It was a typical hot, dry day for the 2019 Hack-a-thon, but the play on the course was far from routine.

The winning duo started the tournament with a 5 and 3 knockout (5 up with 3 to play) on the front-9 to the Derry/Howell duo. It seemed the victory was in hand when Gonyeau drained a 12-foot par putt on the par-3 fifth. But Derry answered back with a brilliant 15 footer of his own to push the hole and delay the inevitable. 

In the other front-9 pairing, last year's champion and MVP Jeff Beel just couldn't get anything going.

"I just couldn't get anything going." - Jeff Beel

Despite solid play from Jim Adams to start the day, the former champs fell to a vanilla, half-sunburnt team of Karklins/Pardo-Garcia. 

The back-9 championship began with a shaky start for the eventual champs. They nailed a 20ft putt to push the 10th hole and keep the match even. It was a sign of things to come. After some back and forth, Machado came up clutch when needed to keep the pressure on. Errant tee shots were backed up with beautiful long iron play and decisive putting from the winning team, allowing them to slowly pull away and dominate a bewildered, awe-struck opponent.

Celebrations began on the 18th hole and continued on for a few hours in the Kennedy Club restaurant. Libations and the smoking of tobacco commenced. All teams were present for post-match festivities, except the losing team. Pardo had slithered away without saying a word, wanting to avoid the harsh media scrutiny that comes with the embarrassment of blowing a huge opportunity. Will he rise from obscurity to challenge another day? Not likely, folks. Not likely.

A new event in the works

So much fun was had at the second annual Hack-a-thon, that discussions have begun on an eventual second 'major' of the year. A 'Fall-a-thon' is already in the planning stages for September. The format would be the exact same, with random teams being drawn up from the pool of 8 players. Stay tuned for more information.