2023 Amelia Island “BIG Champion of the Year Ryan Marshall”

For the first time in BIG history the gang took the show south to the state of Florida. The 2023 BIG was held on beautiful Amelia Island near Jacksonville. Several players came out in round 1 on the player friendly Amelia River Club with game a’blazin as Ryan Marshall (+8) and Tony Vaughn (+7) parlayed the ability to drive the ball long and accurately into over powering the course with their solid first round scores. They were followed closely by Woody Matthews (+5) Darrell Vaughn (+4) and William Hackett (+4).

Day 2 saw the championship caliber Oak Marsh course tighten up the free wheeling long ball hitters, placing a premium on accuracy. First round leader Ryan held it together well with another stellar round as he and Cuz O’Meara (no relation to Mark) were the ONLY players to manage plus points (+1) on the day. Two other players (Stephen Cranford and Darrell) managed EVEN point scores while the other 16 players all posted negative numbers.

Day 3 saw the tournament shift back to the beautiful Amelia River course where slow play seemed to be an issue along with challenging weather. In the feature group, Ryan started the day with a 5 point lead over Darrell, 6 points over Woody and held a commanding 7 point lead over William. Darrell posted a solid +2 final round to finish in a +6 tie with the hard charging Bob Chance, who recorded the day’s low round with an incredible +7 performance. Woody finished another shot back but the attention turned to the charge that William was putting on down the stretch in an effort to try to steal the Stogey from Ryan’s grasp. Having inched to within a single point heading to the short but wicked Par 5 18th, Hackett applied the pressure by getting on the green in 3 strokes. Ryan mustered up a masterful chip of his own to also lie 3 on the postage stamp green. Both players missed long range title clinching birdie putts and Ryan was able to tap in his short par putt to tie William on the hole and win the BIG Stogey by a single point.

The hardware trophy haul didn’t end there for the BIG Champ as (like Larry in 2020) Ryan was also selected by prior year honoree (Tony Locascio) to be a most deserving recipient of the 2023 Spirit of the BIG – Griffin Cup. Congrats young Marshall, both honors well deserved indeed!

The battle for the $1 toilet trophy came down to a final hole battle between Fred Evans and the prior year’s BIG champ Chris Graham but a bogey by Chris on the tough 18th was enough to secure the toilet bowl for our boy Fred, and to his delight, a one-dollar bill payout!

Although it was another rare year where there weren’t any Newbies, the BIG was graced with the return of one of it’s founding members, Mike “CUZ” O’Meara. We were going to make him wear the pink teddy since it had been over 7 dang years (2015) since his last BIG, but Mike was much too eager to want to wear it so the BIG F&EA fashion wear committee thought a just punishment for his long absence was to deny his request. So with that, you didn’t wear it well but… Welcome back, Cccccuzzzzz just the same! Joining Cuz at the 2023 Event were Larry, BobC, Lefty Crandford, Scotty, Freddy, Chris, Pauly, William, Bates, KK, Mitch, TonyLo, BobbyM, Rickster, BrianS, Woody, Darrell, TonyV and the champ, Ryan Marshall.