Masingill and Gispanski bury the field at 2nd annual GNOTY Cup Tournament

No matter how you measure success, the 2nd Annual Golf Nut of the Year Cup tournament fits the description. The annual event to honor the new Golf Nut of the Year always brings so plot twists and turns that help make it a great weekend. In case you missed it, and of course most of you did since it was limited to 40 players, here's a short recap of the event, the participants and some of the golf.

The 2009 event contained 20 repeat players from the 2008 event. Each of those "repeaters"  earned 506 Golf Nut Points for their year #2 participation! IF THEY PARTICIPATE IN NEXT YEAR'S TOURNAMENT, MAKING 3-IN-A-ROW, they will earn 753 Golf Nut Points! Each "Newbie" player in the tournament earned 200 Golf Nut Points, so there were some points handed out from the beginning.

The event brought out some amazing players, these Nuts have got game! Obviously the most notable Nut was the "Guest-of-Honor" for the weekend, 2008 Golf Nut of the Year, Scott Masingill #0047. Scott loves the Dragon Ridge Country Club. He won the 2008 Senior U.S. Open Qualifier at Dragon Ridge on a hot and windy day in July, allowing him to tee it up in the U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmor in Colorado Springs. During the GNOTY Cup, Scott was handed much better playing conditions as the weather was really cooperative, calm, sunny and in the mid 70s. During his practice round on Saturday, despite the constant chatter of the Head Nut, Scott shot a "Ho-Hum" 74, which easily could have been much lower except for some bad caddying by the HN. "I love these greens," Scott explained. "We won't see greens this good for awhile up north."

Saturday night found the Nut House jumping with activity as the field got together for the pre-round festivities of the Pairing Party. The volume of empty beer and wine cases could fill a small pick-up truck and the Tuesday morning trash pick up brought some laughs from the guys on the truck when they were given the only case of beer unopened for the event! A good time was had by all and the party broke up early enough that everyone was well rested for the Sunday Tournament.

Some of the "notables" attending the party and playing on Sunday, besides Scott, were: #0978 Bii Sather( a Golf Nut who traveled from Seattle to combine a Vegas Vacation with the tournament and was the first Nut that this HN played golf with after taking the helm... Bill earned 2276 additional Nut Points for his round-trip travels,) John Siipola (who traveled the farthest for a one-day tournament 3,456 miles round trip and earned that many Nut Points in the process,) Denver Broncos retired-star, Rick Upchurch #18005 and his beautiful wife Donna, Mike Dobbyn #5643 - the 2007 RE/MAX World Long Drive Champion, radio personality, Ron Gerrard - the G-Man, #5004,our resident "She-Nut, Queen of the Greens," Karen Tieken #4144, big Gary Davis ,#5251, the Chairman of the Shriner's Children's Hospital Justin Timberlake PGA Tour event, Wayne Hadadd  the owner of Golf Headquarters of Las Vegas, Dawn Prendes #18007 of Henrysplace.org a charity to benefit children in Las Vegas, J.R. Davenport #18006, of the band Wolf Creek, Debbie Dahmer of the Golf Channel's Big Break and the Defending Champion, #5165 Rich Nelson of Realtor.com. The event was catered in part by Capriotti's and was great fun.

Sunday found beautiful March weather for Las Vegas. The temperatures reached the 80 degree mark before the end of the day. The format this year was changed to a 2-Person Best Ball much to the delight of most of the participants. The following are the final scores for the event by 2-person team:

1. Scott Masingill & Leo Gispanski - 55

T2. Rich Nelson & Harry Dobson - 58

     Jack Barnes & Jim Honer - 58

4.  Jun Jao & Michael Chang - 60

T5. Jim Tieken & Rocco Tucker - 63

     Rick Chudacoff & John Siipola - 63

7. Dawn Prendes & Karen Tieken - 64

8. Rodell Jao & Greg Panuncilman - 65

9. Bill Sather & Rick Upchurch - 66

T10. Toby Morrison & Victor Bonuel - 67

       Neal Scheunemon & Wayne Hadadd - 67

       Janet Weber & Jodi Weber - 67

T13. Debbie Dahmer & J.R. Davenport - 68

       Chris Klimko & Dale Henson - 68

       Chuck Johnston & Ron Gerrard - 68

16. Bob Soucy & Dom Salomone - 69

T17. Michael Donovan & Tom Emanuel - 70

        Dick Ryan & Alex Sparkuhl - 70

        Mark Stephan & Joel Mez - 70

20. Mike Dobbyn & Gary Davis - 71