Congratulations to Christian Ferguson and Chris Muir, the 2015 Nomad Classic Champions!

Coming off of the 10th anniversary Nomad, the 2015 edition of the Nomad Classic was a more budget-conscious affair located in the Peterborough region of Ontario. This year’s tournament marked a return to team-based play but continued the recently implemented three-round tournament implemented in Nova Scotia. The courses to host this year’s Nomad Classic were Baxter Creek (first round), and Bellmere Winds (rounds 2 and 3) which was next door to the resort where we stayed.

The weather was generally sunny for all three rounds this year, with only a few brief overcast moments. With six teams competing this year, it was expected to be a close and highly contested Nomad. Team scores were all above par the first day, with individual standout performances scored by Ryan Doyle at 3-under, and Tim Jones at 2-under. The first three teams were separated by 2 strokes, with the team of Rinaldo and Doyle leading the way at 3-over, followed by Tim Biehler and Aaron McCourtie at 4-over, and Tim Jones and Tom Shepherd at 5-over.

Day 2 and a shift to Bellmere Winds saw massive changes to the leaderboard. The team of Jones and Shepherd suffered a major setback, primarily on the meltdown of Tom Shepherd (+16). They submitted a team score of 25-over for the day! On the otherhand, the team of Christian Ferguson and Chris Muir, who stumbled to 15-over after the first round, turned it around to score a stunning 9-under for the second round! Both players were under par, with Muir scoring -3, and Ferguson carding a -6 for the day. The next closest team on the day were Rinaldo and Doyle at 16 strokes back with a respectable +7.

After the second round, the leaderboard read Ferguson and Muir at +6, followed closely by Rinaldo and Doyle at +10. Third place was Biehler and McCourtie at +13, with the rest of the pack trailing far behind.

With only 7 strokes separating first from third in pairs play, it was anybody’s tournament to start the second round. Tim Biehler tried his hardest to pull his team into first with a solid 4-under in the final round. However, his partner McCourtie could not keep up and his +9 eliminated them from contention. The team of Rinaldo and Doyle kept the pressure on, by carding a solid 2-over for the day. This put the pressure on the leaders, Muir and Ferguson. With Ferguson having a meltdown on the 18th hole last year to almost lose the tournament, Rinaldo and Doyle were hopeful for a come-from-behind win. However, Ferguson appeared to learn from his past experiences and carded the second lowest round for the day, at 1-under. His partner Muir submitted a solid par to make them the only team to go under par the last round. It is worth noting that the team of Masih and Kershaw submitted the second best score for the day at even par based on the 2-under performance of Matt Kershaw. When the smoke cleared, Chris Muir and Christian Ferguson were champions with a total score of +5 for the tournament. The next closest was Doyle and Rinaldo at +12. Christian Ferguson defended the championship for the first time since 2007/2008 when Way and Stoltz were repeat champions.

With a return to pairs play, the Sandbagger Trophy was awarded to Christian Ferguson who shot a -2 after going under par in back-to-back rounds.

Congratulations was given to Tim Biehler who led the way with the lowest stroke play overall with 274 strokes over 3 days.

Place	Player	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Total	NC-HC
1	Christian Ferguson	+5	-6	-1	-2	102
1	Chris Muir	+10	-3	0	+7	115
2	Mark Rinaldo	+6	+3	+2	+11	92
2	Ryan Doyle	-3	+4	0	+1	105
3	Tim Biehler	0	+5	-4	+1	91
3	Aaron McCourtie	+4	+4	+9	+17	115
4	Sam Masih	+5	0	+2	+7	90
4	Matt Kershaw	+11	+10	-2	+19	103
5	Steven Way	+6	+5	+6	+17	102
5	Brett Berens	+4	+7	+2	+13	105
6	Tom Shepherd	+7	+16	+8	+31	93
6	Tim Jones	-2	+9	+5	+12	89