22 Aug 2017 at 13:15 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 20877 | News search

Picture by: Pat Sheridan'> Top 5 - John O'Leary in red with trophy  (Photo by Pat Sheridan)

Farmington, Connecticut – Thirty-six years is a long time for a miniature golf tournament to be played and like in the Olympics where we see records fall nearly every year it shouldn’t surprise us when another minigolf record comes falling down. That’s what John O’Leary of Winsted, Connecticut did this year at the 36th Farmington Miniature Golf Tournament held on August 19 and 20, carding a 110 for three rounds and beating the previous best of 111 in the tournament.

The Farmington tournament is a two day tournament where two rounds are played on Saturday and one round is played on Sunday. After the Saturday rounds the field is split into two “tiers” with the lower tier playing for its own winners on the second day. The course is a traditional “fantasy” style miniature golf course with several multiple tier holes along with several moving obstacles. The weather this year was great after some rain moved through the night before and the players couldn’t ask for better conditions over the weekend. While the course par is 48, it’s expected that the best players will be shooting in the high 30s and John showed the field how it was done carding a 35, 38 and 37 over the three rounds. For his efforts John took home $125 from the top spot.

While first place was out of reach by the end of the second round, and in some respects second place as Ted Young had a five stroke lead on third, from third until tenth there was only two strokes separation. This would make for an interesting final round as the last few groups were all paying close attention to what the other was shooting as they wound through the course, with everyone trying to make it into the top 5 paying places.

In the end, the most excitement of the day was in the lower tier where first place was tied between Matt Deneen and Matthew Liles, both with a 141, and went into a 9-hole playoff per the tournament rules. After 9 holes it was still tied so they went into sudden death which ended on the 10th hole, a difficult putt up into a well, which splits three-ways inside. Matt Deneen was given the death stroke when his first putt came back from inside the well and back to the tee box. Matthew Liles took advantage of the situation and carded a 2 with an easy putt into the well and a tap-in for the deuce.

Top 5 Upper Tier

John O'Leary - 110 ($125)
Ted Young - 118 ($60)
Pat Sheridan - 120 ($50)
Justin Seymour - 121 ($30)
Brian Coscina - 123 ($25)

Top 5 Lower Tier

Matthew Liles - 141 (10 hole playoff) ($50)
Matt Deneen - 141 ($30)
Eric Bloomquist - 145 ($25)
Nancy Rion - 146 (Hat or Shirt)
Florance Johnson - 147 (Hat or Shirt)
Bobby Franklin - 147 (Hat or Shirt)

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