Steve McMahon cruises to victory, now 3-time champ
Belleville’s challenging Black Bear Ridge and Trillium Wood were the sites of the 2022 Sandbagger Cup. For a later-than-usual gathering, the weather cooperated very nicely through the weekend. Highs of 19 and no precipitation were better than could be reasonably hoped for. Sunday’s round (at Trillium) included some strong winds but clearly nothing that couldn’t be handled by Steve McMahon, who, with this victory, has tied Ricky Cunliffe as a three time champion. In fact, you can start laying odds on Steve to win in 2031, since he has established a pattern of prevailing in the Sandbagger every 9 years (2004, 2013, 2022). Steve was low man after Saturday, firing a solid 97 on Black bear Ridge, which plays tough and has tricky, fast, undulating greens. Heaver went into the Sunday round with five golfers within 5 strokes but didn’t waver under the pressure at all, carding a 43-43 for an impressive 3-under target 86 in the Cup-clinching Sunday round, in the process expanding his lead as contenders failed to keep up the pace.
Having recently regained his Sandbagger Tour playing card, Doug Anderson was a popular returnee to competitive action and showed promise by registering one of the only two sub-target rounds of the weekend. Doug finished second, five strokes back of the leader and looks poised to make another solid run for his first major victory next year.
Congratulations, Steve, for a deserving – and popular – victory.
The 2022 results are as follows:
| 2022 Sandbagger Scoresheet | ||||||
| Golfer | Target | Sat | +/- | Sunday | +/- | Total |
| McMahon, Steve | 89 | 97 | 8 | 86 | -3 | 5 |
| Anderson, Doug | 105 | 117 | 12 | 103 | -2 | 10 |
| Cunliffe, Rick | 92 | 101 | 9 | 97 | 5 | 14 |
| Mooney, Brent | 89 | 105 | 16 | 91 | 2 | 14 |
| Anderson, Jim | 92 | 105 | 13 | 94 | 2 | 15 |
| Smith, Graham | 105 | 117 | 12 | 108 | 3 | 15 |
| Mains, Jeff | 105 | 116 | 11 | 114 | 9 | 20 |