Tyler Mason steels the headline from Jerry Edwards who won the 2014 National Order of Merit points race. Jerry, the gentleman he is, has no problem stepping aside for this story to be told.
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| Jerry Edwards Flight 1 Tour Champion |
Tyler Mason who was leading the points race heading into the last major of the year and only had a 6 point lead over Carlos Gonzalez. With a spot on Team USA on the line Tyler left Arizona on Friday August 15th to make his tee time in Plymouth Indiana the next day on Saturday the 16th. While boarded on the plane in Chicago for his last leg to arrive in South Bend Indiana Mason was all settled in his seat listening to his favorite music on his playlist with his headphones firmly nestled into his ears.
After the last passengers boarded the plane who appeared to be an older gentleman and his son it was evident they were rushing to make their flight. A few moments later Tyler heard screaming that overpowered the music playing in his headset. He removed his earphones to asses the situation to find out that the older gentleman was having a heart attack and stopped breathing. Tyler jumped out of his seat and rushed to the back of the plane where the two were seated to find the son in shock and frozen staring at his father while others around were in a panic.
Having been trained in CPR as a job requirement Tyler immediately took action and placed the Gentleman on the floor in the isle of the plane and started to pump on the mans chest. Instructing the son to give mouth to mouth Tyler repeated the cadence out loud one, two, three, four.....
After several cycles and no response Tyler applied more pressure in his compressions, as trained he was aware of the sounds he heard were the that of the gentleman's ribs separating from the mans sternum, again with no success the flight attendant brought the air planes AED unit which Tyler used. After the 2nd shock the gentleman was resuscitated......Tyler had just saved a strangers life..........
BUT WAIT!!!! the story does not end there. While waiting for the paramedics the flight attended provided the gentleman with the planes emergency oxygen. When the paramedics arrived they kept the man on the oxygen as they rushed him to the hospital. As the plane prepared to take off they realized the oxygen was gone and due to FAA regulations a plane can not take off with out one. Due to the late hour the flight had to be cancelled.
The next flight for Tyler the next day would make him miss his tee time and be disqualified from the points race. As fate would have it Tyler over heard one of the passenger say he was going to rent a car to drive to Plymouth Indiana. Tyler jumped in and asked for a ride and since Tyler was the hero of the moment the fellow plane passenger gladly said yes.
When it was all said and done Tyler finally arrived at 4:00am Saturday morning to only get a few hours sleep before he had to tee off to protect his fist place position. Day one did not work well for our hero who shot a 91 for a net 78 dropping him from 1st place to 6th place on the Order of Merit. Randy Bryant who had been on fire had continued his stellar play to take the lead at net 70 and jump from 6th place on the NOM to 1st.
With 5 players ahead of Tyler in the standings he had his worked cut out for him and he took on the challenge by shooting a 79 for a net 66 the 2nd lowest net score of the score of the day. But his former teammate at the 2013 World Championship Jerry Edwards was to steady both days shooting net 72, 70 to win the National Order of Merit and a spot on Team USA and beating Tyler by two stokes preventing his rise to first.
I know your asking yourself “HOW DID KARMA PAYBACK TYLER.” The man saves other mans life, that results in two hours sleep contributing to a day one poor performance, with a valiant effort on day two that falls short to only be a brides maid?....
WHAT KIND OF KARMA IS THAT????
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| Jerry Edwards and Tyler Mason 2014 WGI USA Team |
On Saturday the WGAT Tour Championship was two players short to award a 2nd spot on Team USA. Mark Thomas a member of the 2012 USA Team and new tournament director for Michigan contacted all 16 players in the field that were in contention of winning the national order of Merit race. In short he proposed to have two players drive up from Michigan Saturday morning to enter the field. However they could not afford the entry fee. All 16 WGAT members volunteered to chip in $50.00 each to have these two play so a 2nd person could be awarded a spot on Team USA.
KARMA........Tyler won that spot.........
With Jerry Edwards fight one win and Tyler's KARMA the two will be reunited again as teammates at the 20th anniversary World Golfers Invitational in Durban South Africa. They both will try to make the World Golfers Championship team at the National Championship next month. If they succeed then Andres Jacob and Randy Bryant will take their place since they finished 3rd and 4th.
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| Angela Walker Tour Championship winner |
In Flight 2 it was all about the Walkers. After day one Jeremy Walker took a one stroke lead with 2013 National order of Champion Tom Tower and 2012 National Champion Andrew Holewinsky with just one stroke back at net even par.
On day two it was all Angela Walker who was two strokes back shot a career round of 85 for a net 63 to win by 5 strokes over her husband Jeremy. Those of you who know the Walkers know Jeremy was a very lucky man he did not win.............
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| Oscar Rafols Low Gross Champion |
Other then Jerry Edwards winning the national order of Merit race, Player of the Year and flight one of the Tour Championship. The event was dominated by South Florida members and Past members of Team USA.
In the Tour Championship Challenge South Florida members Randy Bryant won Low net and Oscar Rafols won low Gross. Along with South Florida’s Angela Walker, South Florida took home three of the four trophies.
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| Randy Bryant Low Net Champion |
In Total there were 7 awards passed out at the Tour Championship and 6 were won by past USA Team members.
Lastly the WGAT Tour Championship concluded the race for National Player of the Year. With Jerry’s 2nd Major win he claimed the prize to earn free travel and hotel accommodations to the National Championship. Jerry has had the best all time year in WGAT USA History. In only 6 National events in the 2014 Season he has won a total of $19,428.00 in prizes and benefits.The WGAT National events in the 2014 season has paid out a total of $100,922.00 to 100 participants. With an average of 28 players per event just imagine the total payouts once the WGAT grows to full fields of 180 pe
