The final day of the Fort Bliss Post Golf Championship could have been called Bloody Sunday as the 5th Brigade Combat Team (AETF), 1st Armored Division "Front Runners" massacred the competition in team play, finishing almost 100 strokes ahead of 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Gen. George V. Underwood Jr. Golf Complex, Sunday.
The three-day event, hosted and ran by Bliss Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, saw more than 30 golfers take to the links in the name of fitness and competition.
Team play wasn't the only stakes on the line as individual bragging rights were also up for grabs. Timothy Glapa, a junior officer from the winning 5th BCT (AETF) team, shot 6-over par for the weekend and took home top individual honors. An enlisted man and an officer split second-place individual honors respectively as Jeffrey Hallauer and Scott Glidden both ended the championship with scores of 227, six strokes behind Glapa's 221.
Glapa, who played collegiately at St. Norbert College in Minnesota, a Division III NCAA school, said he's been golfing since he was little. He added that he was proud to take the top individual trophy and share in taking the top team trophy back to 5th BCT's headquarters building because the competition wasn't to be taken lightly.
"I'm happy to represent the unit and the command," said Glapa. "There were a lot of great players here."
The William Beaumont Army Medical Center team rounded out the top three teams by shooting a combined 1307 for the tournament. Players from 1st, 2nd and 3rd BCTs (all of the 1st Armored Div.) also manned the fairways to represent their units, along with players from Bliss' 204th Military Intelligence Battalion and 5th Armored Bde., First Army Division West.
The team win earned 5th BCT 50 points in the Commander's Cup standings, while 11th ADA Bde. notched 25 points and WBAMC scored 15 points for their third-place finish. The 5th BCT win solidified third place in overall Commander's Cup standings with 290 points and put them within striking distance of second-place 3rd BCT, who has 330 Commander's Cup points as of Monday. Air defenders from 11th ADA Bde. are tops in the Commander's Cup standings with an eye-popping 690 points. All units represented received an automatic 10 Commander's Cup points for their participation in the championship.
Joe Fedak, Bliss FMWR's sports director and organizer of the championship, said the turnout was light this year due to the current manning tempo at Bliss.
"We only had three full teams come out," said Fedak. "We had more units represented but it took five scores per team, per day, to compete in the team standings. The big problem was 4-1 isn't fully back yet, 3-1 is deployed and 2-1 is just standing up. I'm figuring next year we should have a huge one."
Regardless of the number of golfers, Fedak said the weekend was a winner because win or lose, Soldiers came out and enjoyed themselves.
"It's all been a success," said Fedak. "My objective is to get people out here and participate, but competition is a huge thing for these guys, and God bless them, it needs to be for the business they're in."
Though the golf season has come to a close, the FMWR intramural sports season rolls on as there are three more championships slated for August. For more details, visit www.blissmwr.com/intramurals.
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