann said the key to his victory was his ability to “get up and down” well all day long.

Matthew Holden

Sarazen Flight (12.0-15.9) –  Nathan Holden of Raymore, MO shot his consistent 80's kind of round by staying focused and thinking only about one hole at a time.  It proved to be the correct strategy as he won his first event on the AM Tour.  Holden never carded anything more than a double bogey.  An 86 was enough to beat the field by seven strokes.  Matthew Howard of Bentonville, AR played well enough to finish 2nd among the ten Hogans.  It was his best finish in two tries.

Mitchell Gustin

Jones Flight (16.0-19.9) – Eight pars and a birdie gave Mitchell Gustin of Story City, IA his a first place finish in the field of seven.  With only one "other" on his card, Gustin was eight strokes better than his nearest competitor, Dean Alexander of Appleton City, MO.  Gustin's scoring average was just better than bogey golf which is an excellent performance considering the difficulty of the golf course.

Eric Thomas

Snead Flight (20.0 +) – Eric Thomas of Bonner Springs, KS said that good shot placement below the hole was key to his success on Saturday.  Having twice as many pars as anyone else in his flight was also a good strategy.  Even at 5800 yards didn't make the difficult course less challenging.  It was his his first win in 13 tries on the AM Tour.  Congratulations, Mr. Thomas!






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Giant Skins

You may remember that we intended to pay out both flight skins and giant skins.  It was well intentioned, however, when I paid out the flight skins I used the spreadsheet with the payout based on $20 flight skins.  Meaning that the flight skins paid out assuming a $20 per player pot not a $15 per player pot leaving no money left for a giant skins payout.  So, just for information, here's how the seven giant skins earned would have been awarded (one to each flight, by the way):

•  Chris Smith (Snead), birdie on #1
• Kirby Rogers (Sarazen), birdie on # 4
• Chad Schuchmann (Hogan), birdie on # 9
• Mitchell Gustin (Jones), birdie on # 12
• Michael Dryer (Championship), birdie on # 15
• Don Karl (Palmer), birdie on # 16
• Wayne Baldwin (Palmer), birdie on #17

For a complete list of results and pictures visit our GCAT Facebook Page or go to the  results site or go to our  Picasa web site .

For more information about the GCAT of Arkansas:
Paul C. Gomez
Arkansas Director, Golf Channel AM Tour
917-553-3814
pgomez@GCAmTour.com