80th CAREER START HAS MOAWAD
FEELING DEVILISH
First Win In 2014 For Reigning Player of the Year
DeBELL, Burbank – Still in search of a win, and with the season winding down, the last thing Chris Moawad needed or expected was a missing teammate. But he and Clint Crump and Martin Witt overcame the setback to win the team portion, which Moawad then used as a springboard to winning his first Devil Ball Shootout. “This tournament has been elusive from the get-go. [With] the format, your team’s gotta win before you can have a chance. [The only other time I’ve made it to the championship round] Clint was in my group and he beat me. It’s great to win this tournament.” This latest victory now leaves Manhattan Beach and Griffith for Moawad to complete the career slam. “I hadn’t thought of it until today, until you told me. I knew there were some out there but I didn’t really count them up.”
Gold Coast shorthanded, overcomes to win
Missing from Team Gold Coast was Ed Quiroz who had – it was later verified – sent an email withdrawing 2 hours prior to the start. Clint Crump, who had his 3rd top-3 finish in his last 4 Devil Ball starts remarked, “It was a little bit of a distraction but we pulled together as a team. We actually did really well.” “Our Devil ball was freekin’ awesome,” said Martin Witt who finished 2nd overall, a career best in Devil Ball. “We hit an eagle on one of the holes [in the scramble]. We all played off each other really, really good. We all stepped up when we needed to.”
2014 DEVIL BALL FINAL RESULTS
| PLACE | GOLFER | SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| 1 2 3 | Moawad Witt Crump | 31 38 40 |
| 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 WD | W. Vargas Bird Frost Vaughan Gordón Mann T. Joe Fidler E. Quiroz | 33 37 44 47 40 42 44 45 - |
Team Portion:
1st: GOLD COAST (Moawad, Witt, Crump)
(E) 48 Scramble
(+24) 72 Devil Ball
Total Score: 120
2nd: RIVIERA (W. Vargas, Bird, Frost, Vaughan)
(+9) 57 Scramble
(+23) 71 Devil Ball
Total Score: 128
3rd: ORLEANS (Gordón, Mann, T. Joe, Fidler)
(+5) 53 Scramble
(+38) 86 Devil Ball
Total Score: 139
QUICK CHIPS
100! The MGM Tour held its 100th tournament… Top performance: Moawad’s 30 set a new course record, besting the 31 he and Travois Gordón shot at DeBell in 2011… Making the most out of an opportunity: Martin Witt and Clint Crump, playing as alternates this year, finished 2nd and 3rd respectively… A devil of a time: Team Orleans were the only team to lose a devil ball, losing 4 for a total of 16 penalty strokes. John Mann suffered the ignominy of “winning” this year’s Gizmo prize for most lost devil balls (2). He suffered the same fate the last time the Tour visited DeBell… History 2 ways: Clint Crump followed teammate Chris Moawad’s tee shot on the par-4 5th by holing out from 60 yards to make the first eagle in tournament history, while at one tragically comic point, Team Riviera’s best ball to use was Gerry Vaughan’s whiff… Streaks: Walter Vargas missed the championship round for the 1st time in 4 years while John Frost and Gerry Vaughan have still never advanced… Birdie Pool: unclaimed, the new amount ($11) rolls over to the Tour Championship… Milestones: Chris Moawad and Clint Crump made their 80th career Tour starts… Which one is it? In 2010 Walter Vargas and Patrick Bird, missing a teammate, complained they were playing at a DIS-advantage. The two (among others) this year were quick to complain that without Ed Quiroz team Gold Coast had an unfair AD-vantage.
