Nicholas Repeats as Match Play Champ
Mike Nicholas brought the trophy to the Match Play Championship Saturday morning and took it back home Sunday night. He had a tough road to defend his title on Saturday with both matches going to the 18th hole, getting successive 1 Up wins over Jeff Pasz and Tom W Litlzer. On Sunday Mike’s conditioning regimen beat the heat as well as Tour Money leader Chuck Withey in the Semi Final 3&2, and then upset minded 10th seed Jeff Graunke in the final 5&4. Graunke may have been worn down by his semi-final win over Helen Puffenberger who was marching toward a final of the last two year’s champs until Graunke pulled the upset. Puffenberger did secure 3rd in the consolation match 2&1 over Withey. In other matches of note, Kevin Gregoire took down Corey McCue in the round 1 marquis match of Tour bombers. Graunke had to go 19 holes to get to Sunday by beating 2015 champ Mike “how did he get 8 stokes” Prieskorn. And in a match no one thought could be won, Brian Lardin beat Bill Gordon in the losers bracket battle of the win-less. Nicholas has become the Tour’s big game hunter with his 3rd Major Title of 4 career Tour wins in 41 starts. He moves to #1 in the World Rankings. He is now T-10 in Tour Major victories, tied with Chris Cooley and Tour founder Erik Meland.
