Derek Baldwin was the victor in the 25th Annual One Club Wonder (OCW) golf tournament held at the Mountain View Golf Club (MVGC) last Saturday. Baldwin had just made the step up to this senior event from the Cornpone Tour, and, in an impressive rookie debut, took the low gross overall championship. With that victory comes the glory, the trophy and, most importantly, the infamous yellow sweater that must be worn by the champion on all appropriate occasions.

Joining Baldwin on the podium was Doug Janzen, the winner of the low net championship. Janzen, a grizzled veteran playing in his eleventh One Club Wonder who has had brushes with success in the past, finally mounted the podium to claim a championship trophy. It was a close call though, as he had to take it away from the outstretched arms of Micah Mercier in a putt -off after Mercier had the nerve to match his low net score of 78 in regular play.

Baldwin shot an 82 with equal totals of 41 strokes on each of the front and back nine holes. He had four pars on the front and three pars and a birdie on the back. The only obvious blemish on his scorecard was a double bogey on the twelfth hole, which gave up just two pars all day and left many players with enduring emotional scars.

His margin of victory was three strokes over Adam Macdonald and four strokes over Dan King. Both of these players also had a Cornpone Tour background, Macdonald coming out this year and King back in 2015. Two longtime champions from the past, Vic Istchenko and Blaine Tessier, tied for fourth. Their scores of 89, while very respectable, were a full seven strokes off the pace. Rounding out the top five with scores of 90, were Derek Wirth, a perennial crowd favourite, and Mike L’Henaff, yet another Cornpone graduate.

Experienced observers had narrowed their attention down to about eight players by the first tee time.

After nine holes, it was felt that past champions Istchenko, Graham Frey and Derek Wirth, who all shot a 45 on the front, were too far back of Baldwin’s 41 to have a chance at getting back into contention.

The top of the scoreboard, though, was relatively crowded as players headed to the tenth tee. Tessier had kept Baldwin very much in sight as he, too, had a score of 41 on the opening nine. As well, the portly L’Henaff was closely sniffing their behinds having fashioned a clever 42 by parring the two par 5s and one of the par 3s. Only one stroke behind him and two behind the leaders were King and Macdonald, with scores of 43.

The 10th and 11th holes were the downfall for Tessier. On the 10th, he suffered from an attention deficit and stick handled a potential par into a double bogey with four putts. Thunderstruck (he had last four putted when two years old) he did not regain his form on the 11th hole and recorded another double bogey. He did get a stroke back on hole number 12 and was within one of Baldwin, but that did not last as he coasted to a 48 on the back nine.

It turned out that the greater danger to Baldwin was that posed by his Cornpone colleagues L’Henaff and Macdonald. Dan King was also within shouting distance for awhile, but even a birdie on Hole 16 could not make up for the effects of a recent foot injury. He did hover a couple of strokes back for most of the back nine and finally finished at four behind Baldwin.

L’Henaff, on the other hand, was all over Baldwin (admittedly a frightening visual) drawing into a tie on the tenth hole with a par to match Baldwin’s bogey. They remained in a tie through the twelfth hole but L’Henaff fell one back when he doubled on the thirteenth.

In the meantime, Adam Macdonald had also crept into the contest and had reached a tie for second only one stroke behind Baldwin. It was at this point that Baldwin woke up to the situation and decided to show his colleagues how the game should be played. He parred both 14 and 15 and birdied 16.

L’Henaff, on the same three holes was three over par and, now four strokes behind, had disappeared from Baldwin’s rearview mirror. Macdonald, while playing a steadier game, had taken over second place for good but was still three strokes back of the leader. Baldwin escorted his sagging competitors to the exit with a bogey on the 17th hole that no one parred all day, and a par on the final hole.

In the low net competition, Doug Janzen struggled to a 49 on the front nine that was undone by a couple of triple bogies. Micah Mercier, at that point, had a three-stroke lead over him. Janzen pulled up his socks for the back nine and fashioned a score of 44 highlighted by four pars. Mercier played capably, but a triple on the tenth hole led to a 46 and, with Janzen’s one stroke handicap advantage, resulted in a 78-78 tie. Derek Wirth, a past low net champion, missed joining them in a playoff by just one stroke with his net 79. A huge crowd gathered on the practice putting green to witness the putt-off and were treated to a fine display of that art form. Janzen, in the end, proved himself to have the better eye and stroke and won the day and the trophy.

