North Texas wins 24th Texas Shootout
Foursomes Four-Ball Singles Total
North Team 12.5 10 14.5 37
South Team 5.5 8 21.5 35
Briefly: North Texas fights off South Texas to win 24th Texas Shootout at Ridgewood Country Club.
Golf Course: Ridgewood Country Club has hosted some of the TGA’s top tournaments, including the 116th Texas Amateur presented by Hytera US this past June, the 83rd Texas Senior Amateur, and the 94th and 88th Women’s Texas Amateur. The club opened in the fall of 1947 near what is now Lake Waco with an 18-hole course originally designed by Ralph Plummer, another Texas Golf Hall of Famer. He returned to Ridgewood over a decade later to completely redesign the course, which became necessary after government officials finalized plans to expand the lake in the early 1960s. Since then, the course has undergone multiple updates, with the most recent major renovation completed in 2023 under architect Davis. Ridgewood Country Club presents a challenging course set-up that tests even most experienced golfers to their limits.
Weather: Saturday’s matches saw weather in the mid 50s to mid 60s with a slight 7 mph breeze off Lake Waco throughout the day. Sunday saw early morning drizzle followed by cloudy skies and temperatures again in the low 60s.
Saturday Foursome Matches: North Texas came out of the gates swinging early in foursomes with Marcus Jones and Steven Holtgrieve winning all 3 of the available points in the first Nassau Foursomes match of the day. Their match would set the tone for a dominant 12.5-5.5 showing in the morning matches for North Texas with the South Texas team only claiming victory in one match.
Saturday Four-Ball Matches: In the afternoon Four-Ball session the South Texas team had a better showing earning victories in two out of the six matches however North Texas would win the overall points again 10-8. Captain of the North Texas team this year John Stollenwerck provided a big push for his team’s success winning 4 out of 6 points on the day with his partners David Johnson in foursomes, and Ridgewood Country Club member John Derrick in four-ball. The North Texas team would hold an overall 22.5-13.5 lead heading into Sunday’s singles matches needing 36.5 points overall to win back the Texas Shootout trophy from South Texas.
Sunday Single Matches: Entering Sunday, the North Team required 14 total points to reclaim the Texas Shootout trophy from South Texas. South Texas was not going to give up easily winning seven of the initial twelve match points to begin a slight comeback. Matt Cowan or Burnet and Tye Grissom of Austin lead the initial charge sweeping each of their matches. The senior matches were leaning towards North Texas most of the afternoon however Tray Tyner would flip that script two down going into hole 16 he would birdie both 16 and 18 to split his match overall with David Johnson 1.5-1.5. Andy Hydorn would then earn 2.5 crucial points in the match between captains against John Stollenwerck. In the final four mid-amateur matches South Texas would take three of them handily winning 10.5 of the total 12 points however that 1.5 would be the deciding factor. With South Texas within reach and needing to swing his match to earn the North Team a victory Steven Holtgrieve would make par on 16 to John Beringers bogey to win their overall match point and bring North Texas within a half point of victory. On hole 17 Beringer would miss the green left and make bogey Holtgrieve would two putt for par to guarantee a half point on the back nine for the match and claim victory for North Texas with a final point total of 37-35.
More Info: To see Final Match results of the 24th Texas Shootout and read more information on the event, click here.