National Golf Club MGA: 2012 Men's Invitational Results

What a weekend we had at National! You could not have asked for better weather for a Men's Invitational. How does 80 degrees and low humidity sound for the middle of June? Sounds like heaven to me.

Our Member/Guest started off the week on Thursday with a better ball game along with some team skins. That was followed with our ever popular par 3 contest.

In the Better ball game we had Tom Lorenz and his partner Frank D'Auria take home the gross prize after a scorecard playoff with Dr. Matt Oldroyd and Jeff Wilson. The net winners were Tom Boals and Former Member Mike Fiske.

The par 3 contest yielded some excellent results with Ken Bass & Glenn Nelson shooting the lowest ever gross score of 20 to claim 1st place money. The net champs were Mark Watson & Phil Blanton. Check out the full results for all other winners on along with skins winners on the Practice Round Results sheet below.

We had five flights this year. The format was the five nine hole matches where each team will play a match of nine holes against all the other teams in their respective flight. Because of the uneven number of teams this year all flights had the difficult task of playing one match against old man par. Some fared quite well some not so much. As per our past tradition the flights were named after some of golf's great players.

Jack Nicklaus Flight. All the low handicappers were bunched up here with the Oldroyd boys along with our new members Ken Bass, William Rocchi and the Bermuda connection Mr. Andrew Wright. It was a battle from the beginning and they beat some stiff competition to come out on top of this tough flight. The term brother in-law was used frequently by the pair. That is what it takes to win these things though. The duo posted 36 1/2 points to edge out former champions Mark Packard and Staunton Harkins. Ken & Glenn claimed their victory by winning every match including two matches with 8 points each. Great work guys!

Arnold Palmer Flight This flight consisted of a bevy of worthy contenders. After day one this flight was as close as it gets for competition with only a few points separating 3 of the 5 teams. Then the birdies and an eagle started flying for team Lyons and Leitner. There is one thing I can say about Andrew Lyons and that is he is a competitor. His partner is not to shabby either with one of his nine holes going deep under par. The guys vanquished all foes in all five of their matches including an early drumming of the former champs The Gough Boys 8 1/2 to 2 1/2. Great work gentlemen.

Bobby Jones Flight Another hotly contested battle of excellent participants in this flight. The finish was a bit shaky for team Hyland and Patterson but their day one total of 21 gave them a 4 point cushion going in to the last day of competition. The lead for them was cut to 1 1/2 points after match #4 over their nearest competitor and their last match was against old man par. They sure gave the old guy a trouncing pulling 9 points to finish 3 points clear of team Maisano & Hodges at 34 points. That was a nail biter their fellas. Great Job!

Ben Hogan Flight I would like to say this was a close competition here but I would be lying. It was team Knight & Nibert all the way. The only team that gave them any kind of scare was the DC connection Dale Mitchell and Bob Williams. They were able to get a tie out of the champs. Rick Knight and David Nibert did something against par that has never happened before in any member/guest that I can recall. They beat par 11 & 0! That is quite a feat. This 11 point victory along with all the other points they accumulated added up to a whopping 40 points! That total was not only enough to win their flight but also captured the overall championship as well. Great work guys!

Byron Nelson Flight We had some serious heavy hitters in this flight with Dick "the Terminator" Tilley looming as a significant threat to anyone who dares challenge him. Unfortunately for Dick and his partner Bill Graning they had a tough 1st day and fell victim to the Bray & Whitaker steamrolling machine. These guys dispatched every opponent they faced along with three eight point matches. It is tough to beat anyone that is on that kind of roll. They managed to score 38 points! Only 2 points shy of the overall champions. Great work you guys!

After the five matches were over it was on to the horse race. We had 21 teams participate in this years horse race! 10 teams went to the front nine and 11 teams went to the back 9. The format for the horse race was pure alternate shot. The idea is to have one team standing after the allotted holes. We used 5 holes this year. It makes for some very interesting golf for the first few holes when you have 10 or 11 balls in play on one hole. On the front nine our horse race champs were the team of Lyons & Leitner and the back nine saw the team of Bray & Whitaker come out on top. Congrats to you guys for a job well done.

After all the golf was played the participants and their significant others were treated to quite a fine feast of the tastiest vittles this side of the Mississippi. Mr. Robinette was on the pit all day cooking up quite a feast with all the fix ins. Thanks go out to him for all the effort he put in for the preparation of the such a fine meal. After dinner I believe a few more libations were consumed and some dancing before the night came to an end.

I would personally like to thank all of the Men's Invitational participants for playing in this years tournament. I hope everyone had a great time at the event. Congratulations to all the flight winners and the overall champions Rick Knight and David Nibert. This event would not happen without the support of our membership. Thanks again and hope to see you playing next year!