2021 Golf Croquet Eights

By Jeff Soo

The USCA Golf Croquet Eights started in 2017, making it the newest major tournament on the USCA calendar. For its first three years, the event was held in Florida. As with so many other tournaments, 2020 was a lost year due to COVID-19. The 2021 event, well-timed to coincide with the lifting of most COVID-19 restrictions, was held in Western North Carolina, the hotbed of golf croquet in the USA. Unfortunately, Canada had not yet lifted its quarantine requirement for returning travelers, effectively preventing participation from Canadian players.

Mohammad Kamal - Winner of the First Eight The Eights has an unusual format: the field is ranked top-tobottom and divided into groups of eight, and each eight plays in a round-robin format over three-and-a-half days. No playoffs or final occurs—just the block—making every game count. The First Eight (and, in some years, the Second Eight) plays a roundrobin of best-of-three-games matches. Each other eight plays a double round-robin of single-game matches. Either way, it is a full schedule of play. Three two-lawn venues were available: The Chattooga Club, Highlands Falls Country Club and Lake Toxaway Country Club. With some creative scheduling, this allowed four eights to compete. All three venues provided the lawns free of charge to the USCA. This generous offer was a key element to make the tournament accessible for all players—entry filled quickly, and the waiting list was long. The outstanding hospitality, beautiful surroundings and excellent fast-playing conditions were much appreciated by the players and guests. Matches in the first eight were untimed. Games in the other three eights used an 80-minute time limit, with two rotations after time was called. Only three of the 168 timed games ended with a winning score lower than seven, evidence of a good pace of play all around. In all, 233 games were played with 2,592 hoops scored.

Local “Plateau” players won the second, third and fourth eights and also took most of the second- and third-place finishes in those eights. Dallas Denny (Highlands), playing in just his second ranking tournament, took the lead in the fourth eight on day two. He retained the lead despite losing his first match of the third day to Billie Ray (Highlands Falls) and won his next three matches to finish the day one game ahead of Ray and two ahead of Dennis Howard (Cullasaja). Denny won his final two games on Sunday to make it five victories in a row, winning the eight with a final tally of 12 wins in 14 games. The third eight was neck-and-neck from the get-go. Jim Jamison (Trillium) and visiting player Bill Simmons (The Plantation of Ponte Vedra) tied for the day one lead. Ken Scoggins (Sky Valley) moved into a first-place tie with Simmons by the end of day two. Gary Gamble (Trillium) won four in a row on the third day to move into a three-way tie with Scoggins and Jamison. Scoggins and Jamison each won their final two games on Sunday, Scoggins winning the eight on net points. Interestingly, they had split their two games against each other by the same score, 7-4 and 4-7. Jochen Lucke (Sapphire Valley, Chattooga) was the fourth seed in the second eight, but played like he belonged in the first. He had a few close games but many that weren’t, and he won the eight with a perfect 14-0 record, with +44 net hoops. Rich Dell (Wildcat Cliffs), Helen Covington (Florida Yacht Club) and Billy Harper

(at-large member from Florida) tied for second place at 8-6. In the first eight, Mohammad Kamal (Pasadena), Jimmy Huff (Carrol County) and Matt Griffith (Kactus Creek and Sarasota) won both their day one matches for the early lead. On day two, Kamal was undefeated again, while Huff lost to Brian Lozano (Mission Hills) to drop into a second-place tie with Jeff Soo (Stoneridge, Highlands Falls, Sarasota). Kamal survived an epic battle with Griffith on day three, 7-6, 7-6, then beat Huff to remain the clear favorite, while Soo likewise beat Huff and Griffith to retain second place, one match behind Kamal. Sunday’s matchup between Kamal and Soo was thus a final of sorts, Kamal winning 7-6, 7-5 to win the eight 7-0 on matches, 14-1 on games. Having lost to the top two seeds on the first day, Lozano finished out with five straight wins for third place. Michael Albert and Eileen Soo volunteered their time as Assistant Tournament Directors, corralling the players, refereeing and posting live updates to Croquet Scores throughout each day’s play. Highlands Falls member Linda Fuchs organized a team of volunteer scorekeepers to cover every match at that venue. Highlands Falls had just debuted its new electronic scoreboards, giving a clear view of the scores of all four matches not just to the players and spectators at the venue, but also to remote spectators watching via webcam on the HFCC website. A tournament held at multiple clubs is a logistical challenge for players and organizers alike, but “the Plateau,” with its tremendous concentration of clubs and players playing golf croquet, was an outstanding venue for this event.

01. Mohammad Kamal 02. Jeff Soo 03. Brian Lozano 04. Jim Teel 05. Matt Griffith 06. Jimmy Huff 07. Dick Boger 08. Cheryl Bromley

01. Jochen Lucke 02. Rich Dell 03. Helen Covington 04. Billy Harper 05. James Creasey 06. Stephen Jackson 07. Bo Prillaman 08. Gil Flowers

01. Ken Scoggins 02. Jim Jamison 03. Gary Gamble 04. Bill Simmons 05. Clint Dawkins 06. Jim Podraza 07. Pat Cunningham 08. Geoff Parker

01. Dallas Denny 02. Billie Ray 03. Dennis Howard 04. Ray Barrett 05. Patrick Dugan 06. Kathie Gamble 07. Candra Seley 08. Tom Bown