Course record set
Luke LaFave shoots course record in winning 35th Wes Dixon Memorial Golf Tournament.
Father’s Day 2017 is one Gary and Luke LaFave will never forget.
Luke LaFave, 37, set a course record at Pine Crest Golf and Country Club on Saturday on his way to winning the 35th Wes Dixon Memorial Golf Tournament. On Sunday, his father Gary, 68, hit a hole-in-one on the 18th hole.
Luke, the head coach of his alma mater University of Detroit Mercy, just got his amateur status back after 14 years as a pro. His first choice for his return to amateur play was the Wes Dixon Memorial so he could play with his father on Father’s Day weekend. They played together Saturday when Luke scorched the course with a 63 eclipsing the 25-year record held by former pro John Kindred and the tournament record 65 set by Brent Deighan in 2008.
“It was pretty special,” Luke said. “To do it in the Dixon, playing with him is one of the coolest things, if not the coolest, I’ve ever done in golf.”
He followed up with a 73 on Sunday to beat past champion Mark Atkinson (69-73–142) by four strokes. Kirk Bartley (69-75–144) finished third and tied for fourth were Steve Fredericks (72-73-145) and Jerry Hinds (67-78-145).
Gary LaFave aced 18 then settled in to watch his son bring the victory home.
“What more could a father want as a golfer,” said Gary, a Pine Crest member for 30 years.
The only thing that could have been better is if he’d hit the holein-one on Saturday when there was a $10,000 prize up for grabs for an ace on 18.
Luke said it’s the first time he’s golfed the tournament since 2002, a year before he became a pro. He is no longer golfing competitively in pro events and decided he wanted to return to amateur status, a process that took two years, specifically to play tournaments with his father and buddies in Michigan. He doesn’t come home often to golf but wanted to play with his father on Father’s Day.
“We could pick our pairing the first day so I was able to play with him (Saturday),” he said. “I used to play this event when I was younger and always came close to winning it but never did.”
The last time he won an event in Peterborough he was a junior. “It’s been almost 20 years,” he said.
When asked about his father’s ace, Luke said, with a laugh, it put pressure on him to finish off the tournament with a win.
“Otherwise it wasn’t going to be as good a weekend” he said, with a chuckle. “It was a pretty cool weekend for the LaFave’s.”
It was Gary’s second ace at the club. He did it on 15 about 12 years ago.
“The wind was coming at us pretty good so I choked up on a five wood and hit a good shot,” he said. “It hit about eight feet in front of the hole took one hop and disappeared into the hole.”
The Second Flight winner was Paul Poulin (71-77-148), Third Flight went to Ed Piercey (76-79155) and the Fourth Flight low net went to Justin Kulla (61-72-133).