30 Aug 2021 at 13:11 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 32322 | News search

Brian Mays lines up his putt on the 9th  (Photo by The Putting Penguin)

Farmington, CT – A tropical storm may have foiled the original plans for this tournament but after delaying a week, Farmington Miniature Golf saw the successful running of their 40th tournament honoring Pat Guglielmo with just a few drops of participation during the final holes. After a change from a three-round to a two-round tournament in 2020, this year was a 45 hole event held on Saturday, August 28th. The change in the date meant rearranging of schedules for some folks and when all the registrations were in 19 players teed it up for central Connecticut bragging rights.

The change of date must have also messed with the putting mojo of the participants as the balls didn’t seem to drop for anyone up and down the leaderboard. With the old-school nature of the 60+ year old course, it’s not unusual to see scores swing wildly, even for the top players. However, this year only saw two sub-40 rounds which is out of the ordinary for the competition. This meant that the scores were bound to be close with no one able to take charge and race away from the pack. In addition, playing the front nine-holes a third time would play into the hands of some competitors who found that the easier half of the course. This played out in the top seven spots only being separated by four strokes.

Out of that logjam of scores, Justin Seymour squeaked to the top with a 103 over the 45 holes, continuing a hot streak that he has been on in August with a win and a second place already under his belt. Behind him was a three-way tie for second place at 104 between Tim Stratton, Doug Wipfler and Mark “The Highlighter” Novicki. For places other than first, the ties were broken by best scorecards starting from the first hole of the first round. This resulted in Stratton taking second place, Novicki placing third and Wipfler ending up in fourth. Pat Sheridan, the defending champ, would end up in fifth place with a 105.


Justin Seymour with Phil Guglielmo

The tournament also splits the field into a lower tier based on scores to reward some of the more casual players. Dan Hurley captured the top spot in that division with a 118, followed by Rich Stratton with a 123 and Tim Guilford Jr with a 137.

The owners expect the 41st running of the event to take place again in mid August 2022.

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