The CGA Team Interclub Championship is a breed apart when it comes to golf tournaments.
Where most tourneys last four days or fewer, the 2013 Team Interclub will span 175 days. It began with a couple of regular-season matches on May 5, and it’ll conclude with the championship finals Oct. 27 at Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora.
What started out as a competition involving a record 64 teams — seven of which later withdrew or forfeited all their matches — will finish on the final Sunday of October when a contingent from Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton squares off with its counterparts from the Golf Club at Bear Dance in Larkspur.
All told, 95 matches will have been played in 2013 in the season-long net match play competition that involves golf clubs from throughout the state.
The “regular season” lasted from May through early August, with geographically-linked groups of four teams playing round-robins against one another. The team from each group with the highest point total advances to the playoffs, which run August through October.
Both in the regular season and the playoffs, teams of a dozen men each — of widely varying abilities — square off, with singles and four-ball matches held concurrently. Each individual match is worth two points — two for a win and one for a tie.
Either way next weekend’s finals go, a first-time champion will be crowned. This is only the fourth official season for the CGA Team Interclub, with the Ranch Country Club winning in 2010 and Lone Tree Golf Club each of the last two years. This summer, Lone Tree finished third in its regular-season group and failed to advance to the playoffs.
As for the 2013 finalists, the Bear Dance team has appeared to live a charmed life. It won its regular-season group by a single point (57-56) over runner-up Heritage Eagle Bend, then won tiebreakers in both the round of 16 (over Meadow Hills) and quarterfinals (over Sunset) to advance in the single-elimination playoffs. Overall for 2013, Bear Dance sports a record of 3 wins, 1 loss and two ties in its six matches to date. But it did win its semifinal match handily, 28-8 over West Woods.
Todd Creek, meanwhile, has gone 6-0 to this point, outscoring its opponents by a combined 142-74. It defeated 2012 finalist Rifle Creek 22-14 in the semifinals.
Though neither of the semifinals went down to the wire, the previous rounds of the playoffs certainly had their share of nail-biters. In the 11 round-of-16 and quarterfinal matches that were played — one was forfeited — there were five 18-18 ties that had to be broken and three other matches that were decided by four points or fewer.
This year’s number of entries for the CGA Team Interclub — 64 — was up from 59 in 2012, 52 in 2011 and 40 in 2010.
The Team Interclub concludes the 2013 CGA championship season.
For the rosters and pairings for the Oct. 27 competition, CLICK HERE.
