Around the Green

Dallas Athletic Club Wins 2016 Texas League Play

Dallas Athletic Club Outlasted Odessa Country Club with a 7-5 victory to claim the title of League Play Champions at Horseshoe Bay Resort on Sunday. This is DAC’s third League Play title overall and its first since 2011.

The League Play Season began in March with 44 clubs competing in 11 conferences based on the geographical area across the state. The teams played a home-and-away match with each team in their conference to determine who would move on to Horseshoe Bay Resort for the Playoffs in June.

The 11 conference winners were: Lochinvar Golf Club, Odessa Country Club, Riverbend Country Club, Colonial Country Club, Spanish Oaks Golf Club, Royal Oaks Country Club, Gentle Creek Country Club, Shady Oaks Country Club, Dallas Athletic Club, De Cordova Bend Country Club and Tierra Verde Golf Club.

Teams were seeded based on their overall points gained in the regular season matches. Colonial Country Club garnered the No. 1 seed after accumulating 54 points in regular-season play. Defending Champions Tierra Verde earned the No. 2 seed followed by Dallas Athletic Club at No. 3 and Odessa CC at No. 4.

The first matchup between Spanish Oaks and Royal Oaks was rained out on Thursday, June 2 when heavy rains produced poor course conditions at Slick Rock Golf Course that were deemed unplayable. Their match was to be made up on Friday June 3^rd, directly before the quarterfinal matches with the winner facing Colonial in the afternoon.

Spanish Oaks got off to a fast start when its scratch match won all three points versus Royal Oaks. Tides didn’t change much when the next two matches both came in with the same three-point victory for Spanish Oaks. Despite winning all three points in the fourth match, Royal Oaks lost to Spanish Oaks, 9-3.

Odessa Country Club squared up with Lochinvar Golf Club, a rematch of the quarterfinals in 2014 when Lochinvar came out on top. This time Odessa was the victor, winning all three points in the final match to win 7-5 and advance to the semifinals.  
Three-time defending champions Tierra Verde Golf Club took on Riverbend Country Club to start their path to another title. The first match went down to the wire and split the points 1.5 each. However, Tierra Verde showed its depth when their second and third matches took three points each and would eventually win 8.5-3.5 in the quarterfinals.

Dallas Athletic Club split with De Cordova Bend Country Club in the first match of their quarterfinal matchup, but each of the other matches grabbed two points and carried DAC to a 7.5 to 4.5 victory. Top-seeded Colonial Country Club defeated Spanish Oaks, which was coming off its victory over Royal Oaks earlier that day, 8.5-3.5 to advance to the semifinals.

The semifinals were held at Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Apple Rock Course with Odessa squaring off versus Colonial and Tierra Verde playing Dallas Athletic Club, a rematch of the 2014 Championship Match. 

Odessa started the match out strong gaining all three possible points from its first match. Colonial however answered right back in the second match with three points of their own. Odessa CC won two points in each of the last two matches to seize a 7-5 victory and secure a spot in the League Play Finals.

Dallas Athletic Club took an early lead in its semifinal match versus Tierra Verde, winning two points in the opening match. Tierra Verde won 2.5 points in the second match to take a 3.5-2.5 lead. DAC bounced back quickly, winning 2.5 more points in the third match and all three points in the final match.  The 8-4 victory by DAC secured the clubs fifth finals appearance in the last seven years.

Dallas Athletic Club was looking for its third title in Texas League Play, while Odessa Country Club was making their second finals appearance and was looking to become the second team from West Texas to win, Green Tree Country Club in 2012.

Dallas Athletic Club won the first match 2-1 and the second match 3-0 to take a 5-1 lead halfway through the finals at Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Apple Rock Course. In the third match, Odessa took a 5-up lead to capture the Front 9 point as well as the overall point even though they were all square on the back. Odessa had a downhill breaking putt on the 17^th hole that lipped out allowed DAC to capture the Back 9 point with a 2-up victory and earn a point. That additional point guaranteed that the worst case scenario for Dallas Athletic Club would be a sudden death playoff. The Playoff wasn’t needed as Dallas Athletic Club earned 1 point on the front nine in the fourth match and won 7-5.This was DAC’s third title, tying them with Tierra Verde Golf Club for most all time.

The Texas Golf Association would like to thank Horseshoe Bay Resort professional and maintenance staff for all their effort this week. The weather proved to be a challenge but the courses were incredible conditions.