Jack Hall, the 2017 Golfweek Senior Match Play champion
(Ron Gaines/Golfweek photo)
SANFORD, NC (August 21, 2017) -
Jack Hall of Savannah, Georgia defeated
Scott Smith of Houston, TX 3&2 in the final match to win the Golfweek Senior Match Play Championship at Tobacco Road Golf Club.
It was the fifth straight match win for Hall in the tournament, giving him his second major senior title of the year. Hall
won the Timuquana Cup by five shots in May.
Hall was looking for a win after four runner-up finishes this season, most recently in the National Senior Hall of Fame tournament just up the road in High Point, NC.
It was a busy two-and-a-half days of five matches, with Hall surviving two matches on Saturday and Sunday to advance to the final.
In the semifinals played on Sunday afternoon, Hall beat
Michael Wharton-Palmer 2&1, while Smith knocked out
Kevin Macy 3&2.
Gary Robinson,
Mark Nickerson,
Mac McGee and
John Fritz advanced to the quarterfinals played Sunday morning but were eliminated in that round.
In the Super Senior Division, Mike Jackson of Augusta, GA won the final 2 up against Rick Kline, while in the Legend Division, Edward Craig defeated George Washburn 3&2.
DAY ONE REPORT
Eight players advanced to day two of the Golfweek Senior Match Play Championship at Tobacco Road, after a day that saw the top two seeds and the defending champion eliminated from the field.
30 players started the tournament and were seeded according to their Golfweek Senior Ranking. The top two seeds,
Jim Starnes and
Steve Hudson, received byes into the second round. The other 28 played a round of morning matches.
Starnes was knocked out by
Gary Robinson, who in the first round beat
Jim Hegarty 6&4. Robinson's 7&6 win over Starnes meant that he had to play only 26 holes on the day.
Hudson's stay was not much longer.
Mac McGee won by default in his morning match, which meant that he arrived as fresh as Hudson did for their afternoon tilt, and it went 22 holes before McGee took the win.
The defending champion
Mike Arnold won his morning match with
George Adams, 5&3, but was knocked out in the afternoon by
Kevin Macy, 2 up.
The following quarterfinal matches will be played on Sunday:
Gary Robinson v. Kevin Macy
Mark Nickerson v. Scott Smith
Mac McGee v. Michael Wharton-Palmer
Jack Hall v. John Fritz
In the Super Senior Division, 24 players started the tournament, with 8 players receiving byes in to the second round. After day one, six of the top eight seeds remain in the tournament, including the #1 seed
Gary Kirwan.
Super Senior quarterfinal matches:
Gary Kirwan v. Phil McDade
Berger Warner v. Mike Jackson
Rick Kline v. Wyatt Meyer
Evan Long v. Neil Spitalny
In the Legends Division, 16 players started the tournament, and two rounds were played to narrow the field down to the final four.
The #1 seed
George Washburn won two matches today to advance to the semifinals.
Legends semifinal matches:
George Washburn v. Walt Martin
Gary Shimmin v. Edward Craig
ABOUT THE
The Golfweek Senior National Match-Play
Championship consists of four separate
brackets,
senior (age 55-64), super-senior (age 65-69),
legends (age 74) and super-legends (75+).
Over the
course of three days, players in each bracket
will be
whittled to one Senior National Match-Play
champion
in each division. Unlike other match play
tournaments, The Golfweek Senior National
Match
Play is not a one loss and done tournament. As
players are eliminated from match-play they
will
enter a consolation stroke-play competition
using the
stableford scoring system.
View Complete Tournament Information