Dave Sturick
FMMGA Propagandist

The 2021 FMMGA Championship is in the books and we have 2 very worthy champions for the overall gross and net.  We had some hard fought battles in each flight at well.

We started out on a beautiful and warmish day at Lancaster.  Mike Musialowski (new pro of Lancaster) and his staff greeted us warmly and provided us with a really good test of golf.  I have been playing all the Springs Courses for a long time.  That is the best shape I have ever seen Lancaster and we are happy we had such a good day.  The wind was stout but the course was very fair and fun.  Scores overall were pretty good with Ray Racer looking like an early favorite to win the gross trophy with a nice 73 and Arbie Turner looking to repeat as net champ with an 80 – net 66.5.  But Golf has a way of saying not so fast …………

Sunday we went home to Good Ole Fort Mill.  We were welcomed with 20-25 degree cooler temps than on Saturday.  Not sure if that was the problem or just maybe the pressure of a final day tournament.  In general all the scoring was higher.  Actually considerably higher.  There were a couple of good scores – most notably Jack Windell with a nice 74.  But at least ¾ of the field had higher scores at Fort Mill than Lancaster. 

Congrats to all the flight winners – Gross and Net !!  Well played my friends !!!  Winners (gross/net) win 125 dollars gift cards.  2nd in both 75 dollars each. 

As I said in my opening – we have 2 very worthy champions who showed that they both were most deserving of holding the trophies.  Both played well and both were a couple of the few who had a better score on Sunday than Saturday.  No question they went out and won it. 

Congrats to Joe Burns and Walt David as your FMMGA Champions for 2021 !!!

Walt David was the very last entrant into the tournament.  He got thrown into the Lions Den and played his first day with Rob Boyer, Gregg Ferrell and Dean Frazier. If you ever played with those guys, you know what I’m talking about !!   Walt said they introduced him to birdie shots and confessed he was a little more loopy after day one than what he expected.  He shot a very nice 78 to start out in the 4th flight at Lancaster.  The second day he came back with a 77 at Fort Mill.  Walt is a 7.2 handicap and ended with a 2 day total of 140.6 Net to take that prize.  Jody Stegall was second to Walt at 141.4. 

I had the pleasure of playing and riding with Joe Burns on Sunday.  We were in the second to last group after Joe started with a solid 77 on Saturday at Lancaster.  On Sunday, Joe did what he needed to do.  He hit fairways and greens and made a few putts.  He had to make a really nice 4 footer on 18 to secure the win.  As I said, it was tough out there yesterday and when the dust cleared, Joe shot a very nice 76 to shoot 153 for the outright win.  One stroke behind Joe were Mike Granger and Jeff Brunelle.  2 strokes behind was our overall net champion – Walt David at 155.  He almost double dipped. 

Congrats to both Joe and Walt on winning.  Ray Racer and I were talking later about the FMMGA Championship.  Both of us are previous winners of this event.  We agree that we don’t want to say this is more important than the Club Championship but in a way is as hard if not harder to win.  You have to play 2 golf courses in different conditions and layouts and then be crowned champion.  If you win this tournament, you have accomplished something special in Fort Mill Golf Lore !! Joe Burns/Walt David, welcome to the club !!!

As said earlier – thanks to Mike and his crew at Lancaster – they were great.  Lots of fun !! As always, David Gies and his staff are wonderful and helpful.  We thank John Anderson and his crew with Marie, Carol and Lisa in providing us with great food and service Sunday afternoon.  Ashley Patterson and his crew deserve a lot of credit for providing a great golf course for us to play on Sunday.  You are all awesome and we are privileged to call the Springs Family of Golf Courses our home !!