12th Annual NCGA Valley and Senior Valley Amateur Dragonfly GC | Sept. 19-20
How did Nick Moore win the 2015
NCGA Player of the Year? Simply by shooting a final-round 5-under 67 in 100-degree heat, then battling for nine intense sudden death holes to win the last NCGA major of the year and vault from 10th to first in the Player-of-the-Year standings. “Being Player of the Year moti- vated me more than anything,” Moore said. “I knew that if I finished in second it didn’t do anything. I knew I had to win it.” The 33-year-old Moore outlasted
17-year-old Blake Hathcoat with a par on their ninth playoff hole to win his second major of the year. Hathcoat took the first-round lead with a 4-un- der 68 at Dragonfly GC in Madera, and closed with a final-round 69. Moore played his first 13 holes of
the final round in 6 under to reach 8 under for the championship, but a pair of bogeys on Nos. 14 and 16 dropped him one behind Hathcoat.
Moore birdied the par-5 17th to pull even with Hathcoat—and it stayed that way for a long time. “It was a battle,” Moore said.
“There were a couple of times my heart started thumping, but I’d stop and tell myself to just relax and take it one shot at a time.” The two teed off the 10th hole to begin their playoff, and played the entire back nine. They both made pars on the first five holes of the playoff, before Hathcoat drove it into the water on No. 15. But Moore also put his drive in the water, and the two halved the hole with bogeys. Both made pars on Nos. 16 and 17, before it finally ended when Hathcoat missed the 18th green, and couldn’t get up and down. “It was one of the most intense nine holes I’ve ever played,” said Moore, who also won the NCGA Public Links Championship at Spy- glass Hill in April. “The morning was
equally intense. I was keeping Blake’s scorecard so I knew exactly what he was doing and what I had to do,” added Moore, who also won the 2013 Valley Amateur.
Hathcoat is a senior Nick Moore
at Clovis North who was trying to secure his first NCGA title. He also finished runner-up at the NCGA Junior Champion- ship. Monterey Peninsula CC’s Michael Tolladay finished a shot out of the playoff after shooting a pair of 69s. Steven Chung made a valiant charge up the leaderboard, bouncing back from a first-round 75 with an 8-under 64 to finish alone in fourth place, two shots back.
Dale Bougunnec
There were a total of 12 players who finished under par for the championship. Jason Anthony, Matt Cohn, Jerry
Ledzinski and Moore were the only players in the Valley Am field who could jump Maverick McNealy in the NCGA Player of the Year standings with a win. A second-place finish by Moore would have kept McNealy, who was back in school at Stanford, atop the Player of the Year standings.
Senior Valley Even though Dale Bougunnec had a
three-stroke lead going into the final hole, he was far from comfortable. “I was a nervous son of a gun on
the 18th. The nerves were really flow- ing,” said Bouguennec, who finished with an inconsequential bogey. “I’ve played in the final group before, but I’ve never won.” Bouguennec, 55, won his first
NCGA Senior Tour title by shoot- ing 72-70, holding off an impressive leaderboard that included Jim Knoll, Casey Boyns, Gary Vanier and Steve Wilson. That quartet all finished at even-par 144. First-round leader Scott Anderson opened with a 70, but slipped into a tie for seventh after a closing 76. “It was great playing with Casey and those guys,” Bouguennec said. “I’m just thankful to win an event that those guys (Vanier, Knoll) have won. It’s a thrill for me to just tee it up with them.”
FALL 2015 /
NCGA.ORG / 57
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