OSTERVILLE, Mass. – After three days of tightly contested showdowns in the 2019 New England PGA Cape Cod Fall Festival, Friday’s finale at the Wianno Club turned out to be a race for second place as the Rochester CC team, led by Brett Smestad, PGA, shot 15-under par 125 to snatch an eight-stroke victory.
The Rochester CC foursome played Wianno’s front nine in 10-under par 60 in the Two Best Ball (one gross, one net) of Four format. A net eagle in addition to Smestad’s birdie on the Par-5 8th hole helped add to the winning margin.
The Winchester CC team, led by Eric Barlow, PGA, finished in second place at 7-under par 133, followed by Patrick Beahn, PGA and his team from Blackstone National and Bryan Kienke, PGA, and his Cohasset GC foursome, who tied for third at 6-under par.
Smestad, who helped Rochester CC to a tie for the top spot on Thursday’s event at Cape Cod National, made six birdies on the day, including birdies on all three of Wianno’s Par-5s. He had just three bogeys on Friday and his 3-under par 67 was good enough to edge Shawn Warren, PGA (Falmouth CC) by a stroke for the low professional crown.
Warren played the back-nine in 3-under 32 on Friday to shoot 68 and finish second in the professional division, followed by Barlow, who shot 69 to finish third.
The eight-stroke team victory is an anomaly for the Cape Cod Fall Festival, which saw two four-way ties for first and a narrow two-stroke victory in the week’s previous three tournaments.
A big thank you goes to NEPGA partners Lincoln Motors and Goslings for supporting a great week on Cape Cod, along with the Wianno Club and PGA Professional Eric Steindel.