We had an awesome day for the shootout. 24 guys showed up and brought their A-Game. After nine holes we had 9 guys secured for the back nine and 3 guys had a chip off for the final spot. Howie Hoffman took that down and rounded out the final 10 players of – Beitlich, Berg, Nestvold, Mangold, Grove(Matt), Hoffman, Hop, Monogue, Brower(Richard) & Hamm. (Ryan and Hamm won’t the nearies respectively on 4 & 8)
Once on the back the back nine, the play was phenomenal and we had 6 chip offs needed on 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, & 18. Hamm went out first, followed by Brower(by a mere 2 inches), followed by Monogue, followed by Hoffman, followed by Grove, followed by Mangold(who squarely hit a tree on his 3rd shot), followed by Nestvold (an elimination by only 14 inches) and then we were down to 2 on 18 – Berg & Beitlich.
Both of them hit outstanding drives right down the middle leaving themselves less than 100 yards in. Berg approached first and stuck it to 8 feet followed by Beitlich hitting the front of the green to 35 feet. Beitlich’s putt went inside Berg’s to 5 feet. Berg lipped his birdie leaving Beitlich with sliding 5 footer for the tie, which he promptly drained to force a shootout champion chip off.
Berg went first with a beautiful chip to 8’9″….Beitlich had the pressure on him and followed with an awesome chip as well. It was obviously going to be a close measurement….however after the tape was pulled Beitlich was 8 inches close and prevailed as the 2016 Shootout Champion! For the day Beitlich and Berg respectively shot gross 75 & 76.
