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COVERAGE: Moon Open Concludes With Smiles, New Champions

Published

6 months ago

July 21, 2024

Zac Weiss

Photos courtesy of Julia Wingard

It was a long wait for Calvin Cygrymus to see if his score would hold up in the 2024 Moon Open’s C Flight. When the final group came in, it was becoming clear that his score would indeed be enough to earn both the gross and net trophies.

After a few moments, the trophies appeared in Moon Golf Club’s pavilion, where general manager Josh DeNinno briefly spoke and congratulated Cygrymus on his first ever Moon Open title.

When asked for a speech, Cygrymus smiled wide and channeled his inner Marshawn Lynch.

“I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” he joked.

It was clear that Cygrymus enjoyed his Moon Open experience, returning to tee it up this year and even catching some nice breaks to go with some stellar play that prevailed over Frank Presto and last year’s champion Bob Soda among others.

Cygrymus’s highlight was an eagle on the par-5 16th hole which earn him one of two skins. DeNinno informed Cygrymus that as a result of him winning the Flight C gross, he will have free greens fees until next year’s Moon Open in addition to some club credit. That club credit was extended by winning the net event.

The multiple skins also earned him some cash or as DeNinno joked “we paid you a lot of money to play here.”

Cygrymus joined the Flight B champion Zachary Mikolics as champions to triumph in both gross and net. Last year, all four champions prevailed in both aspects.

Mikolics, the Round 1 leader, had four birdies on his round, circling the fourth, eighth, 12th and 16th holes.

The Flight A gross champions went to Brian Stewart in overwhelming fashion, as his pair of 69’s saw him triumph over the two-time defending champion Dave Michaels by seven shots.

Stewart held a clean scorecard through his front nine, delivering birdies on each of the last three holes before and then adding two more on 12 and 13 for good measure.

Daniel Thomas, previously a junior competitor in the Moon Open who worked in nearly every department on the golf course, showcased his game and placed third in Flight A gross.

Sean Cummings prevailed by a single shot over Jake Farringer in the Flight A net competition.

Flight D’s gross competition proved to be a battle as 2022 and last year’s champion in David McHugh and Luis Cardiel in addition to Matthew Trella all competed for the trophy. In the end McHugh’s two rounds of 86 won the week.

McHugh was also in the running for the net prize but fell a stroke behind Dave Gill.

LADIES, YOUTH REPRESENTED AT MOON OPEN

Four years ago, Stephanie Kaminskas learned how to play golf at Moon Golf Club and has competed in the Moon Open with some convincing from her husband John, who also teed it up, the pair were together with Luis Cardiel and Rob Vargas.

As Kaminskas played her shot from the rough on the par-3 10th hole, something unexpected happened. She chipped in for birdie.

The ovation could be heard back in the tee box, smiles visible across the foursome.

Kaminskas joined Joyce Fazio as one of two ladies competing this weekend.

Fazio admitted that she lost count of how many Moon Opens she has competed in but has been a part of the event since close to the beginning.

Her highlight was a birdie on the par-4 second hole when she also chipped in for birdie, in this case from the left side of the green.

Fazio enjoys making the Moon Open an annual stop and both understands and appreciates all that it brings to the table.

“It’s nice, you get two days of golf for one-hundred-some dollars, all the food, camaraderie, the beer. It’s all good,” she remarked.

While Fazio has competed in several Moon opens, the same cannot be said for a trio from Montour High School in Drew Dess, Landon Keaton and Noah Stasa.

All three are competing for the very first time and it is quite possibly the first time the event had three juniors in a foursome.

“It’s awesome, I like the young community playing a lot more golf in competition,” reflected Dess. “This is our home course, we’re here every day.”

All three registered as soon as it came up, with the friends texting each other, ensuring they signed up for an event which traditionally sells out within 24 hours.

Each had moments they will remember whether it is Dess’s drive on 17, Keaton sticking a 150-yard approach on 18 to 10 feet or Stasa’s chip in on 4.

Despite some tricky pin placements, each shot in some proximity to their scoring averages.

Not to be outdone, Kyle Michels was in an unenviable position, a 23-year-old that is the most senior member of his foursome.

While he admitted he felt like a grandpa at times, he was quite impressed with their games stating, “I didn’t start playing whenever I was their age, and they whooped my ass.”

Michels improved by 15 shots on day two emphasized by his “pimped” drive on 18.

As Kaminskas reflected on the week, she was asked how much Spanish she had learned over two days from Cardiel and Vargas.

“I learned a couple of bad words in Spanish I’m not going to repeat them at this time, but I am well versed in the Spanish language now,” Kaminskas concluded.

YOU SAID #11

It is safe to say that the 11th hole proved most challenging. There were two previously placed pin placements and those were overruled in order to give the field a better chance to score, but just two birdies were recorded and five over the pair of tournament days.

In total there were 93 bogeys, 65 doubles and 45 scores fared worse than that.

Long shots were penalized, balls on the green were never truly in until the putt dropped because of the break surrounding even the shortest of efforts.

Moon Golf Club social media guru Hunter Homistek whipped this up and this only shows the first three groups of the morning.

No. 11 is already completely DIABOLICAL out here for Day 2 of the #MoonOpen. Uh-oh. Golfers beware. 😈 pic.twitter.com/CewGKRMLhI

— Moon Golf Club (@MoonGolfClub) July 21, 2024