Club Competitions Update

JPMGC Match-Play Events Offer Many Playing Opportunities

by Jeff Schoening
Match Play Director, Jackson Park Men’s Golf Club

JPMGC currently offers six match-play tournaments each year. Five of them are championships: Gross, Net, Net Four-Ball, Senior Gross (55-plus), and Legends Net (70-plus). The sixth tournament is the Non-Championship Gross, which has a spring section and a summer section.

The winner of the Gross Championship has until recently been considered THE club champion. With the creation and growth of the Jackson Classic, a two-day tournament on the last weekend in June, we now have a Stroke Play club champion, as well.

For the Gross Championship, the field is limited to one 16-person bracket, which is filled this year. Players qualify by being a recent Gross MP Champion, Gross SP Champion, Senior Gross SP Champion, low gross at a Saturday Field Day, and/or qualifying at the current year’s Spring Field Day. All of these players qualified playing from the blue tees. Players are seeded by handicap index. Jack Hartley was the 2023 champion.

Net and Net Four-Ball, also known as Handicap and Two-Man, respectively, have been contested for most of the 2000s and likely during the 20^th century, although club records are not clear on their origins. All members with handicap indexes are welcome to play in them.

For the first time, this year, we had in the Jackson Park restaurant a random drawing for the pairings. For Net, which attracted a full field of 64 entrants, the field was divided into four flights by handicap index. A member of each flight was randomly selected to fill each of the sixteen pods.

For the Net Four-Ball, which has a full field of 32 teams, two flights were created based on the teams’ handicap indexes, and again a member of each flight was randomly selected to determine the matches. Play in both these events began in late April and is scheduled to finish by the end of August. Robert Cowan (Net) and the team of Justin Kruiniger and Kyle Miller (Net Four-Ball) were the 2023 champions.

Senior Gross began in 2019. Players must be 55-plus by the start of the tournament. The field is limited to 16 and this event is filled as well (last year’s field was 15). The tournament runs from the end of May to the end of August. Players are seeded by handicap index. Nik Quesnell was the 2023 champion.

Legends Net began in 2022. Players must be 70 or older by the start of the tournament. This year’s field has 8 players, down from 13 in 2023. Pairings are randomly selected. The tournament runs from the end of May to the end of August. Reed Johnson was the 2023 champion.

Non-Championship Gross began in 2019. This is a flighted gross tournament with spring and summer sections. This spring there are five 4-person brackets (up from 17 in that section in 2023), the players in each bracket having handicap indexes less than three strokes apart. There are usually more people in the summer section, so we have more eight-person brackets then.

For more information about match play at the club, see the Match Play website.

JPMGC Tournament Participation, Payouts on Upward Trend

Estimates running through mid-May, including the May 18 Net Four-Ball, show increased participation across the board in all three leagues: Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The club is also on pace to exceed last year’s 21st century record of 521 regular members. This is important because membership dues are used to pay the club share of tournament payouts. Last year the club contributed $21,333 of the $74,735 paid out in tournament book money, including match play. The rest came from tournament fees.

This year we are likely to see slight growth in tournament payouts. Tournament directors are careful to keep the club share of payouts close to or under 30 percent. That way we will also have money to pay for Golf Genius Premium with live scoring, which costs nearly $4,000 a year, and other club expenses.

Dan Fabela directs the Saturday league and Saturday Venmo for honey pots.

Karl Meier runs the Tuesday league and Walt Dickhoff manages Tuesday Venmo for honey pots.

Ryan Coghill is setting up the Wednesday tournaments, Patrick Wilson is dealing with cancellations and the waitlist on Wednesdays, and Brian Asplund is in charge of figuring out the results, posting scores, and managing Venmo for the honey pots.

Jeff Schoening is the match play tournament director.

Tuesday League Update

by Karl Meier
Tuesday League Director

We are close to one-third of the way through the Tuesday League season, which culminates in October with the Tuesday Cup. Turnout has been solid this year with an average of 42 players per tournament.  A total of 76 different players have played in our Tuesday tournaments and 65 f them have earned points that are redeemable in the pro shop for merchandise.

The top 32 players at the end of the regular season (as measured by total points) will compete over three playoff rounds in the Tuesday Cup Playoffs. The Tuesday Cup Final is an adjusted net-stroke- play tournament similar to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup final, where the highest points leaders get a head start over the competition.

One player on a good path towards the playoffs is Andy Graham, who shot a Tuesday record (at least since 2022) 68 from the blue tees in the May 7 Field Day. Last year’s inaugural Tuesday Cup Champion, Bob Cameron, continues his success and leads in points through May 7, with 307 points.  The next four points leaders are Dylan Fitzgerald, Mark Ohrenschall, Dennis Mueller and Walt Dickhoff.

The point total (as of May 7) needed to be above the cut line (32^nd) for the playoffs is 95 points. Jack Whelan, Trevor Parrish, Samuel Williams and Eddie Johnson are just above the playoff cut line, and David Foreman, Gerry Lumansoc, Jeff Schoening and Tim Bowen are just below the playoff cut line.  There are still a lot of tournaments left, so the standings will continue to evolve, and there is still time to earn your way into the Tuesday Cup Playoffs!