Kevin McCoy Wins First Supertour - MaceMan Big Show at the Vet

By Ray Murray, Photo by Brad Bishop

The season's first professional SuperTour tournament got under way on Jan. 31, 2004. Kevin McCoy, after many second place and other top ten SuperTour finishes, won his first A-tier PDGA event.

on the Friday before the event started, Jay and Des Reading set up a Ching® SkillShot Challenge course to test participant’s abilities to make putts and various other shots. If you aced the last shot, you would win the basket (nobody took it home). Later that afternoon, Barry Schultz, Nolan Grider and Todd Branch put on a clinic showing people how to drive, putt, what to practice and how to “practice smarter”.

Just as a week before the first Pro SuperTour, the weather people were off again on their predictions, and once again many people stayed away. But with a field of 90 in both Professional and Amateur divisions combined, the event went on as scheduled. The temperature was much better than in the northern parts of the country, which were under a blanket of snow and sheets of ice at subzero temperatures. The winds were picking up at the course, but not near the constant 20-30 mph winds that were predicted. It was overcast and a chilly 39o F at the players meeting Saturday and it stayed overcast for the weekend.

Of thirty-one Open players there was only one female, Des Reading. Ten Masters and two Grandmasters golfers rounded out the A pool. The B pool had twenty Advanced players, five of them Advanced Masters, nineteen Intermediate and four Recreational players.

The first round started at 10 on Saturday morning and Barry Schultz, the reigning World and USDG Champion, raced off with a blistering 45 to lead by two and three strokes respectively over Daniel Stacey and Chris Farnham. At 4 back with a 49, were Kevin McCoy, Peter Wyngaard, Danny Reeves and Kurt Raffensberger. The local favorite, Nolan Grider was in the third group after shooting a 50.

After the second round on Saturday Schultz still held a two stroke lead over McCoy and four over Stacey. Grider, Branch and Wyngaard rounded out the second card back five and seven strokes respectively. The final round started with Barry still in the lead, but Daniel had moved into second two strokes back and Kevin slipped back one to be three strokes out of first. Nolan was four back, Todd had seven strokes to make up and eight back was Chris Farnham rounding out the second card.

Unfortunately for Schultz, he wasn’t able to hold the lead through the final round. He posted his only round above 48. For the Open players, the tournament came down to the three last holes. Kevin was two strokes down, with Grider and Schultz tied for the lead. McCoy birdied the remaining three holes for a one stroke victory and his first SuperTour win.

The Masters top card for the second round had Jay Bitner and Randy Greywoolf tied with 50 and Alex Hughes one stroke behind. Mark Martin got hot the second round to start the second day atop the lead card in Masters. Alex was two strokes back followed by John Luecke three back. Going into the final round, Martin increased his lead over Hughes to five strokes and Luecke was six back. Luecke got hot on the final round and birdied 5 holes in a row, followed by the weekend’s lone ace on Hole 18 of the North Course. That just wasn’t enough to catch up with Martin as Luecke ended in a threeway tie for 2nd with Ray Walker and Ron Klein. Hughes took 5th for the weekend and last place cash for the Masters.

The Advanced field had Oklahoman, Coda Hatfield and local Terry Toolen tied in second behind Robert Habert. Toolen was playing in his first competitive rounds at Veterans Park in over 7 years. Toolen has been the tournament director for the Veteran’s Park Open for the past six years and he enjoyed himself. Hatfield started Sunday morning with a three stroke lead over Toolen and Charles Cox III, Andy and Anthony Newberry were 11 back. Hatfield played extremely well throughout the tournament and coasted to an eighteen stroke victory. Toolen took second and Cox tied with Steve Miller for third.

The Advanced Masters field was a tight field after the first day with Gary Duke leading Steven King by one stroke and ahead of Clay Brumit by a two more. That changed after the third round, and King ran away with first place. The Advanced Women’s field had April Kusmierczyk winning. Tammy Walsh came in second with Ginetta Chamberland close behind in third. The Intermediate Amateur division was won by a two stroke margin with Derek Henry edging P. Anthony Martinez, and David Tremonti took third.

Brian and Brandon Mace did a magnificent job of running this event. They got sponsors that included Chipotle Burritos, which provided lunch the first day for all players and staff. Other sponsorship was handed out after the first day was completed, thanks to Fat Tire. (Brian Mace Interview: Windows Media | Real Audio)

Check out these video interviews, courtesy of PDGA Marshal Ray Murray (videos require Windows Media Player):

Open winner Kevin McCoy
Masters winner Mark Martin
Advanced winner Coda Hatfield
Freestyle Fun at the Big Show

For complete event results, goto: MaceMan Big Show at the Vet