June 20, 2003

ASHTABULA, OH — The Carl Spackler Open held its inaugural Friday afternoon golf scramble around the major championship at Thunder Hill Golf Club in Madison, OH.  The move to a four man scramble represented not only a change in tournament length but also a welcomed change in format.  For the past few years the event consisted of 72 holes, but this was cut back to 54 holes in 2003.  

"We have learned that bigger is not always better", said Matt Davis.  "This year, tournament golf was limited to 54 holes to allow the field some additional non-golf time.  

The scramble event is centered around obtaining foursomes based on raw score through the first two rounds of tournament golf.  In this competition teams shoot for the lowest gross score.  Jason Watson, John McAninch, Greg Garrett and Don McFarland shot even par for 18 holes to win the event.

"We started off great, but tripped down the stretch", said McAninch.  "It's great we had enough to win."  The 2nd place team finished at 2-over par.