Second Annual Golden Tee Chicago Open Features Largest Purse Ever!
The biggest Golden Tee weekend of the year is always the Live Team USA Qualifier/Chicago Open weekend. And this year was no different.
85 of the country's finest Golden Tee golfers teed it up at Official's Time Out sportsbar in suburban Hoffman Estates, IL over the weekend of October 18-19. Total prize money for the event was $30,000 as Incredible Technologies added $13,375 to the purse after matching the contestant's entry fees. OTO's added $2,000 to the pot, and A.H. Entertainers, the amusement operator for OTO's, added $1,000. Anheuser-Busch contributed $3,000 for a special Michelob Light Closest-to-the-Pin tournament making this the largest purse outside of the Golden Tee Nationals and Worlds.
This year's winner, Chris Eversole of Atlanta, GA, won $7,000 for his masterful efforts. This was Chris' fourth consecutive live tournament win - an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of Golden Tee Golf. It was quite a weekend for Chris as he also qualified for Team USA.
In the finals, Chris beat Jeff Schaefer of Arlington, WA. Coming out of the losers bracket, Jeff was faced with the task of beating Chris two straight games. In game 1 Jeff outlasted Chris by a single stroke, but ran into some early difficulty in game 2 and just couldn't recover. Jeff took home $4,000 for his second-place finish.
Third place went to Steven Tirey of West Carrollton, OH who was cheered on by his new bride, Sarah. Steve is always near the top of each tourney he enters. He won $2,500.
A Houstonian took fourth-place honors and won $1,500. Dayton Root, always a crowd favorite, put it all together this weekend and almost took home the top trophy. In fact in back-to-back games, Dayton beat current three-time national champ, Ryan Bourgeois, and former three-time national champ, Steve Sobe.
Besides finishing second in the Open, Jeff Schaefer took home the $1,000 top prize in the Michelob Light Closest-to-the-Pin contest. Finishing second and winning $500 was Nate Schomberg. Third-place money of $300 went to Jason Jarosz, while Rob Brower took home $200 for fourth. Eight players who all shot holes-in-one during the competition split an additional $1,000.
PICTURED from left to right: Dayton Root, Chris Eversole, Steven Tirey, and Jeff Schaefer.
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