Seven par 3s. A championship course. An 18-hole putting course for dessert. On a beautiful late-October Sunday at St. John’s Resort, the Mulligan Tour put 15 scramble teams through its most marathon format of the year: the Cardinal Challenge. The field teed off the Little Cardinal at 10:00 a.m. and was still grinding on the putting course as the afternoon light went soft. By the end of the day, three events had produced three different leaders. Only one team stayed near the top of all three.
The Little Cardinal began with the shot of the day. Michael Thacker rolled in a hole-in-one on No. 2, and he and John Ferlito finished at 15 (-6), the best score of the round by three strokes. Tyler Floyd nearly made it a two-ace day when his tee shot on No. 5 missed by two inches. Gregoire/Birkle and Dunmore/Wilsey tied for second at 18 (-3). Kline/Withey landed at 19, with the pack bunched tightly behind.
Then came the Big Cardinal, and Mike Geisser and Eric Mullen took it apart. They played the front with seven birdies and an eagle, then added five more birdies and a second eagle on the back. That adds up to a 58 (-14) on the championship course, a margin that left the rest of the field playing for second. Four strokes back, Gregoire/Birkle, Dunmore/Wilsey, and McCue/Floyd all tied at 62 (-10). Kline/Withey were next at 64.
The putting course decided the Challenge, and a historic Cardinal round was not enough to hold the lead. Geisser and Mullen needed 45 strokes on the greens, so their 124 total left them fifth overall. Scott Wilsey and Rich Dunmore played the greens differently. They two-putted nearly every hole and three-putted only four times. Wilsey erased two of those with 1-putts on a pair of the course’s toughest holes. The result was a 38 (+2), the best round on the greens. Greg Kline and Chuck Withey were second at 39, and several teams sat at 40.
The consistency showed up in the overall standings. Wilsey and Dunmore finished 118 (-11) with a second-place Little Cardinal, a tied-for-second Cardinal, and the putting win. That was two strokes clear of Kevin Gregoire and Eric Birkle (120, -9), who finished no worse than third in any of the three events. Kline/Withey and McCue/Floyd tied for third at 122 (-7). The Cardinal Challenge rewarded the team that never had a bad leg, and the 1-putts on the greens were the difference.
