After 5 1/2 months of competition and 91 matches played so far this year, the CGA Team Interclub Championship will crown its third winner this weekend.
And champion No. 3 could bear a remarkable resemblance to champion No. 2.
When the season-long net match play interclub competition concludes on Saturday with the finals at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, Lone Tree Golf Club will seek its second straight title. Trying to unseat the champs will be a men’s club at another public facility — albeit one more than 200 miles away — Rifle Creek Golf Course.
Saturday’s matchup, which will feature singles and four-ball matches held concurrently, culminates a championship which began on May 5. A total of 59 clubs from around the state entered teams, up from 52 last year and 40 in 2010.
Competing teams battled it out through round-robin matches in pool play, with the top clubs advancing to the 16-team playoffs. Both in the regular season and the playoffs, teams of 12 men of widely varying abilities square off; Saturday’s finals will feature players with handicap indexes ranging from 17.8 to a plus-2.4. Each individual match is worth two points — two for a win and one for a tie.
After going 6-0 in its matches last year — including a 24-12 victory over Battlement Mesa Golf Club for the title — Lone Tree hasn’t had an easy road back to the finals. In fact, the defending champs won one and lost two in their group, but edged The Meadows Golf Club 62-61 in points — over the course of three pool-play matches for each team — to earn an automatic spot in the playoffs.
Then in the single-elimination playoffs, Lone Tree advanced by narrow margins — 20-16 over the Broadmoor and 20-16 over The Meadows in the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, respectively — before defeating Broadlands 23-13 in the semis.
Not only has Lone Tree returned to the finals, but nearly half of the team members are the same as last year. The five scheduled returnees are Randal Gaddis, Doug Moore, Mike Morong, Andrew Pimental and William McDermott.
As for Rifle Creek, it will take a 5-1 record into the finals, having only lost to a combined team from Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park. In each of its five victories, Rifle Creek has won by at least eight points, including a 22-14 semifinal victory over Eagle Vail. Rifle Creek is the second straight finalist from the Western Slope, joining Battlement Mesa.
The CGA Team Interclub finals conclude the association’s 2012 championship season.
