The victorious Fennwood Hills Country Club team (LGA photo)
MANDEVILLE, LA (April 15, 2018) - Fennwood Hills Country Club of Zachary, Louisiana claimed their first Club Team Championship in an impressive come from behind win. This is Fennwood Hills' first title since the event was created in 1989.
Fennwood Hills Country Club finished in a tie for second with Squirrel Run in last year’s Club Team Championship, 15 strokes behind the Champions from Lake Charles Country Club. This year the Fennwood Hills Country Club team found themselves two strokes behind two-time defending champions Lake Charles Country Club after the First Round of play.
However, they were able to rally together in tough conditions to edge out the defending champs and The Wetlands of Lafayette by just one stroke. Fennwood Hills Country Club fired a 4-under par 140 in the First Round and followed it up with a 6-over 150 for a two-round total of 290 2-over par.
The Championship team members are: Dante Caldera, Brandt Garon, Jeremy Gautreaux, Eric Hoffman, Brad Jackson, and Jay Sanders.
Format of play for the LGA Club Team is as follows: each team consists of one of the Club’s professionals and five amateur club members or six amateur club members. The six-man teams compete in Four-Ball play in Round One with the two best of the three Four-Ball scores from each team making up that team’s score for that round. In Round Two, players compete in individual stroke play with the best four of six scores comprising the team’s score. With four counting scores in Round Two vs. only two counting scores in Round One, it’s not unusual for the winning team to come back from behind, making for an extremely exciting finish on Sunday. Such was the case for our Champions from Fennwood Hills Country Club.
Due to a suspension of play on Saturday at 9:30 am, the Championship was condensed to 18-holes of Four-Ball for the First Round and 9-holes individual stroke play for the Second Round. This meant that serval teams would have to play the entire Championship on Sunday. That never troubled the Fennwood Hills team who got off to a fast start, 2-under par (140) and just two strokes off the lead with all of their Four-Ball pairs coming in under-par. They kept their composer in the blustery, conditions of the afternoon to pull out the victory.
Here’s a recap of Fennwood Hills Country Club’s leaderboard:
First Round (Four-Ball Best 2 of 3) – Brandt Garon & Eric Hoffman (70), Dante Caldera & Brad Jackson (71), Jeremy Gautreaux & Jay Sanders (70)
Second Round (Best 4 of 6; 9-holes) – Brandt Garon (39), Eric Hoffman (41), Dante Caldera (37), Brad Jackson (37), Jeremy Gautreaux (39), Jay Sanders (37)
Two Round Total – 290 (2 over-par)
Rounding out the top 3 were:
T2. 2016 & 2017 LGA Club Team Champions Lake Charles Country Club (291): Eric Brown, Hunter Crochet, Jon Doyle, Billy Gabbert, Hank Shaheen, Greg Sonnier.
T2. The Wetlands of Lafayette (291): Jacob Broussard, Kyle Chauvin, Will Daigle, Ryan Desormeaux, Cade Hebert, Layne Sims.
The Louisiana State Club Team Championship trophy will be engraved with Fennwood Hills Country Club’s name and will be on display at the winning facility until next year’s event. Fennwood Hills Country Club also won a beautiful crystal trophy that will stay at the club permanently, and each team member took home an individual crystal piece in addition to a $200 gift certificate redeemable in the Beau Chêne Country Club Golf Shop and weekly passes to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This Ryder Cup type event proved yet again to be a fun and competitive event for competitors
Saturday’s round was suspended due to a dangerous situation, and the round was later postponed as the heavy rainfall made the golf course conditions unplayable and shortened the Championship. After twelve straight hours and a total of 5.25” of rainfall Saturday, Sunday was a blustery, cold morning for the restart, but the maintenance staff at Beau Chêne CC, led by Director of Agronomy Ted Smith, worked tirelessly to have the golf course in good condition to play out the remainder of the Championship. As the temperatures rose, so did the wind gusts at times up to 30-35 mph. The gusting winds coupled with the cool temperatures made scoring conditions difficult. Making those teams who posted rounds under pair all the more impressive. The 6,558-yard par 72 showed its teeth Sunday and proved to be a true test.