Knaebels Win MGA 2010 Father-Son Golf Tournament

Janet Morales - August 16, 2010

Joe and Jeff Knaebel have played in Missouri Golf Association’s “Father-Son Tournament” for 3 years, improving each year. But on July 26 and 27 of this year, they finished as champions in the Rafferty flight, shooting 73-75—148 at The Club at Porto Cima, a Jack Nicklaus course in the Lake of the Ozarks.

Son Jeff is a scratch player (meaning no handicap), while Dad Joe says he’s pretty far from that. It took them a while to get used to the format for the tournament. For the Rafferty flight, it is as follows:　6 holes of scramble, 6 holes of alternate shot, and 6 holes of best ball.　The first couple of years they, like many groups, really struggled with the alternate shot. They must play by regular PGA rules, meaning they can never touch the ball or fluff a shot (no Mulligans!).　This year they played their practice round on Sunday at Porto Cima, with the actual tournament following on Monday and Tuesday.

For those who don’t know what these formats are, a scramble format is one where both players (or all if a larger team) hit each shot and the team selects the best one to play for the next shot – the other 3 pick their ball up and drop it within a club length of the one selected. This continues through putting and scores are usually pretty low. Alternate shot is pretty easy to explain, but as Joe said, probably the most difficult to score well at. The partners simply alternate as they play each hole, in fact, the alternating carries over from hole to hole. So even if one partner drops in a 1 inch putt, the other partner will then drive on the next hole. Finally, best ball is a format where each player plays his ball the entire hole and the team records the best score from that hole.

Joe states that it is very interesting to see the Fathers and Sons interact　in this event.　He says, “Jeff and I have learned to relax and make the most of it.　I can’t say we were exactly relaxed the first year.　A triple bogey on a par 3 in the alternate shot portion really hurt us last year.　The worst hole we had this year was a double bogey on a par 4 in alternate shot.　We played pretty well this year but felt we could have scored much better than we actually did.”

The Knaebels enjoy meeting and playing with other Father/Son teams, loo k forward to this time together, and are already talking about next year. They enjoyed the tournament with three other Moberly Father/Son groups this year; the Samps, Flemings, and Goffs also participated.　They had dinner together each night and shared war stories of the day, and played their practice rounds together.　　Joe says it is so hard to find activities that you can do one on one with your son with everyone’s busy schedules and family commitments; making the event very a special time. Winning it made it that much more special.