It was hovering around 60 when they reached the tee box. After a late season charge that allowed him to come back to win the regular season,Michael Lazarchick was not comfortable. There was a cool breeze and he was a warm weather lover. Both John Larson and Dave Kissinger were feeling a slightly uneasy, Competition Anxiety. The favorite, Marc Bohan was focused,  in competition mode. Everybody hit the fairway but Lazarchick with his second shot  ricocheted off the goal post trees he had successfully navigated all season, into the woods.  John and Marc sunk par gaining strokes on Dave and Michael.

Marc took the second hole sending a dart towards the cup for an eventual tap in Birdie. Michael took the third with short play that yielded a Bogey. The fourth hole proved tricky to putt. Mark saved bogey, Dave doubled, John suffered to triple and LZ labored to a 9. On the par three Marc and John made the putt, Michael and Dave did not. On the par 5 Monster, both Dave and Marc struggled and found the water on the right side, while John needed to take an unplayable lie in the woods on the left. LZ blasted a shot down the middle and followed with his two wood, which rolled through the fairway under the rope into the rough. Feeling like he had to make up for all the strokes he had yielded thus far, he foolishly wound up hitting  behind his four plus wood into the water, rather than use an easy six iron to get in front of the green for a nice up and down. John finished the hole with a double a stroke better than Michael  Both Dave and Marc carded a 9. At the turn no one was happy with their score. Marc had shaved off 4 strokes from John, 6 strokes from Dave and was leading Lazarchick with a gross 43. LZ had managed to hit a season long high using 55 strokes to navigate the front, clearly showing fatigue and inability to maintain focus.

The back was two different matches. Lazarchick was 6 strokes behind Dave head to head, and giving him another 4 strokes, but Dave was still nursing a bad shoulder. They battled and Dave faltered more, letting in Michael for a tie on the last hole. John was 4 strokes up on Marc at the turn with handicap. By the thirteenth hole it was a one stroke difference. Marc dropped a beautiful putt while John struggle to a triple bogey. Once again, fans were feeling the tension as two of the best were fighting for the title. John sunk a saving long putt on the fourteenth while Marc missed a put that looked like it was going to drop. As has often been the case,  the Par 5 seventeenth hole proved to be the winner. Marc uncharacteristically missed a fairway swing, but still saved a par. John was pristine. He sunk a 12 foot Birdie Putt and that was just enough to retain his title. John Larson beat the best the league had to offer  to become the 2025 Champion. 

In the Two Person Scrambles, Jim Cummings and Phil Stocker took first place money. Wayne Flemming and Joe Champion tied with Bill Finger and Keith MacGregor for second place money.   

In the Polish American Tavern a rumor was spreading that Michael Lazarchick was undergoing testing for possible metastasized Prostate Cancer. Stanislaw saw an early copy of the newest additions to Michael’s Wellness Journey Story, what would be in print at the bottom of his Blog, dated March and April 2026. https://www.yananow.org/display_story.php?id=1287