The 2020 YPGA season came to a historical and unprecedented end in mid-October at the Bella Vista Golf Club. At the end of the day, a 36-hole event would decide another major champion and the overall Exec Cup champion. At the start of the day, the Exec Cup came down to a handful of candidates: Michael Musselman, Paul Koch, Gerard Margiotti, III, and in a distant fourth, David Carney. This foursome teed off first and the pressure seemed to get to Mr. Musselman on the first hole as he uncharacteristically skulled a few chips and missed a few putts to card a quadruple bogey. Was this a preview of his day? Not so fast. Mike played the remaining 17 holes at +1 to card the lowest round of the day. Substandard opening rounds for Paul and Jerry pushed them into a corner to contend for the Exec Cup. David Carney had a glimmer of hope when he carded an opening round 83, but that was quickly erased when he didn’t get his cheesesteak eggrolls quickly enough after round 1 and hooked his opening second round tee shot into the short rough.

The drama of the day came from Chris Meyer and Nate Kraynak, both of whom carded consecutive impressive rounds relative to their handicaps. The key to the 36-hole tournament was consistency and Kraynak (68/68) and Meyer (69/66) were able to do just that as they jostled ahead of the pack into a two man race down the stretch. A sizzling back 9 during the second round got Meyer into contention as he was paced with 8 pars and one double bogey to finish +2 on the back. He was in the clubhouse at -5 for the tournament. However, a birdie on 17 got Kraynak thinking that he was soon to be etched in YPGA history. Things got tight on the 36th hole and those in the Kraynak corner whispered to themselves, “here we go again”. Needing par to claim victory and his first major title, Nate hit a feeble iron shot on the par-3 18th hole. Two duffed chips and two putts later, and Nate’s hopes and dreams were dashed as he posted a double bogey for another second-place finish. In the end, it was Chris Meyer who hoisted the dollar store decanter

Round 1 Top Finishers (net)

1. Musselman – 75 (66)

2. Kraynak – 91 (68)

3. Carney – 83 (69)

4. Meyer – 85 (69)

5. Grambo – 88 (70)

6. Matt Kelly – 77 (71)

7. Sobocinski – 87 (72)

8. Margiotti – 86 (78)

Round 2 Top Finishers (net)

1. Meyer – 82 (66)

2. Kraynak – 91 (68)

3. Matt Kelly – 74 (68)

4. Grambo – 88 (70)

5. Launi – 87 (70)

Closest to the Pin Winners: David Carney (Rd. 1), Matt Kelly (Rd. 2).

2020 Exec Cup Champion: Michael Musselman

2020 Major Winners: Launi, Pook, Jerry, Meyer

2020 Year in Review

The 2020 YPGA season had its shares of turmoil and uncertainty. Due to the pandemic, the YPGA Executive Committee worked tirelessly to put on a championship-caliber season and kudos to the Execs for their out of the box thinking in executing a great season. With the 2020 season in the rearview mirror, let's take a look at the Year in Review. Feel free to hum One Shining Moment in your head as you read each Tour Member's season in review. Here we go!

1. Andy Kotulka: Andy had an Andy year. He fared well in the Lehigh Valley Classic Presented by Ed Grambo finishing with a career low at the event, and guess what! He was on the team that won the Stabbleford team event to claim another gift card to go along with raffle wins at the Open and Del Val. Andy is a first ballot hall of famer in raffle games.

2. Chris Meyer: Chris capped off a dreadful 2020 campaign with a momentous major win at the Tour Championship. Chris posted an 85-82 36-hole score to claim the victory and while some may say that Nate lost the tournament rather than Chris winning it, history will simply remember that Chris notched his third major victory on Tour. His three major wins plus a Ryder Cup victory are a Tour best and will likely earn him first ballot hall of fame status.

3. David Carney: Like many on the Tour, Carney started off the season with an abysmal showing at the Open. He rebounded at the Del Val and posted a steady top tier placing at the Lehigh Valley and Tour Championship. While he feels good about his game heading into the offseason, Carney is still major-less despite posting a 14-5-1 record against Vince head-to-head this year.

4. David King: Dave enjoyed a season-long victory parade for his 2019 Exec Cup title. He showed up at major events to have fun and talk about where he gets his plaid jacket dry cleaned. David didn’t get out to golf much this season because of Covid-19 and having to watch his daughters while his wife was at work. When he did get out there, his drives traveled high, short, and straight. Not bad. It works. Except, Dave posted way too many 100+ rounds this season for his liking. He’ll hit the holiday shopping to see what kind of swing technology is out there to improve his game, but first, keep a lookout for the 2020 Dave King Awards presented by Twitter.

5. Ed Grambo: Ed had an up and down year on the links. He performed quite terribly in the majors this season but showed some life at the Tour Championship and his game is improving. His brute force off the tee is becoming more consistent, leaving him a wedge into the green on most par 4s a la his idol, Bryson DeChambeau. Ed has reached the point where he’ll only improve if he focuses on honing his short game, which remains to be seen. As a strong positive, he earned himself new nickname this season: Sprinkles the Indoor Cat.

6. Gerard Margiotti: Newcomer on Tour, Gerard Margiotti, III, achieved greatness in his second ever Tour start as he claimed the Del Val Invitational by posting a sub-80 score at RiverWinds. In his first ever season, he not only tasted victory but also learned firsthand that the Exec Committee rules harshly, fairly and with an iron fist as he bumped heads with the Handicap Committee on several occasions. Lesson to be learned: no one is above the Exec Committee. All kidding aside, Jerry had a nice season and sat atop the standings after his first win and but for a substandard performance at the Tour Championship, Jerry could be wearing an ugly plaid jacket for the holiday season.

