2022 USCA Western GC Regional

USCA Western Regional Golf Croquet Tournament Mission Hills Country Club | Rancho Mirage, California February 28-March 3, 2022

Kamal

WINS THE WEST

WRITTEN BY PAUL BENNETT

TThe USCA Western GC Regionals began Monday, February 28, 2022, with seven players competing out of the original 28 entries and closed out on the afternoon of March 3, 2022. The event was held at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. In Championship Singles, the process and draw were knotted up with Brian Lozano having to play both Paul Bennett in the draw and Mohammad Kamal in the process, followed by the Singles final match. The format of all three matches was a best-of-three set of 13-point games. In the draw match, Lozano took the early lead with a 7-3 victory. Bennett fought back in the second game to level the match with a 7-4 win. In the last game, Bennett took the match with a 7-3 victory. In the process match, Kamal and Lozano went through the fishhook twice with Kamal taking the match in two straight games 7-6, 7-6. In the Singles Final match, Kamal quickly dispatched Bennett with strong takeaways, great hoop running and solid tactics, 7-1 and 7-4.

First Flight Singles

In First Flight, Giancarlo Ruiz, Vicki Till, Ken Slaughter and Gail Kern advanced to the “semifinal” of the draw ladder. Till defeated Ruiz 10-4, while Slaughter took a 10-9 nail-biter over Kern. Till then cruised past Slaughter 10-2. Ruiz won on the process side of the event to get to the final for a rematch with Till, this time taking a 10-9 victory to claim the First Flight Singles title. Overall, Ruiz went 8-4 in the event, while Till managed a 7-2 record.

Championship Flight Doubles

I know that no one collects or loses D-GRADE points by playing doubles, yet I often wonder why ... perhaps the math is too difficult, perhaps if we had the answer, we could figure out the graviton. And yet, doubles is one of the most fun and pleasing aspects of croquet. Where better to occupy your afternoon or morning?

For this event, players were given the opportunity to play both singles and doubles as well as pick their own partners. At first, few entrants picked their doubles teams, but when it was time to make the draw, about half did. The rest were assigned partners in a way to make the sum of the D-GRADES about equal. We started in the morning on February 28 with doubles, mixed in some singles in the afternoon and on Tuesday morning. Then, most of the doubles play finished up on Tuesday afternoon. We picked up the last bit of doubles on Thursday, fitting the games into the schedule when players were available was easy. In Championship Doubles, Brian Lozano and Stephen Jackson won both the draw and process, thus winning the Championship Doubles. However, second place was not yet determined because Phyllis and Jim Butts were runner-up in the draw, and Paul Bennett and Tracey Roche were runner up in the process. After Bennett’s match with Lozano, the playoff for silver was done and the Butts defeated Bennett and Roche 7-5.

First Flight Doubles

First Flight Doubles featured six teams and saw John Shanholt and Gail Kern win the Draw ladder while Rick Zazueta and Giancarlo Ruiz won the Process ladder. The final playoff between the process and draw could have been played right before lunch after the completion of the First Flight singles playoff (with Ruiz the victor), but instead, Kern and Shanholt preferred to take notes on the play in the Championship Singles matches, enjoy lunch and head back early to Phoenix. Ruiz and Zazueta won the title by default

First Flight Singles: Neil Burton (club president), Giancarlo Ruiz (First), Paul Bennett (TD), Vicki Till (Second)

Notes

I thank both Lozano and Kamal for raising the level of play throughout the tournament as well as assisting me both in directing the tournament and in refereeing the event. Kamal (tournament referee) would also like to thank certified referees Tate Russack, Stephen Jackson and John Shanholt for their service and willingness to help referee the event. And to all other players, please consider learning the rules and stepping up to become a certified referee.

Championship Singles 01. Mohammad Kamal 02. Paul Bennett 03. Brian Lozano 04. John Shanholt 04. Jim Butts 06. James Creasey 06. Tate Russack 06. Neil Burton 09. Cameron Evans 09. Cami Russack 09. Rick Zazueta 09. Stephen Jackson 13. Donna Dixon First Flight Singles 01. Giancarlo Ruiz 02. Vicki Till 03. Ken Slaughter 03. Spencer Hood 05. Gail Kern 05. Bill Sullivan 05. Betty Teoman 08. Gerry West 08. Tracey Roche 10. Kory Teoman 10. Pat Dugan 10. Linda Merk 13. Gary Steiner 13. James Doyle Championship Doubles 01. Brian Lozano/Stephen Jackson 02. Jim Butts/Phyllis Butts 03. Tracey Roche/Paul Bennett 04. Donna Dixon/Bill Sullivan 04. Ned Sperry/Tate Russack 06. Neil Burton/Ken Slaughter 06. James Creasey/Kory Teoman

First Flight Doubles 01. Giancarlo Ruiz/Rick Zazueta 02. John Shanholt/Gail Kern 03. Cami Russack/Linda Merk 04. Pat Dugan/Gary Steiner 05. Spencer Hood/Gary West 05. Betty Teoman/James Doyle