Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
In golf, being a wire-to-wire winner means you held the lead from start to finish. That generally applies to tournaments that are medal play, or stroke play in layman’s terms.
The Men’s Lobstick tournament, however, is a match-play event so saying someone was the wire-to-wire winner is almost impossible to discern – until now.
Saskatoon’s Alex Swinnerton was the low qualifier when the annual event began on Monday at the Waskesiu Golf Course and after five straight match-play victories during the week he was crowned the champion on Saturday when he knocked in his par putt on the 18th hole in a dual with Jeff Dormuth, also of Saskatoon, in the Championship Flight final.
Swinnerton carded a two-under-par 68 during qualifying action to take the No. 1 seed into the match-play portion of the tournament. He then beat Curtis Peet of Saskatoon, Rob Schneider of Regina, last-year’s runner-up Scott MacKay of Regina and the defending champion Payton Ochitwa of Saskatoon to set up the match against Dormuth.
For Dormuth, his run to the final almost never happened as his 76 on qualifying day was right on the cutlline to get into the Championship Flight, but after a series of tie-breakers he was seeded 30th in the 32-man group vying for the overall title.
Dormuth then dispatched Prince Albert’s TJ Baker in his first match and then got past Blake Coben of Delisle, Ron Swan of Regina and Darryl Czuy of Warman to set up his match against Swinnerton.
Baker, who also resides in Waskesiu Lake, was one of eight Prince Albert golfers to make the Championship Flight with Trent Kachur joining Baker as the top local shooters on qualifying day as both finished one shot behind Swinnerton when they each fired one-under-par 69s. Other local golfers making the top 32 were former champion Cliff Selander with a 73, three-time champion Martin Ring and another former champion Mark Robinson – both with a 74 and Kyle Schneider, Reed Gunville and four-time champion Danny Klughart – all with 75s.
Kachur and Klughart advanced the farthest out of the local contingent, however, as Kachur was eliminated in the quarter-finals when he fell to Czuy while Klughart also had his run come to an end in the quarter-finals when Ochitwa kept his attempt for a second straight championship intact before eventually falling to Swinnerton in the semi-finals.
“I played a couple of good matches and won them, but on Friday, plain and simple, the other guy (Czuy) outplayed me,” said Kachur when assessing his week. “I didn’t have it that day. It was tough conditions and it made it tough to catch up.”
Kachur was one of many who were returning to Waskesiu last week for back-to-back events as they were also in the Senior Men’s Lobstick one week earlier.
At that event, Kachur also had a strong showing finishing in fifth place, 12 shots back of the champion Ken Rodgers of Regina.
“I was quite happy with the way I played at both tournaments,” noted Kachur. “The greens were in really, really good shape. It was a treat playing with the greens so good.”
Just under 300 golfers took part in the Men’s Lobstick with everyone guaranteed at least two matches in addition to the qualifying round. If you lost your first match you dropped down to the consolation event and once there if you lost again you were eliminated.
In the Championship Flight consolation final it was Mike Herperger of Humboldt getting past Doug Phelps of Saskatoon in 16 holes.
Herperger lost his opening match to Kachur and then reeled off wins over Dade Bernatchez, Shaun Dunphy and Landon Klassen to set up his bout with Phelps. After losting his opening match to MacKay, Phelps got past Ring, Schneider and Shawn McNall en route to the consolation final.
In addition to the first round being a qualifying score, those who wished could also compete in the Open, which featured amateurs and professionals competing in a 36-hole stroke-play event. Ty Campbell of Saskatoon claimed that honour after recording rounds of 68 and 67 for a 135 total. Trevor Bloom, the 2021 Men’s Lobstick champion formerly from Canwood, but now resides in Kelowna, B.C., and Swinnerton were next with 137 totals.
Waskesiu Lake Golf Course general manager Tyler Baker said despite the course only opening for the season on May 27 due to the unpleasant spring he said both the Senior Men’s and Men’s Lobstick tournaments were both well received.
“At the Lobstick you never know what is going to happen with the weather,” says Baker. “It was cool and we had some wind, but if the condition of the course is good and the organization of the tournament is good then everybody is happy.”
“I think everything went very well,” he added.
Next up on the Lobstick schedule is the Coca Cola Junior Lobstick in early August followed by the Ladies Lobstick one week later.
The Men’s Lobstick is one of the longest running match-play tournaments in the country and every year there is an exciting finish to determine a champion. This year was no different.
