Matt Cordell & Bryant Lach win Champions Cup Invitational

HOUSTON, TX (April 30, 2017) - The Houston team of Bryant Lach and Matt Cordell captured the 50th Champions Cup Invitational in a dramatic sudden death playoff by making a birdie three on the first playoff hole on Sunday at Champions Golf Club. After overcoming a three-shot deficit on the first five holes during Sunday's final round, the match was head-to-head duel against third round leaders Derek Busby and John Talley over the final thirteen holes. Lach and Cordell shot a final round 4-under-par score 67, giving them a 72-hole total of 15-under-par 267 over the challenging par-72 Cypress Creek championship layout to earn their spot into the playoff. Busby and Talley, the strong Louisiana team from St. Martinsville and Ruston, LA, birdied the final hole in regulation to shoot a 1-under par 71 and force the playoff. In the playoff Busby and Talley first had a chance convert a birdie but after they missed it set the stage for Cordell to deliver the winning eight-foot birdie putt. The final round, which was played in cold blustery and swirling northwest winds at 15-20 MPH throughout the round, continued to create havoc for the field, challenging all teams to rely on their short games and putting to survive the windy conditions. In third place at 270, 14-under-par, was the former champion team of Houstonian Kyle Maxwell and from Illinois, Derek Meinhart. Maxwell and Meinhart had a 12-foot birdie putt on the final regulation hole to join in the playoff, but the putt spun out of the hole and the team finished third. Fifty-Six two-man mid-amateur teams, from 18 states, Japan and Scotland competed in the 2016 event. The field was loaded with top amateur golfing talent that included over 400 appearances by the competitors in various USGA national championships. Average handicaps of the 112 players is +2.9 strokes per round. Editors Note: Story via George Adams of Champions Golf Club