Most golf tournaments last four days or less. Some may go on for a week. But the one that will end on Saturday at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora will have gone on for 147 days.
What started on May 2 with a match between Fox Hollow and Foothills will wrap up with Saturday’s championship showdown between The Ranch Country Club and Indian Tree Golf Course. At stake is the first CGA Team Interclub title.
An idea that took shape with an unofficial pilot tournament last year will reach fruition by crowning an official champion at CommonGround, the new course owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA. The season-long net match play competition pitting men’s clubs against one another will culminate with a Saturday title match starting at high noon.
Twelve amateur players each from The Ranch and Indian Tree will compete, with two golfers from each course making up a foursome. Two net singles matches and a net four-ball match will be simultaneously contested in each group. Each match will be worth two points, with two awarded for a win, one for a tie and zero for a loss. Overall, 19 points will be needed for the team title.
Forty men’s clubs from around the state signed up for the inaugural Team Interclub — 25 public facilities, 12 private, two resort and one semi-private. Saturday’s final will match a public course (Indian Tree in Arvada) against a private club (The Ranch in Westminster).
During the “regular season,” teams were placed into groups of four and played a round-robin in May, June and July, with the winner of each group advancing to the playoffs. The regular-season group winners were Meadow Hills, The Meadows, Indian Tree, Applewood, The Ranch, Willis Case, Plum Creek, Broadlands, Bookcliff and Flying Horse.
Those 10 teams then competed in a single-elimination playoff in August and early September. In the quarterfinals, The Ranch defeated Flying Horse, Willis Case beat Broadlands, Plum Creek topped Applewood and Indian Tree edged the Meadows. In the semifinals, Indian Tree defeated Plum Creek 24-12 and The Ranch routed Willis Case 27-9.
All told, 64 team matches have been played to date, with four others being forfeited.
Saturday’s matchup will feature a Ranch Country Club team that has won all five of its matches, outscoring its opponents by a combined 119-61. Indian Tree has gone 4-1 — it lose to Hyland Hills in the regular season — and tallied 38 points more than its opponents.
Here are Saturday’s tee times and representatives of each team:
Noon — David Farabaugh (Ranch) vs. Ryan Donofrio (Indian Tree); Mike Ventimiglia (Ranch) vs. Todd Namba (Indian Tree).
12:10 — David Gahagen (Ranch) vs. Josh Harris (Indian Tree); Lowell Hegg (Ranch) vs. Don Stoner (Indian Tree).
12:20 — Brandon Dingae (Ranch) vs. Jim Rodgers (Indian Tree); Gary Ariniello (Ranch) vs. Joe Branchaw (Indian Tree).
12:30 — Michael Kochevar (Ranch) vs. Billy Evans (Indian Tree); Scott Wilkinson (Ranch) vs. Gene Schluter (Indian Tree).
12:40 — Dave Tarpley (Ranch) vs. Bill Irwin (Indian Tree); William Leone (Ranch) vs. Jim Nealon (Indian Tree).
12:50 — Duane Powers (Ranch) vs. Douglas Goodrich (Indian Tree); Paul Jarosz (Ranch) vs. Mike Williams (Indian Tree).
