Match Play Championship 2022

The Lawyers & Judges Golf Association 2022 Match Play Finals were held last week, November 2.  Kevin Coleman prevailed over Nick Blonder 4 and 3.  The usual venue, the Lakeside Course at Olympic Club, was unavailable to us this year, so the Final was played at Spyglass Hill in Monterey.  Special thank you goes out to Thomas Brooks for using his Dukes Club membership to obtain the tee time and save the club on green fees.  And thanks to the other Dukes members of our club who offered.  Thomas and Kelly Park played alongside the two finalists.

Spyglass Hill is probably the most the difficult course on the Monterey Peninsula, and one of the toughest in the nation.  Playing under 6200 yards from the white tees, it is not formidably long, yardage-wise, but plays longer.

After meandering down to the ocean in the first five holes, hitting shots into an on shore breeze, the course turns inland into the Del Monte Forest.  From there, it is mostly uphill and foggy.

The day before the match the weather was forecasted for no rain.  However, on the day, rain was forecast.  Fortunately, we made it through with only a slight bit of a drizzle that did not last.

The course was wet, so Coleman and Blonder agreed to play Lift, Clean and Place in the fairway.  The agreement seemed to favor Blonder as he started the day hitting his usual straight shots and Coleman didn’t find a fairway for the first several holes.  However, the playing length of the course was tough on Blonder’s game.  Blonder, playing to 9.3 to Coleman’s 12.6 had to give Coleman 4 shots.  The first stroke hole was number 1 and Coleman was able to take advantage, winning the hole with a bogey.  Coleman won number two, to go two up, then number 4 to go three up before Blonder won a hole, at number 5, to cut the lead to two.  Unfortunately, that was as close as Blonder would get on the front, with Coleman leading 4 to start the inward nine.

Coleman’s double bogeys on 10 and 11 gave the holes to Blonder before Coleman took the stroke hole at number 13 with a  net par, and 14 with a natural par to raise his lead to 4 and put Blonder dormie.  Coleman’s par at the par 3 15th closed the match out after Blonder's birdie putt lipped out.

Thank you to all who participated in this year’s Match Play and to our Match Play Chair this year, Kelly Park.