GTA AM Tour’s Inaugural
Virtual Net Match Play (VNMP) Championship
MacTier, ON – On September 22nd, the four Semi Finalists for the GTA AM Tour’s inaugural Virtual Net Match Play (VNMP) Championship gathered at Oviinbyrd Golf Club. They were welcomed by warm temperatures, sunny skies and a spectacularly gorgeous golf course. The players knew, on every level, that they were entering a special place that only a very few have the opportunity of experiencing.
Congratulations to John Harris, Franco Aceto, Mark Lawrence & Mike Hubbs for making it to the FInal Four. These gentlemen earned their chance to experience this special place and day by competing in four prior Tour events.
The players headed off to the practice areas to warm up in preparation for the two morning and semi-final matches.
The Tour’s VNMP Committee established that each player would play from the Oviinbyrd tee deck that most closely represented the tee deck they would play from, during a typical GTA AM Tour event. Course handicaps, for each player, were established based on his Golf Canada HF as of 8pm the night before and the tee deck assigned for the day.
The first semi-final match would see Mike Hubbs playing off the Gold tees against Franco Aceto who played from the Orange tees and with a stroke allowance of 11. The second semi-final featured Mark Lawrence, playing off the Blue tees against John Harris who played off the Orange tees with a stroke allowance of 7.
The Semi-Finals would conclude with Mike Hubbs & John Harris advancing to the afternoon’s Championship Match, while Mark Lawrence & Franco Aceto would do battle in the Consolation Match. After a relaxing lunch, it was back to work with the Consolation Match out first, followed by the Championship Match.
In the end, after 36 holes of head-to-head competition, on a great golf course, Mike Hubbs would emerge as the GTA AM Tour’s first VNMP Champion. Congratulations to Mike Hubbs!!!
2nd Place = John Harris
3rd Place = Franco Aceto
4th Place = Mark Lawrence
Thank you and congratulations to our four Semi-Finalists and to all of our 2016 VNMP players. What a wonderful and fun experience we have had with this brand new tournament format, in its first year. And, what a fantastic testament to the validity of golf’s handicapping tools and the commitment of GTA AM Tour players to handicap maintenance. This event brought together players from Champ, A, B & C Flights, with varied experience, capabilities and tee deck assignments, all competing against each other. Of the 19 matches that were contested, 18 of them concluded with a winning margin of 4 holes or less and 10 matches were concluded with a winning margin of 2 holes or less.
That is a fabulous result that illustrates how fair and competitive all of the matches were. The VNMP committee was extremely pleased to see that the A, B & C Flights were all represented in the semi-final.
Bigger & Better Next Year……
Can’t Wait.
