Blaine Tessier and Vic Istchenko, perennial victors in the One Club Wonder (OCW) Golf Tournament, once again found their way to the podium at the close of the 27th annual OCW held at the Mountain View Golf Course (MVGC) on September 9.

Tessier captured the Low Gross championship and the right to wear the treasured yellow cardigan for the ninth time with a tidy three-stroke victory. He posted a score of 84 with an even distribution of 42 strokes on both the front and back nine holes.

Joe Densmore and Cole Marshall tied for second with scores of 87. Jay Massie and Ian Wintemute, the 2022 champion, were one stroke back of them, shooting 88, in a third-place tie. There was also a tie for fourth place at 89 strokes between Matt Gibson and the 2021 champion Derek Baldwin.

A review of the scorecards of Tessier and those finishing in second, third and fourth-place leads to the conclusion, incredulous as this may sound, that his superior physical conditioning and mental toughness gave him an edge when the game was on the line.

This supposition is supported by the following facts: (1) at the conclusion of the 13th hole the scores of the first through seventh-place players were 60 for Massie and Marshall, 62 for Tessier, 63 for Densmore, Wintemute and Baldwin, and 64 for Gibson; (2) on the remaining five holes Tessier had three pars and two bogeys for a total of 22 strokes; and (3) on those same remaining five holes his competitors limped in with the best result being Densmore’s 24 and the others recording 25 (Wintemute and Gibson), 26 (Baldwin), 27 (Marshall) and 28 (Massie).

While most of those players will undoubtedly spend time reflecting on perceived inadequacies and unwelcome results it would appear likely that Messrs. Wintemute and Densmore will be sure betting favourites in future years. Wintemute has already proven himself by winning the championship in 2022, his rookie year, and Densmore has had solid second place finishes in the last two years. Marshall clearly also has potential but he must learn how to steady up under pressure and avoid blow-ups like taking double and triple bogeys on par-3 holes as he did on the back nine this year.

Moving on to the Low Net championship, Vic Istchenko, no stranger to the Low Gross championship – being a five-time winner – found himself embroiled in a tight contest for the Low Net honours which he had previously won in 2018.

He shot a 90, which resulted in a net 78 when factoring in his 12-stroke handicap. This gave him a one-stroke victory over Derek Wirth, who had a net 79 score (93 minus 14) and a four-stroke margin over Barry Davidson’s net of 82 (104 minus 22). Both Wirth and Davidson are past Low Net winners, five times for Mr. Davidson, with the most recent triumph being in 2022.

The seminal moment in the Istchenko/Wirth contest came in the final three holes.

Istchenko birdied the 16th hole, which gave him the lead when Wirth posted a bogey on that hole. Istchenko did not seize the moment to fashion a decisive victory. Rather, he coasted through the last two holes with a triple bogey and a bogey. The door was open for Wirth but he refused to enter. All he could do was match Istchenko’s efforts on the two closing holes and, in the aftermath, politely applaud as his competitor clasped the beloved winner’s trophy in his sweaty palms.

Significant changes took place this year in the players being invited to play in the One Club Wonder. The OCW does not have any rules that would result in invitations being subject to gender identity so, when a request to participate in the OCW was received from four women, it was approved by the OCW Board of Directors without question.

Also, the OCW had adopted a policy in 2022 of recruiting younger players to participate in the annual tournament and the Board determined that this policy should continue to be pursued in 2023. The addition of new players resulting from these two decisions made it necessary to increase from 36 to 44 the maximum number of players allowed to play in the OCW.

The historic move to accept women’s participation in the 2023 OCW was noticed early on as Nicole Baldwin tracked down and tied Jay Massie for the lead after six holes with a score of 29. A great many of the players who finished high on the leaderboard, including Blaine Tessier, recorded scores of 29 for the first six holes but none did better than 29.

Ms. Baldwin fell a bit off the pace at this point but finished the front nine with a respectable score of 45. The back nine was not as kind, although she managed to balance a triple bogey with a par and come in with a total score of 96 for the day. That put her in a tie for tenth spot on the final scoreboard and only one stroke back of Graham Frey, who was an assistant professional at the MVGC at one point and was also a past Low Gross champion of the One Club Wonder.

This experience gave her and the other women competitors the confidence to provide notice to an OCW organizer that they would be moving from the red tees to the white tees in 2024 and, in so doing, be eligible to compete for the Low Gross championship.

The 2023 OCW was not only busy welcoming new participants. It also included in its field four of the seven founding members who played in the 1997 inaugural tournament.

Those players, Dave Griffiths, Al Fozard, Gary Hewitt and Patrick Michael, have been represented by at least one of their number in every One Club Wonder since that first event. It’s ironic that, while the women are moving to white tees, these ancient mariners, who’ve played in the OCW in two different centuries, have already made themselves comfortable on the red tees the women will be abandoning.

OCW organizers are not certain on this point but they believe this may be the first OCW in which a parent and child played in the tournament, or were in the same foursome.

This was the father and son combo of Russ and Riley Smoler. Riley acquitted himself very well, finishing in a tie for seventh place with Derek Wirth. Russ? Not so well, as he made his way to an ignominious tie for 26th place with Patrick Michael.

For those of a statistical bent, the average gross score was 103 (104 in 2022) and the average net score was 90 (91 in 2022).

The 44 players in the tournament played a total of 792 holes, on which 114 pars and six birdies were recorded. In comparison to the 2022 tournament, this was a decrease of 27 pars and a decrease of three in the number of birdies.

The six birdies in this year’s tournament were scored by Lester Balsillie on #2, Micah Mercier on #4, Joe Densmore on #12, Don Coates and Russ Smoler on #13, and Vic Istchenko on #16.

The holes on which birdies were recorded is of note because, in the past 10 years of the OCW, there has been only two birdies recorded on #4, and just one birdie recorded on each of #2 and #12.

The record Low Gross score for the OCW is 77 and is held by Vic Istchenko, who posted it in 2014 and by Blaine Tessier, who matched it in 2015. Matthew Sills has the long-standing record for a Low Net score, which is the 67 he put on the board in 2005.

Putting is a central feature of this game, with all players struggling to master that art with whatever club they are carrying. The average number of putts per player was 36, which was one better than the average for the 2022 tournament. Vic Istchenko had the lowest number of putts in 2023 with 28. The record for the lowest number of putts in OCW history is 23, set by Ken Taylor in 2020.

The OCW Board of Directors and all participants in the tournament expressed thanks to Derek Wirth, the Golf Course Superintendent, and his staff for having provided superior course conditions for the tournament.

The Board also extended its thanks to Cole Marshall, the MVGC Head Professional, and all other MVGC staff for their ready assistance and cooperation in all matters related to the tournament. Both also played in the tournament.

The OCW Chair expressed personal appreciation to Dan King, Dave Griffiths, Derek Wirth and Cole Marshall for their personal commitment to the One Club Wonder and for the sage advice each of them provided leading to the good organization and improved conduct of the tournament.

The first One Club Wonder was played in early October in 1997. It has taken place every year since then and has been a treasured event for all participants during the past 27 years.

– Submitted by Nat Stremy.