For those of a statistical bent, the average gross score was 101 (106 in 2020), the lowest since 2015, and the average net score was 87 (91 in 2020). The 35 players in the tournament played a total of 630 holes on which 91 pars and five birdies were recorded. In comparison to the 2020 tournament, this was an increase of 29 pars and no change in the number of birdies. The five birdies in this year's tournament were scored by Derek Baldwin on #16, Sean Campbell on #5, Dan King on #16 (second year in a row), and Adam Macdonald on #3 (from off the green) and #6.

Sixty-seven percent of the pars took place on the par three and par five holes with 38 on the par threes and 23 on the par fives.

The toughest holes on the course were #9 and #17, where no pars or birdies were recorded.

The title of the tournament, One Club Wonder, indicates the obvious point that players must play every shot with a single club. The most common club used is a seven iron and that club was chosen by 15 players this year. The other clubs used this year included the six iron (six players), the eight iron (three players), the five iron (one player) the 4, 5 and 6 hybrids (eight players), a five wood and a seven wood (one player each).

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 35, which was one less than the average for the 2020 tournament. Don Emond had the lowest number of putts 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 drectors and all participants in the tournament expressed their enthusiastic appreciation to Derek Wirth, the golf course superintendent, and his staff for having provided great course conditions for the tournament. The board also extended its thanks to all other MVGC staff for their ready assistance and cooperation in all matters related to the tournament.

The Board concluded the day by extending its thanks to Tom O’Hara for travelling from Ontario to play in the 2021 One Club Wonder. Mr. O’Hara was the originator and organizer of the first One Club Wonder that took place 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 quarter century.

Submitted by Nat Stremy

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

NAME - PLACE - SCORE - HANDICAP - NET - PUTTS

Derek Baldwin 1/ 82/ +3/ 85/ 32

Adam Macdonald 2/ 85/ 3/ 82/ 31

Dan King 3/ 86/ 4/ 82/ 32

Vic Istchenko T4/ 89/ 9/ 80/ 30

Blaine Tessier T4/ 89/ 0/ 89/ 32

Derek Wirth T5/ 90/ 11/ 79/ 31

Mike L’Henaff T5/ 90/ 5/ 85/ 38

Micah Mercier 6/ 92/ 14/ 78/ 29

Doug Janzen T7/ 93/ 15/ 78/ 35

Tom O’Hara T7/ 93/ 10/ 83/ 33

Ken Taylor T7/ 93/ 9/ 84/ 30

Graham Frey T7/ 93/ 1/ 92/ 35

Darrell Pasloski 9/ 96/ 15/ 81/ 35

Sean Campbell T9/ 97/ 9/ 88/ 32

Mike McInroy T9/ 97/ 7/ 90/ 33

Chris Bennett 10/ 98/ 9/ 89/ 38

Steve Thrower 11/ 99/ 10/ 89/ 43

Ron Kulych T12/ 101/ 14/ 87/ 38

Gareth Howells T12/ 101/ 11/ 90/ 36

Don Emond 13/ 102/ 14/ 88/ 28

Don Coates 14/ 104/ 16/ 88/ 32

Barry Davidson T15/ 106/ 20/ 86/ 36

Garry Potter T15/ 106/ 20/ 86/ 36

John Small 16/ 107/ 15/ 92/ 42

Wayne MacNicol 17/ 108/ 22/ 86/ 32

Tim Hutchins 18/ 109/ 20/ 89/ 38

Stan Dorosz T19/ 111/ 26/ 85/ 36

Bruce Beaton T19/ 111/ 22/ 89/ 34

Tom Patrick 20/ 112/ 20/ 92/ 36

Hank Van Denberg 21/ 113/ 14/ 99/ 42

Les Chapman 22/ 114/ 20/ 94/ 38

Patrick Michael 23/ 115/ 27/ 88/ 39

Russ Smoler 24/ 116/ 23/ 93/ 35

Matthew Sills 25/ 121/ 27/ 94/ 35

Dave Griffiths 26/ 122/ 20/ 102/ 42

AVERAGES 101/ 14/ 87/ 35