Mike Watts, Shane McHugh, Brad Holm, and Joe Densmore are the 2023 RBC PGA Scramble champions.

The foursome finished atop the leaderboard, just .9 net strokes ahead of the second place team.

The tourney took place Saturday at Mountain View Golf Club.

The Star spoke with Mountain View pro Cole Marshall Monday.

“It was nice having an extra three teams this year. We had 13 in total.

We had 10 in the first year hosting it here last year.

“We hope to continue to try to build this event. It’s certainly aimed at – anybody can win this event … it’s all handicap based.

“There was lots of moving parts all day. I was able to refresh the leaderboard there. It was all done electronically.

So it was nice to see different names at the top, and different people move in and things like that.”

“The online scoring is certainly nice. To have up-to-date scoring every hole.”

Marshall said they had online scoring turned off for players on the course last year and said they may go back to that in the future.

“There’s less potential of any cheating, not that we ever think that that’s a possibility but it certainly has happened in some other qualifiers across Canada.”

This year’s tourney may be remembered for how long it took to play as much as anything.

“It took an awfully long time to play, you know, six plus hours is a little too long,” said Marshall.

For that reason, the club is considering going back to foursomes next year, with a scorer walking with each group, as opposed to the eightsomes this year.

“It certainly did play an impact, I’m sure, on some players that like to play very quickly,” related Marshall.

“I like to play quick and when it’s that slow, it can certainly affect some players. That was probably the biggest concern I think I heard, is the pace of play.”

The course also got dumped on with rain in the afternoon, which may have slowed the pace a little bit as well.

“It definitely probably impacted a few teams that that got hit pretty hard,” Marshall recalled.

Marshall explained the key to the winning team’s success.

“They’re a pretty good scramble team where they will all have some pretty bad blow-up holes on the golf course playing stroke play but when it comes to a scramble, you don’t necessarily have to hit a good shot every swing and that team has some good players that definitely have the occasional blow-up hole out there.

“That team is sort of built for this.

They had one guy that just came up with a big shot when they needed it.

Joe Densmore is a very good player in town here and having him definitely solidifies that group.

“Shane, Mike and Brad are out here quite frequently and they play a lot and I think that helps too, when it comes to how fresh you are, how your game is at the time. They certainly played well.

“They were one of the first teams in, so they had to kind of be the leaders and then have teams behind them chase them down and there was some teams that got pretty close, and they were a little worried but ended up holding on.”

All the teams were familiar with the course as they all golf there regularly.

“All these players know the course,” said Marshall. “I don’t think anyone had an advantage, I’m sure, when it comes to that.”

One of the teams the Star was following on the course (Rob Fahr, Logan “Pitching” Wedge, Siana Mills and Marc Charbonneau) ended up in second.

“That’s a team I probably wouldn’t have expected to be that high up but they played well,” said Marshall.

One of the reasons for the strong showing was Mills.

“Females definitely have a little bit of an advantage from a team ground perspective and she has hit a very good ball. I think they took advantage of that a little bit but Mark Logan and Rob again, out here a lot.

They play a lot of golf.

“They ended up almost making a comeback. They were kind of kicking themselves a little bit at the end there when they saw their were only .9 back. They definitely left a couple of duffs out there, they said.”

According to Marshall, the tourney win came down to the last hole.

“The team in first place knew that the team in second place had a stroke hole to finish their tournament so they knew that if they buried that hole t hat it could get very, very close or it could have even gone the other direction and fortunately for them the team finished with a par on the last hole, which didn’t push the needle enough to overtake them.”

Watts, McHugh, Holm, and Densmore, along with Marshall, are now off to the Regionals in Chase, B.C., which take place Aug. 10. At regionals, the team is expanded to five players, including Marshall.

Needless to say, he is looking forward to that.

“That’ll be a great time in Chase.

And obviously just looking forward to seeing how we stack up when it comes to that and then who knows, if somehow we pull a rabbit out of our hat and and are lucky enough to get a trip over to Cape Breton for the national final, that would be the trip of a lifetime but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Marshall said the foursome from Whitehorse seem pretty excited about the trip to the regionals as well.

“I think they’re all going to try and plan a little mini trip around it as well, like some time in Kamloops or Kelowna. Nice to get out and play some different golf courses and Talking Rock, that’s a pristine looking golf course. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never played it myself either.

So looking forward to going down there and giving it an honest go.”