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The WGAT Players Championship was held this past weekend on two of Mesquite Nevada's premier Golf courses The Palmer and the Canyons at Oasis Golf Club. “ I am asked all the time which course is my favorite” Adam Schwartz, Head PGA Professional for the Oasis Golf Club said in an interview. “ If I had to pick I would say the Palmer but the front nine on the Palmer and the Front Nine on the Canyons are my two favorite nines out of the 36.” When Schwartz was asked they type of challenges the players would face he added “Dealing with the landscape. Several of the holes are carved out of the mountain hillside creating enormous elevation changes and visual aspects that are stunning” Later he mentioned that if the wind picks up the players will be in trouble.
Mesquite will be the home of the 2013 WGAT USA National Championship so the players who played in this weeks WGAT Players Championship had the special opportunity to play these types of courses in tournament conditions before have to compete in the National Championship.
As stated Thomas shot a gross 78 for a net -3 on day one on the Oasis Canyons course to find himself 4 strokes off the lead due to Carlos Gonzalez shooting his best round of the year with Gross 77 for net -7. Entering the final round on the Famed Palmer course Thomas commented “ Arnold Palmer once said there is golf and there is tournament golf and Gonzales is going to have to win this because I am not going to give it to him.”
Thomas shot 5 pars to open his round while Gonzalez struggled on the front and after nine holes they Gonzales lost his 4 stroke lead and was tied with Thomas. “I have played with Gonzalez in the past and I know he is a strong back nine player and that was in my head to stay focus on my game” Thomas said in his interview. Thomas edged out Gonzalez by one stroke finishing at net -4 for the Victory in flight one.
For the over all Champion It appeared that the current National Order of Merit leader was going to run away with the event after he shot a career low back nine of a gross 37 net -9. With his net +1 on the front Tower was -8 after day one and had a 8 stroke lead going in to day two. Tower shot even par on the front maintaing his net -8 but Richard McDaniel made a charge going net -5 on the front nine pulling with in 3 strokes with nine to play.
“ Cordy was throwing darts into the green, I thought we were done” Tower said “but on 17 Cordy hit his ball into a hazard and he lifted a leaf inside the hazard. Both Rich and I looked at each other in amazement, we could not believe what we just saw” Tower went on to say. As a result Worth was given a two stroke penalty and recorded an 8 on the hole and was not able to recover by double bogging the 18th.
Having never leading the event for one hole McDaniel was now tied for the lead with Tower and a Playoff was needed to decide the winner. McDanial won after one playoff hole.
As a result of all the excitement in flight two Mark Thomas in flight one was the biggest benefactor. With the flight two winner finished at -3 Marks -4 was now the winning score and he was rewarded with 800 National Order of Merit Points. This help him jump into 2nd place behind Tom Tower. “I just want to pay good golf, I can not worry about things that have not happened yet” Thomas said when asked if he is gunning for the Point Championship to earn him a spot on Team USA.