7. Kelly Brothers: It was a tale of two seasons for the Kelly Brothers. Billy Kelly had a disastrous tour season that ultimately led to his absenteeism at the Tour Championship. Prior to mid-October hiatus, BK finished T11, T5 and T15 at the prior major tournaments. Things are trending down now that he has become a new father and Tour will now wonder whether BK’s best days are behind him. Matt Kelly finally found some success on Tour despite some speedbumps with his game. He finished middle of the road at the Open, T2 at the Del Val, dead last at the Lehigh Valley Classic Presented by Ed Grambo and posted scores of 77 and 74 at the Tour Championship. Matt lost his confidence midway through the season and suffered a once unthinkable head-to-head loss to David Carney (it seems like only yesterday that Matt was trying to pull a Tin Cup and bet Carney a stroke a hole for his M2 clubs) at the Lehigh Valley Classic Presented by Ed Grambo, but he seemed to regain his form to end the season. With his children growing up, Matt likely has more time to ditch his family and fine tune some of his game in time for the 2021 season.

8. Matt Launi: What can we say about the infamous Matt Launi? Matt started the year with a bang by becoming a back-to-back winner of the YPGA Open. Matt’s second Open win was an exciting one where he overcame a subpar tee shot on the playoff hole by putting his second shot to within a few inches of the hole for a tap-in par. From there, he relied on the big moment to cause jitters in Nate’s putting stroke leading Nate to two-putt from 8 feet. Matt took care of the rest during the putt-off and confirmed to everyone: Being a major winner matters in big moments. We did not hear much from Launi thereafter as a skateboarding accident nearly ended his career just as it was taking off. He almost joined the likes of Bobby Hurley, Jason Williams and Pelle Lindbergh as the list of great athletes whose careers were cut short in their prime. Luckily for Matt, he rejoined the Tour after extensive rehab at NovaCare Rehabilitation and made an appearance at the Tour Championship where he finished middle of the pack.

9. Mike Musselman: Mike had a pretty decent year on the Tour with solid low-80 scores at almost all of the tournaments. While this is great by everyone else’s standards, Mike holds himself to a higher standard. Sometimes, he’ll even challenge himself at the start of a round by posting a quadruple bogey on hole one before shooting a +1 over the remaining 17 holes. That’s the kind of guy Mike is. While Mike achieved Pook status in 2020 by claiming the Exec Cup without winning a major, the real pain came off the course as the meticulously planned and exciting destination trips were canceled due to the pandemic. The end of 2021 could be Musselman’s time.

10. Mike Patitucci: Mike started the year with a bang by canceling on the YPGA Open at the last minute to attend a wedding that he forgot about. However, he followed up his absence with back-to-back strong performance at the next two majors to finish respectably in the middle of the pack to end the season. Mike, like most chicks, digs the long ball and we have yet to see any other part of his game take shape. Perhaps with his new engagement, he’ll start to take sports more seriously.

11. Nate Kraynak: Nate loved finishing in second place this season. Not only that, but he did it in style! At the Open, Nate found himself in a playoff with Matt Launi. During the first playoff hole, Nate stuck it to 10 feet and then pussied a birdie putt that would have won him the Open. A missed opportunity there cost him a major has Matt won the putt-off. Nate dug deeper to top that fiasco by letting the Tour Championship slip through his fingers. With Meyer in the clubhouse at -5 for the tournament, Nate needed to par the par-3 18th hole to secure the win. A solid tee shot got him close, but a yippy chip and two missed putts led to heartbreak again for Nate. Nate has played well and he may enjoy some handicap revisions by the Exec Committee in 2021!

12. Paul Koch: What a season for Paul “Pook” Koch both on and off the course. After the Open, it looked like Paul was destined for another mediocre season with no wins and no Top 3s. However, similar to Steve Young in ’94, Paul got the monkey off his back by capturing his first ever major victory with a win at the Lehigh Valley Classic Presented by Ed Grambo. Even thought the vinyl record of Billy Joel’s single “Allentown” was enough of a prize Mr. Koch, being able to shut up the doubters will forever be his prize. Off the course, Paul married the two loves of his life: a blushing bride (Sarah), and a new meat smoker. However, as we all could have predicted, Paul’s recurrent arrogance (stating to several tour members that “The Exec Cup is mine to lose. I’d have to play really bad to not win.”) turned out to be continued bugaboo as he played horrendously at the Tour Championship and placed 6th overall to end the season.

13. Tag and Sabara: Who knew the second biggest rivalry of 2020 (second to Carney v. Sobo 2020) would be Greg Taglialatela vs. Mike Sabara. Some (Tag) would say that this isn’t a rivalry at all and has never been thought of as a rivalry, but others (Sabara) have been foaming at the mouth every time these two hit the links. While their scores have largely been an eyesore all season long, both have made progress on the course and to the fanfare of everyone on Tour, they have shown great pride and dedication to getting better. The “rivalry” has been great for everyone. While both Tag and Sabara jostled all season trading turns at the bottom of the Leaderboard, the battle for best worst golfer came down to the Tour Championship. While most fans were following the leaders of the event, some stragglers and betting fellows paid great attention to this battle of middling golfers. As luck would have it, Tag posted a 114-113, while Sabara went 117-110, ending up in a dead heat at the Tour Championship with Tag winning the overall matchup finishing with 950 points to Sabara’s 733. One thing is for sure, this rivalry will be HOT in 2021.

14. Vince Sobocinski: Vince has failed to regain form after taking home the plaid jacket in 2018. He recorded a solid showing at the Del Val, but the rest of his season was a disaster. In addition to losing much of his son’s 529 funds to Carney in a head-to-head side bet, Vince focused too much on getting intoxicated and talking about analingus and anal sex on the course instead of learning how to hit a simple wedge shot. A season ending injury to his latissimus dorsi muscle raises question marks for 2021.