Courtesy of NCGA
Bobby Bucey and
Brett Viboch picked up their second Northern California Golf Association title on Tuesday, capturing the NCGA Mid-Amateur Four-Ball Championship held at at Poppy Hills Golf Club in Pebble Beach.
The two longtime friends previously won the NCGA Four-Ball title in 2016 at Spyglass Hill and were medalists at the 2018 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in Tequesta, Fla.
Bucey, who plays out of Oakhurst Country Club, and Viboch, an E-Club Sacramento member, carded a final round 6-under 65 to roll to a four shot-victory over Domingo Jojola and Travis Peterson.
“I don’t know if there are words to describe the chemistry we have,” said Viboch, who recently earned 2021 NCGA Player of the Year honors. “It just works.”
‘We’re best friends,” added Bucey, who now has a total of five NCGA major wins, including the 2018 California Amateur Championship, the 2014 NCGA Stroke Play and 2017 NCGA Mid-Amateur championships. “To get to play and compete together, it’s just the best.”
Coming off a blistering 9-under 62 opening round, the two posted eight birdies to go against two bogeys in the finale. Jojola and Peterson had got within two shots late, but made a bogey on the par-4 16th en route to a final round 68.
The Jojola/Peterson team would finish tied for second at 11-under 131 with the tandems of Joseph Schiebold and Richard Maxwell (64) and Tyler Crawford and Mark Pavletich (66). The Schiebold-Maxwell team earned second place after a card-off (low final round score).
Bucey, who had been suffering from a rotator cuff injury, was playing in his first event since the NCGA Amateur at Spyglass Hill, where he pulled out midway through the first round. He’d post four birdies on Poppy Hills' par-3s over the 36 hole event.
“Under the circumstances, Bobby was unbelievable,” Viboch said.
Bucey and Viboch first met back around 2014 after Viboch got his amateur status back. The first round they ever played together in a four-ball competition, they’d post a 62.
“We have a lot of belief in one another,” Bucey said. “A bad shot from one of us just motivates the other person. You want to pick them up.”
View results for NCGA Mid-Amateur Four-Ball
ABOUT THE
NCGA Mid-Amateur Four-Ball
Two-person, better-ball scratch event for NCGA
members 25 years of age and older. FORMAT: 36
holes of four-ball stroke play, 18 holes per day.
ELIGIBILITY: Players must have reached their
25th
birthday by the start of the tournament and
have a numeric handicap index listed on their
club’s
Master Report of 5.4 or less on the date of
registration. Partners need not be members of the
same club.
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