Congratulations to Aldis Zandbergs and Matt Kershaw, the 2022 Nomad Classic Champions!
The 18th Nomad Classic had the tournament return to its popular Blue Mountain/Collingwood area stomping grounds in Ontario for the fourth time. It would feature Monterra golf course for a practice round, the site of the first modern Nomad in 2005. Several players had personal vendettas with the course that chewed them up and spit them out so many years ago so there was keen interest in tackling the course again. The main tournament itself played two rounds on tournament favourite destination, Lora Bay, while the third round was played at Cranberry golf course. This years addition featured the shortest tee blocks ever used for a Nomad, in addition to individual caps of +/- 10 when calculating a team member’s contribution to the team score.
The tournament was blessed with outstanding weather for all three rounds. The first round at Lora Bay using the shorter tee blocks saw several golfers achieve scores close to their handicaps. Aldis Zandbergs led the way with a score of 1-under, with Matt Ingrassia shooting even par, Matt Johnny posting a 1-over, Dave Fauteux and Tom Shepherd posting 2-over, and Ryan Doyle posting a 3-over par. Average scores for the day were +7 and only 4 golfers had their scores capped at +10.
After teams were randomly determined in the evening, all eight teams were in contention with only 8 strokes separating the first and last place teams. The randomly drawn team in the lead at +9 consisted of Matt Kershaw and half of the prior year’s defending champions, Aldis Zandbergs. They were followed closely by the duos of Matt Ingrassia and Ed Ferguson, and Phil Myhal and Tom Shepherd at +10, Matt Johnny and Sam Masih at +11, and the teams of Christian Ferguson and Ryan Doyle, and Dave Fauteux and Tim Jones at +12. Barry Stoltz and Nathan Greene were in 7th place at +14, with the team of Steve Way and Mark Rinaldo in last place at +17.
Round 2 saw the golfers tackle Cranberry golf course. Several golfers had played a practice round on Cranberry two days prior and found it to be a very tight shot-shaping course. Its reputation was well-earned as average scores on the day ballooned to a +11 overall as 10 players found their scores capped. Whether it was familiarity with the course, or catching plenty of rest by sleeping in his own bed at night, only Aldis managed to shoot in the negatives with an outstanding score of 6-under par. This gave Aldis the early lead in the Sandbagger department as he posted back-to-back scores under par. His playing partner, Matt Kershaw, capped out at +10 meaning the team scored +4 overall on the day. This was a full 10 strokes better than the next two closest teams. The highlight for the playing foursome of Way and Rinaldo, and Greene and Stoltz was the “natural birdie” they managed to find in the middle of the course. The foursome conspired and teamed-up to leave evidence of their birdie in the hole for following foursome. By the end of the day it looked like Aldis was destined to repeat as Nomad Champion, and Kershaw would earn his second name on the trophy, as the duo created some separation from the rest of the field. They ended the day with a combined +13 over two days, with the second place of team of Phil and Tom coming in at +25, a full 12-strokes back. Only a complete meltdown of the leaders combined with some outstanding performances by other teams would lead to a change in the outcome.
The third round returned to the familiar Lora Bay. With this familiarity came lower scores. Individual scoring averages for the day was a score of +2. Only one person was capped on the day, but it was Dave Fauteux with a round of 11-under, the breakout round everybody was waiting for as Dave had demonstrated some impressive scores in his summer training. Unfortunately for Dave, it was too little too late, as on his prior he was also capped, but in the opposite direction. A solid score of +3 by his playing partner of Tim Jones gave the team a score of -7 overall for the day. As the lowest team score for the day, this was just the type of score that could cause a change in the leaderboard. The team of Rinaldo and Way shot a 2-under as the second best team on the day, while the team of Stoltz and Greene scored a 1-under to complete the top three teams on the day. Two teams struggled on the day with scores of 17 and 16, but neither team was the leading team of Aldis and Kershaw. They posted a below average 8-over, which was enough for them to hold onto their victory by four strokes — a narrow margin where one hole where they each score a double bogey would erase their advantage. While Aldis got the team the lead, Matt Kershaw brought the victory home with his score of +5, his best score for tournament after being capped the prior two rounds. Aldis posted his worst score of the three rounds, which was a very respectable 3-over par. Aldis was able to defend his title and join his playing partner Matt Kershaw to add their names to the Nomad Championship trophy for the second time each.
The strength of Aldis’ individual rounds also gave him the Sandbagger trophy with a total score of 4-under par after three rounds. Ryan Doyle, the second place golfer was 12-strokes back with a very respectable +8. The third place golfer was Matt Johnny, who scored 1-under the final day and was a +10 overall. The low gross this year was won by Matt Ingrassia, who played 260 strokes overall, beating prior year’s winner Sam Masih by 6 strokes.
| SUMMARY – CHAMPIONSHIP | ||||||
| Golfer | RD1 | RD2 | RD3 | TOTAL | RANK | NC-HC |
| Aldis Zandbergs | -1 | -6 | 3 | -4 | 1 | 100/99/96 |
| Barry Stoltz | 8 | 13 | -2 | 19 | 7 | 89/89/89 |
| Christian Ferguson | 9 | 19 | 8 | 36 | 15 | 87/87/87 |
| Dave Fauteux | 2 | 21 | -11 | 12 | 5 | 103/102/102 |
| Ed Ferguson | 14 | 17 | 9 | 40 | 16 | 103/104/103 |
| Mark Rinaldo | 9 | 15 | 0 | 24 | 10 | 83/84/83 |
| Matt Ingrassia | 0 | 13 | 8 | 21 | 9 | 80/80/79 |
| Matt Johnny | 1 | 10 | -1 | 10 | 3 | 107/107/107 |
| Matt Kershaw | 14 | 11 | 5 | 30 | 12 | 95/96/96 |
| Nathan Greene | 6 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 100/101/100 |
| Phil Myhal | 8 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 7 | 87/87/87 |
| Ryan Doyle | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 94/96/95 |
| Sam Masih | 11 | 16 | 5 | 32 | 14 | 78/78/78 |
| Steve Way | 8 | 11 | -2 | 17 | 6 | 91/91/91 |
| Tim Jones | 15 | 9 | 3 | 27 | 11 | 83/84/84 |
| Tom Shepherd | 2 | 19 | 10 | 31 | 13 | 86/87/86 |
| TEAMS SUMMARY | w/ CAP | w/ CAP | w/ CAP | w/ CAP | ||
| Team | Net | Members | RD1 | RD2 | RD3 | RANK |
| 1 | 26 | Aldis/Kershaw | 9 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| 2 | 30 | Barry/Nathan | 14 | 14 | -1 | 3 |
| 3 | 44 | Christian/Doyle | 12 | 14 | 9 | 4 |
| 4 | 39 | Dave/Jones | 12 | 19 | -7 | 2 |
| 5 | 61 | Ed/Matt I. | 10 | 20 | 17 | 8 |
| 6 | 41 | Rinaldo/Way | 17 | 20 | -2 | 4 |
| 7 | 42 | MJ/Sammy | 11 | 20 | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | 50 | Phil/Tom | 10 | 15 | 16 | 7 |