MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Consistency, recovery and the ability to come up with big shots under pressure.
Perennial city championship contender Shawn Muchowski had all three facets working for him throughout the weekend during the return of the Carl Jorgensen Par 27 Charity Classic at the Lynbrook Golf Course, and as a result, he came away with the tournament championship on Sunday afternoon.
Muchowski took a 28-30 victory over Bill McLean in the ‘A’ final, thanks to simple consistency from all three distances and a handful of solid shots even when he was in a bit of trouble.
“You don’t have to go really low every round, just not make mistakes,” Muchowski said shortly after his win. “I didn’t play well the first day but got through, and I played significantly better today by limiting the mistakes and not compounding them when they do happen. That’s the strategy, just be consistent.”
The tournament format is a major reason for its popularity. Players take three shots each from 150 yards, 100 yards and 50 yards, with the lowest score from each match-play round advancing through the triple knockout draw.
Muchowski’s match with McLean offered a good example of how things can swing from distance-to-distance and even shot-to-shot.
Both players had balls in the rough during the 100-yard round, and McLean had the shot of the final when he chipped one in from 20 yards out. Muchowski was on the other side of the green and got up and down, but the pressure was on.
“That was a great shot, so I was ‘okay, I have to match that’ and I ended up with a nice one in there,” Muchowski said. “It kept the positive feelings going and I wasn’t in much trouble after that.”
Then, disaster struck for McLean. He missed a tap-in and then another short putt, scoring 12 for the round and sending Muchowski into the 50s with a 19-23 lead.
Game over, right? Not so fast.
McLean was lights out in the final round and put all three of his shots inside 10 feet, leaving him with three makeable birdie putts well inside of Muchowski’s shots. Had McLean made all three, the pressure would have been back on, but he was only able to drain one, and Muchowski had his two-point win.
“All you can do is just worry about your game and that shot you’re hitting,” Muchowski said. “If they play better and make more birdies than you, then hat’s off. You can only control yourself.”
Muchowski advanced to the final with wins over Cameron Bode, Jeff Chow and Brian Magee to advance to the semifinal, where he’d take a victory over Jon Cotter.
McLean’s run saw him defeat Darren Reihl and Nathan Corrin in the first two rounds before downing Fred Tremblay in the quarter-final and Mickey Wallace in the semifinal.
Former champion Trevor Benson defeated Daryl Wrubleski 28-34 to win the ‘B’ side, Don Higgins defeated Scott Moerike 28-30 to claim the ‘C’ side and the ‘D’ side was won by Curtis Woloschuk over Mike Fitzsimmons.
The tournament title is the second for Muchowski after also winning in 2017. The event had been on hiatus since 2019, but saw a full field in it’s return and is expected to once again become a fixture on the Lynbrook calendar.
“It was nice to come back and put another flag in my trophy case… the weather was really nice, the people were great out here, it was a really fun tournament,” Muchowski said.
