Vic Istchenko stormed to victory at the 2014 One Club Wonder golf tournament Saturday.

Using only his seven iron, he shot a 77 on the famed links of the Mountain View Golf Club, eclipsing the record of 79 set just last year by Blaine Tessier.

Istchenko easily bested the remainder of the field that contained most of the elite members of Yukon’s one club establishment.

Jeff Wiggins, the Director of Golf/Canadian PGA Head Golf Professional at Mountain View, took second place. His score of 86 was nine strokes off the pace set by Istchenko.

Landon Kulych, a youthful up-and-comer in this prestigious event, took third place with an 87.

Istchenko had been a powerful figure in the earlier years of the event with four victories between 1998 to 2008. He has since been overtaken by Tessier who, with three One Club wins from 2009 to 2013, assumed the predominate position in championship rankings.

Each of them has now had their name inscribed on the Low Gross trophy five times and tournament organizers are already looking forward to marketing their marquee matchup in 2015.

Recapping Istchenko’s round: he posted a 37 on the front nine with six pars and a birdie. He then opened the back nine with a birdie on the 10th hole to bring him to even par at that point.

Although capably supported by the calming influence and patient guidance of playing partner Matthew Sills, a record holder in his own right in the tournament, Istchenko could not maintain the stellar scoring of the first 10 holes.

He finished five over par on the remaining eight holes. In those holes he suffered two double-bogeys and two bogeys.

His birdie on the 16th hole and pars on 12, 15 and 18 helped steady the ship and ensured the setting of a record score.

Equal status is given at the One Club Wonder to the winner of the Low Net Championship. This year the low net trophy was awarded to Leif Lassen, a tournament sophomore.

Lassen fashioned a nifty round of 91 to go with his handicap of 16 for a net 75.

He brings a welcome flavour to the event that, given his fastidious attention to appearance – including carefully manicured facial hair, unprepossessing mien and colourful management of the English language – harkens to a different day (i.e., somewhat reminiscent of Cro-Magnon times).

Gord Starko, a rookie and suspected sandbagger, handled the pressure of his first tournament with a degree of élan recording a gross score of 100 and a net score of 78 to take second place in the low net category.

For those of a statistical bent, the 34 players in the tournament played a total of 612 holes on which 109 pars and 10 birdies were recorded.

The par-3 holes offered up the most opportunity with a total of 44 pars and four birdies. All but two of the birdies occurred on par-3 or par-5 holes.

The birdies of note are those that take place on par-4 holes. In this tournament there were only two of those – Michael Brooks on the 12th hole and Kulych on the 15th hole.

Putting is a central feature of this game with all players struggling to master that art with whatever club they are carrying (usually something in the vicinity of a seven iron).

The average number of putts per player was 34, which was a drop of one from the 2012 and 2013 tournaments.

Istchenko (it was his day) took the prize for fewest number of putts with a superb performance. He needed only 25 putts, an average of 1.4 putts per hole, to complete a near-perfect day.

Russ Smoler, another player of some measurable capacity, gave Istchenko a run for the prize placing second with 28 putts.

This was the 18th annual One Club Wonder and, in the style of a pro-am event, featured 34 players with handicaps ranging from 0 to 29.

As its title suggests, participants are restricted to one club which must be used for every purpose – driving, iron shots, putting and, if necessary, bottle opening.

The tournament, which was first played on the back nine by seven players in 1996, has evolved to the current range of 32 to 40 players playing the full 18 holes.

The makeup of the field remains largely a Whitehorse crowd but does have an international flavour with Skagway resident Lee Hartson being a regular participant.

The gross and net scores have not changed appreciably since the tournament archives were established in 2002.

However, this year’s average gross score of 99 and average net score of 83 were significantly lower than the 13-year averages of 102.5 and 86.2.

Organizers expressed their appreciation to the Mountain View Golf Club and all its employees under the direction of Wiggins, for the cooperation and the good humour they exhibited throughout both the planning and the playing of the tournament.

The participants all felt that the course was once again in superb shape and voiced thanks to superintendent Derek Wirth and all the members of his crew.

So as not to protect the innocent, the complete results, showing gross and net scores, were:

(Player-Score-Handicap-Net)

Vic Istchenko 77-8-69
Jeff Wiggins 86-0-86
Landon Kulych 87-5-82
Graham Frey 89-0-89
Steve Estey 90-4-86
Leif Lassen 91-16-75
Dan Moore 92-10-82
Hugh Carruthers 93-12-81
Ken Taylor 93-12-81
Glenn Ford 95-15-80
Mike McInroy 95-10-85
Sheldon King 95-9-86
Michael Brooks 96-13-83
Derek Wirth 96-10-86
Gord Zealand 97-16-81
Jim Connell 97-14-83
Garry Potter 98-19-79
Lee Hartson 99-19-80
Blaine Tessier 99-5-94
Gord Starko 100-23-78
Patrick Michael 102-17-79
Wayne MacNicol 104-21-83
Dick Eastmure 105-17-88
Gary Hewitt 106-23-83
Don Coates 106-22-84
Roy Slade 106-19-85
Arden Meyer 107-23-84
Matthew Sills 108-27-81
Les Chapman 108-22-86
Robb Dunn 108-14-94
Russ Smoler 113-29-84
Al Fozard 115-25-80

By NAT STREMY
Special to the Star