Doing the Double Dip

Justin Bardgett teamed up with 2008 Missouri Stroke Play Champion, Darren Lundgren to win the only other major championship that both of them could compete in, the 2008Missouri Four Ball Championship. Bardgett won the Match Play at WingHaven Country Club in June with a convincing final match performance against Skip Berkmeyer. Lundgren followed that up with an equally dominating performance, winning the Stroke Play at Meadow Lake Acres by three strokes over an impressive field.

I knew going into the event with the way the rough was up and the speed of the greens that teams were not going to go very deep the first day. But, after players have a couple rounds under their belts, on a course they can start feeling comfortable on, they’ll start shooting lower scores. However, with the hole locations that I had set for day two I did not expect this low of scores. So, my hats off to the boys for golfing that well.

After the first round, it looked like the magic was gone for the two major champs as they fired a lack luster 69 which put them three strokes off the lead, but more importantly behind more than a dozen teams at 66, 67 and 68. "We thought 62 was the number we needed to win going into the final round," said Bardgett after the tournament. Well they came up one shot short of their goal firing a low round of the championship 63 getting them to 12-under for the tournament with quite a few teams on the course. Early reports were that defending champions Travis Mitchell and Tyler Stalker were again playing well and playing directly behind Bardgett and Lundgren so they would be aware of exactly what they had to do.

With Lundgren and Bardgett waiting for more scores to come in to see how their 12-under total matched up, Mitchell and Stalker knew they had to make birdie on 18 to tie and Mitchell drained a clutch 50 foot birdie on the final green to match the leaders and join the waiting game. I was standing next to the 18th green at the time, and about 10 feet out from the hole he new that he made it. The ball was moving at a pretty good clip when it hit the hole and was dead center.

After all the teams completed play it was just Lundgren/Bardgett and Mitchell/Stalker teams still standing. So it was off to the first hole for a playoff. However only after one hole the playoff was over with the Bardgett and Lundgren team holding the Championship hardware for 2008.
It was a great week on a wonderful course in Blue Hills Country Club. The course could not have been in any better shape. So thank you to the great staff and membership of Blue Hills for allowing us to host the event.

Until I see you on the first tee.


Scott