Sherif Abdelwahab (kneeling on far left) earns his Professional Croquet Association Golden Jacket and $2000 by winning the 2021 PCA Golf Croquet Tour Championship at Green Gables earlier this month.
27 top players faced off in the Pro Tour event. 12 were tour qualified pro's who started play on Friday and 15 were not yet qualified players who started play Thursday in an attempt to play into the pro tournament and qualify for the tour. When the dust settled Thursday evening, 9 new players had earned a spot on the PCA Pro Tour. These new tour qualified players (in Golf Croquet) are:
- Justin Fields
- Ned Sperry
- Marc Stearns
- Tate Russack
- Phil Emond
- Dennis Leddy
- Carl Archiniaco
- Karen Leoncavallo
- Sue Emond
These players earned a tour card and will remain eligible for GC Tour play for a minimum of 4 years.
The money round knockout started on Friday with a few surprises. Ned Sperry defeated Tate Russack, Ahab Dincer and Justin Berbig only to loose to Bo Prillaman in the semi finals. New-comer Dennis Leddy was a powerful player, defeating Marc Stearns two straight and taking Macey White to the third game where Macey pulled out a narrow victory with a clean hoop shot on the tie-breaker from the boundary. White lost to Sherif Abdelwahab in a well contested match with battles at most hoops featuring many long clearing shots. Bo Prillaman and Sherif Abdelwahab faced off in the finals in the rain on Sunday. The sidelines were full of fellow tournament players who stayed for the finals and local players who came in to see the great players duel it out. In the end, Sherif Abdelwahab prevailed with a 7-4, 7-1 victory to take the title, the Golden Jacket and $2000 first prize. Bo Prillaman won $1000 for second. Everyone in the tournament went home with prize money, even if in some cases it was only $1.
Ahab Dincer, Cami Russack, Marc Stearns and Cheryl Bromley faced off in the plate semis. Ahab defeated Marc 7-3, 7-4 and Cheryl defeated Cami 7-4, 7-5. Ahab Dincer defeated Cheryl Bromley in the plate finals 7-5, 7-1.
Special thanks go to Tom Cooper and the Green Gables club who hosted this event.
The PCA is now working on the 2022 Pro Tour schedule. We all look for an exciting PCA Pro tour in 2022.
Macey White, PCA President
Link to Photo Album (12 pictures) Photos by Richard Richardi.
