Having finished in a tie for second spot behind Glen Erickson in 2018 and ending up five strokes back of multi-time champion Colin Coben last year, Medicine Hat’s Warren Gnam once again found himself in the mix for the Senior Lobstick title at the Waskesiu Golf Course this week.
Gnam left nothing to chance on Thursday evening as he made a birdie putt on the final hole to win the championship flight for the first time.
“It’s definitely nice to win it, as eventually you are going to get old and run out of chances,” Gnam joked shortly after he received the championship trophy.
“I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. There’s a lot of good guys in this tournament and its a great course. It’s a joy to come up here every year.”
Having entered the day just one shot off the lead, Gnam fired a round of 71 for a three-day total score of 219 to edge Brad Phelps of Saskatoon by a single stroke.
Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his short birdie putt on the 18th green proved to be the difference in the tournament.
“Brad and Colin were in the group behind us, but we hadn’t talked to them all day so we really didn’t know where they were at in their rounds,” Gnam said.
“I kind of pulled the (approach) shot a little bit. It hit the hill and ended up bouncing about three or four feet away from the hole, so it worked out pretty well in the end.”
Coben ended up four shots behind Gnam in third spot, with Mark Robinson and Tony Turay rounding out the top five.
Erickson, Martin Ring and Doug Kozak made up the rest of the championship flight.
The finish to super senior event wasn’t quite as dramatic as Biggar’s Keith Silvernagle cruised to a nine-shot victory over Blair Sterling.
“It’s like they always say…fairways and greens,” Silvernagle said. “That’s the approach that I always take and I ended up staying out of trouble all week. Plus, I made the odd putt, which doesn’t hurt either
“This is probably one of the best tournaments to take part in, whether it’s in June or in September like it is this year due to COVID-19. The people that run this event make it something that we look forward to each year.”
Murray Osborn, defending champion Gary Tuffs, Jim Scissons and Bob Beebe made up the rest of the super senior championship flight.
The final major event at Waskesiu will be the annual Men’s Lobstick tournament, which will run from Sept. 21-25.
Story originally published by the Prince Albert Herald and authored by Lucas Punkari. Republished with permission.