Congratulations to Christian Ferguson and Ryan Doyle, the 2018 Nomad Classic Champions!
The 14th Nomad Classic brought the tournament to New York state for only the second time, and first since 2010. Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, New York was the destination for this year’s tournament. The courses to host this year’s Nomad Classic were Holiday Valley for the first and third rounds and nearby Elkdale for the second round. With a field of 16 players staying in nearby rental chalets, this year’s event had many memorable moments both on and off the course.
The first round at Holiday Valley started as recent tournaments have, with individual gameplay and teams randomly drawn at the conclusion of the round. The first round saw some competitive play by many golfers with 13 of 16 players within 10 strokes. The only outlier was Matthew Kershaw who took over the lead for the worst net score ever at +29. With such a large outlier, a quick decision by scoring committee was struck to cap an individual max score for this tournament at +10, which affected two other golfers in addition to Kershaw. When the smoke cleared and the teams were drawn, the pairing of Matt Ingrassia, who shot a low of -3 for the round, and Aaron McCourtie were in second at a combined +3 trailing the duo of Ryan Doyle and Christian Fergusion. They opened up the tournaments with even-par and +2 respectively to give them a one shot lead. The team of Steve Way and Tim Biehler were in third at a combined +7.
With the partners set, the second round of the tournament headed off to Elkdale several miles away. A slightly easier course, Elkdale presented less of a challenge for the participants in general with 3 of the 8 teams posting negative scores and 6 of 16 players beating their handicap. The team of Ingrassia and McCourtie posted two negative scores at -2 and -4 for a combined -6 on the day. However, they were not to be outdone by Christian and Ryan who posted the low -9 for the day, including the low individual score of the day of -8 by Christian. After the two rounds, Ryan Doyle and Christian Ferguson had a narrow four-stroke lead on Ingrassia and McCourtie with both teams in the negatives at -7 and -3. This tournament became a two-horse race with the other teams falling back.
The final round started with much anticipation with a return to the challenging Holiday Valley. Unfortunately, McCourtie struggled out of the gate scoring an 8 and 9 on the first two holes, while the low handicapper Ingrassia posted a 7 on hole 2. Doyle and Ferguson contained their scores early and on hole 3 Christian birdied the par-4 to increase their lead. Ingrassia and McCourtie recovered nicely to score +3 and +4 for a combined +7 for the round, but it was not to be. Already public enemy number one for his massive improvement and recent success at the Nomad Classic, Christian used the third round to punch everybody in the gut but posting a low -4 for the day. To further add insult to injury, he pitched into the cup over a creek for his swan song on the 18th. Supported by a solid round by Ryan at +3, Christian and Ryan took home the trophy with a final round -1 for the team, the only team in the negatives the final day. Special acknowledgment goes to the team of Matt Kershaw and Tom Shepherd who managed to claw back into 3rd place overall after starting the tournament in 5th place.
In addition to the championship trophy, the Sandbagger Trophy for this edition of the Nomad Classic was given to Christian Ferguson with his outstanding play over the course of the tournament. He finished at -10, five strokes better than Tom Shepherd at -5, and eight strokes better than Matt Ingrassia at -2.
Upon conclusion of the tournament, wizard sticks and mayhem abounded but Christian’s antagonism of the crowd brought out the crazy in Tom Shepherd. Upset at losing the Sandbagger to Christian, Tom tried to murder Christian by giving him a fireman’s carry DDT (YouTube) into an outdoor air conditioning unit on the side of the hill. With the participants looking on in giddy anticipation, it was Steve Way who stepped up and rescued Christian’s life to the disappointment of the crowd. All ended well and nobody’s life was lost as everybody celebrated into the night.
At 253 strokes overall, Matt Ingrassia had the lowest stroke-play score for the tournament. The next lowest stroke total was 264 by Mark Rinaldo.
| Place | Player | Day 1* | Day 2* | Day 3* | Total | NC-HC |
| 1 | Ryan Doyle | 0 | -1 | +3 | +2 | 98/98/98 |
| 1 | Christian Ferguson | +2 | -8 | -4 | -10 | 95/95/95 |
| 2 | Matt Ingrassia | -3 | -2 | +3 | -2 | 85/85/85 |
| 2 | Aaron McCourtie | +6 | -4 | +4 | +6 | 109/109/109 |
| 3 | Matt Kershaw | +29** | +1 | +8 | +38 | 97/97/97 |
| 3 | Tom Shepherd | 0 | -2 | -3 | -5 | 91/91/91 |
| 4 | Ed Ferguson | +7 | +21 | +15 | +43 | 109/109/109 |
| 4 | Mark Rinaldo | +2 | -1 | -1 | 0 | 88/88/88 |
| 5 | Steven Way | +1 | +8 | +9 | +18 | 96/96/96 |
| 5 | Tim Biehler | +6 | +4 | +6 | +16 | 85/85/85 |
| 6 | Nathan Greene | +6 | +2 | +6 | +14 | 103/103/103 |
| 6 | Jason Webster | +6 | +6 | +10 | +22 | 91/91/91 |
| 7 | Will Ferguson | +13** | +11 | +5 | +29 | 109/109/109 |
| 7 | Tim Jones | +6 | +1 | +11 | +18 | 84/84/84 |
| 8 | Sam Masih | +3 | +6 | +10 | +19 | 84/84/84 |
| 8 | Dave Fauteux | +12** | +14 | +19 | +45 | 101/101/101 |
*All courses were par 70.
**Max score capped at +10 for competition calculations.