2020 Knucklehead OPEN Williamsburg VA, Quarantine Edition
Final Round:
The fourth round at the Kingsmill’s River Course in Williamsburg started off with a drizzly start making the greens soft and attackable and also increased the chance to have mud stick to the balls. Luckily for the knuckleheads, God checked Brian Duffy’s weather app and the sunshine began to peek through the clouds after an hour from the start of the round to make the final round enjoyable.
Bob Ingram used his 5-iron from 165 yards to hit the ball within 5 feet of the pin on the first two par 5’s to maintain his lead over the field. The approach on the first par 5 #3 hole was to save par as he initially ducked hook his drive into the hazard and the approach on the second par 5 #7 495 yard hole was for a birdie. Greg Sadowski used his bombing drives to negate the wet fairways and got many good looks for birdies but had to settle for only two birdies. Greg did “dechambeau” the #16 428 yard slight dog-leg right hole as he bombed his drive off one of the colonial mansions bordering the right-side of the fairway. He had 94 yards remaining to the pin. That is a 334 yard drive for those mathematically deficient. Greg Sadowski did have low score honors for the final group as he finished with EVEN total points.
Battle for third place started off precariously. Gill Nichols was 4 points behind Jon Ryan before the start of the round. Initially Gill mistakenly used the white tees in calculating his handicap and reported that his course handicap was 14 for today. Jon Ryan thought that was unusual since his course handicap was at 13. So Jon sportsmanly corrected Gill to inform him to use the blue tees instead. Gill did and his course handicap was adjusted to 17. Since Jon was 4 points ahead in the points total and Gill’s handicap was 17 and Jon’s handicap was a 13, the battle for third place was essentially mano a mano.
Gill started off the first five holes at 2 over par by making a couple of 12 foot putts to save par on the par 4 #4 379 yard hole and the downhill par 3 #5 hole. Jon then made up some ground on the next two holes but lost his concentration on the difficult #9 445 yard par 4 hole as he four putted for a minus one score. So after the first nine holes, Gill had managed to grab a one point lead. On the back side, Jon rebounded with a nice up and down for par to the raised green on the #12 hole. Jon also made a slippery downhill 10 foot putt for par on the next two holes; #13 par 3 hole and #14 par 4 hole. Jon then made a 20 footer on the #18 hole for a scrambling par to finish with a 39 on the back nine to secure third place.
On the other side of the spectrum, Alan Burke should had gone to the casinos today. He recorded eight 5’s on his scorecard. Starting on the tenth hole, Alan record five straight 5’s then a 7 on hole #15, then two more 5’s. This type of play guaranteed Alan the Bad Dog award. Greg Muolo kept away from this year’s Bad Dog award with a brilliant 4 hybrid shot to the 163 yard #17 hole playing into the wind. Greg’s ball finished 25 feet from the pin to capture the CTP on the final par 3 hole and eventually the final CLEAR for the tourney.
Joe Hirsch had low round honors for the first group as he scored a -3 point total in the final round. He thought he was in the running for a CLEAR on the final hole as he made a nice up & down from behind the green for par. But ended up in a tie for the CLEAR with Jon Ryan. Pete Blauvelt and Brian Duffy shared low round honors for the second group as each finished with a -6 total points for the round. Gary Adam Boukis (GAB) was relatively quiet for the round as the sixth consecutive day of golf was coming to a close. Bruce attempted to gain ground on his side bets by DOUBLING all of his bets. In a football analogy, Bruce attempted to run a reverse sweep out of his own end zone and ended up fumbling the ball. Highlight of Bruce’s round was capturing a CTP on the #13 158 yard par 3 hole. I was going to ask him if he ended up making par, but thought the score was inconsequential in his total score of 118.
Thanks to Gill Nichols for his relentless efforts to find a golf destination for this year’s Knucklehead Open. Overall the courses were in excellent condition. Each course offered a different layout and ravines and water hazards but it was the speed of the greens that made scoring challenging. The accommodations were fantastic as all eleven golfers were “bubbled” into one townhouse unit and were able to share beer, chips, rum, whiskey, and laughs.
Knucklehead OPEN 2020 Williamsburg
| PLAY | Pos | Total | R1: Kingsmill | R2: Viniterra | R3: RNK | R4: River | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Bob Ingram | 1 | +10 | +4 | +6 | +2 | -2 |
 | Greg Sadowski | 2 | -1 | +2 | +3 | -6 | 0 |
| Jon Ryan | 3 | -13 | -10 | -7 | +5 | -1 | |
 | Gill Nichols | 4 | -23 | -7 | -8 | -1 | -7 |
 | Brian Duffy | 5 | -27 | -9 | -11 | -1 | -6 |
 | Joe Hirsch | 6 | -28 | -16 | -2 | -7 | -3 |
 | Pete Blauvelt | 7 | -30 | -9 | -11 | -4 | -6 |
 | Gary Boukis | 8 | -31 | -9 | -13 | 0 | -9 |
 | Bruce Grau | 9 | -37 | -22 | -5 | -6 | -15 |
 | Greg Muolo | 10 | -42 | -13 | -5 | -15 | -9 |
 | Alan Burke | 11 | -43 | -13 | -8 | -11 | -11 |
Third Round:
Second Round:
First Round:
For the opening round of 48th Knucklehead Open some of the players had jitters at the Woods course at Kingsmill Resort.
Greg Muolo started off shakily as he pumped his first two tee shots off the 1st hole into the water. He eventually made a nice CPA par (Cart Path Assisted) on the 18th hole to capture a clear.