Ladies and gentlemen,

We’re finally here. Team Wesley and Team Brad advance to the finals, an 18-hole single stroke play event. 5 points up for grabs across 5 singles matches.

Check it out on the YGT YouTube Channel.

Orrrrr, just read ahead for all the spoils. Enjoy!

Wesley vs. Brad.

I think this is how I expected things to go after draft night, but Team Grant was looking like a shoo-in (can you believe it’s not shoe-in?) down the round 2 stretch until Team Brad went -3 over the final two holes.

While I think these are the two most solid teams, I think the teams are more even than people may assume after the first event. Only time will tell.

To the golf!

The pairings caused a bit of drama to begin with, but I think we ended up with the perfects pairs. There were mumblings of Team Brad throwing a sacrificial lamb out.

Like a Garrett Clark vs. Wesley or Ruffles — to take out a really strong player on Team Wesley against GC, who might lose to anyone they put up against him.

But it didn’t happen. Instead, I think they found the most ideal pairings. Strong on strong. Unpredictable on unpredictable.

I truly believed Pete and Micah are the only near-locks, but even those guys aren’t true locks.

IT‘S ANYBODY’S GAME.

The matches and results were as follows:

Match 1: Micah Morris (-5) VS. Garrett Clark (+6)

A throwback to the GM days of old, on the ground that Garrett and Micah got their start back in 2020.

While I had seen Garrett play solid golf in the opening round scramble, Micah was just too much. At some point, I think he was like -4 through 6. He obviously cooled off, but he was firing early, and GC didn’t have much of an answer.

Match 2: Roger Steele (+9) VS Peter Finch (+4)

Look, we didn’t see the best scores out of these competitors in the finals, but I couldn’t enjoy these two guys any more.

Peter is hilarious. Childish in the best way. Roger, though a bit more serious, is as genuine as it gets. Interested in you and your life and YOUR interests. Each time I’ve been able to speak with him, he makes me feel his equal. You don’t often get that with guys of this caliber.

Peter Finch does what it takes to knot things up 1-1 after two matches.

Match 3: John Peterson (-3) VS. Ben Hadden (-3)

A perfect push here. This is what you hope for when you bring in a couple wild cards — gutsy finish to the end for both guys.

They split the point, keeping things even at 1.5-1.5.

Match 4: Wesley Bryan (-4) VS. Sean Walsh (-5)

Match of the day.

I was able to tag along with this crew for the entire 18, keeping yardages and stats for both of them. Unreal golf, electric finish.

Down by 4 strokes going into the back 9, Sean seemed just about out of it. Even on 10, where Sean carded an eagle in textbook fashion, Wesley put his approach (from the rough) to about 4 feet for his eagle to match.

Unfortunately for Wesley, that was the last hole he’d play under par. He found the cup for par on 7 of his last 8 holes, with the lone bogey on 17. An untimely and out of character 3-putt.

Meanwhile, Sean rattled off three birdies in a row on 12, 13, and 14. After Sean’s par on 17, Wesley’s bogey brought them all square heading toward the 18th tee box — I don’t want to exaggerate… but it was a movie.

After two shots on 18, Sean was in prime position to go up and down for birdie, while Wesley found the greenside bunker.

Sean chips to just a few feet, a tap in birdie to follow.

Despite a brilliant sand shot, Wesley was unable to knock in an 6ish-footer for birdie, as Sean completes an electric back-9 comeback, putting the final nail in Team Wesley’s coffin, though a push would’ve done the same thing given what was happening right behind them.

Match 5: Ryan Ruffels (-4) VS. Brad Dalke (-10)

You’d think -4 would put you in pretty good position to win. Unfortunately for Ryan Ruffels, Brad tied the Farmlinks course record with a -10 (62). What hurts most for Brad is that he missed a 6-footer for birdie to break the course record alone.

I doubt it’s keeping him up at night.

Team Brad wins 3.5-1.5

1st Place: Team Brad

Team Brad was awarded $250,000 — $50K for each player.

2nd Place: Team Wesley

Team Wesley was awarded $175,000 — $35,000 for each player.

3rd Place: Team Grant

Team Grant was awarded $50,000 — $10,000 for each player.

4th Place: Team George

Team George was awarded $25,000 — $5,000 for each player.

As an associate statistician for Team Brad and the Wesley/Sean match, I will be requesting a 5% cut from each member of team Brad. I’m expecting $12,500 to hit the account soon, but I haven’t heard back from any of them???

Electric two days guys. I had so much fun.

I would love to share any and all things about this event. Hit me up.

Bullish on the YGT. You heard it here.

CHEERS,

Luke Mangan
On Golf