Congratulations to Barry Stoltz and Steven Way, the 2008 and back-to-back Nomad Classic Champions!
The first round of the tournament was an unofficial fun round of best ball on the home course at Calabogie Highlands. The winner was irrelevant but it was close. All struggled with fairways the length of a normal first cut.
Day two was the first official round of the 2008 Nomad Classic. It was a sunny day with with wet ground from an overnight rain. The round was held at Packenham, Calabogie’s sister course a 45 minute drive away. As the second group teed off confusion erupted as several players discovered clubs were missing from their golf bags. A practical joke gone wrong?!? Calls to the cops were threatened, and the validity of the first round was challenged. Everybody decided to play on, with club sharing becoming the accepted norm (because only a 4 and 9 iron were left in the bag for some). Despite the missing clubs, many of the victims scored their best rounds of the summer, with Steve Way scoring a personal best at 88, and Matt Kershaw with a personal best 94! At the end of the round, the defending champs Stoltz and Way were on top at 18-under followed by their playing partners, Muir and Jones at 13-under. As usual, at the end of round one, the golfers with low net scores were acused of sandbagging their way to victory.
Day three and the final round of the 2008 Nomad Classic returned to the Calabogie Highlands home course. The tractors must have been broken because the grass had not been cut at all on the greens or fairway. In usual hung-over form, most of the player’s scores went up despite an “easier” course. However, a select few golfers improved their score making the tournament very close down the wire. Way fell off pace while Stoltz remained consistent, as the team of Rinaldo and Griffin shot up the leaderboard supported by Griffin’s round of 10-under for the day. Special note goes to the team of OB and Doyle who scored the lowest combined round of the day at 11-under, despite OB’s drunken antics and gastric upheaval on the 18th green. As the final duo Way and Stoltz were coming up the 18th not knowing the teams of Rinaldo and Griffin, and Kershaw and Greene had tied at a combined score of 17-under par. A bad 18th and the defending champs would lose. Way’s second shot was a shank that left him short of the green which was protected by a bunker. Stoltz was steady and holed out safely. The pressure was on Way as heckling from gallery and puking intensified. Shouts of “sandbagger” could be heard. He called upon “Tiger”-like intestinal fortitude and pulled off a clutch chip leaving the ball a few inches from the hole, with an easy tap-in to take home the tournament. Celebration ensued as OB jumped naked into the nearby community swimming pool even though the following group was a pair of heavyset women from the women’s tournament behind them. The winning score for the tournament was 19-under par.
Matthew Kershaw demonstrated the best ability to lie about his handicap and captured the 2008 Sandbagger award for his combined two-day total of 17-under par.
Congratulations also go to Mark Rinaldo and Matthew Ingrassia who tied for the lowest stroke play overall with 179 strokes… the first year this statistic was acknowledged.
| Place | Player | Day 1 | Day 2 | Total | NC-HC |
| 1 | Steve Way | -15 | +3 | -12 | 103 |
| 1 | Barry Stoltz | -3 | -4 | -7 | 107 |
| 2* | Mark Rinaldo | -7 | 0 | -7 | 93 |
| 2* | Jim Griffin | 0 | -10 | -10 | 96 |
| 2** | Matt Kershaw | -13 | -4 | -17 | 107 |
| 2** | Nathan Greene | +1 | -1 | 0 | 120 |
| 4 | OB Sealy | -2 | -5 | -7 | 99 |
| 4 | Ryan Doyle | +6 | -6 | 0 | 107 |
| 5 | Christian Ferguson | 0 | +4 | +4 | 106 |
| 5 | Gaelan McCormick | -6 | -1 | -7 | 96 |
| 6 | Tim Jones | -4 | +11 | +7 | 90 |
| 6 | Chris Muir | -9 | +1 | -8 | 120 |
| 7 | Sam Masih | -1 | +3 | +2 | 93 |
| 7 | Dennis Forster | -1 | +1 | 0 | 96 |
| 8 | Matt Ingrassia | -5 | +4 | -1 | 90 |
| 8 | Andrew Topping | -3 | +10 | +7 | 117 |