Malcolm Butler
merely the cart path.
The three words that every Sunday afternoon golfer fears the most.
Combining it with water on 16 holes is possibly the only thing that is more concerning.
At the 24th annual Robert Trent Jones Shootout, which took place at Hampton Cove in Huntsville, Alabama, those were just a few of the challenges our diverse crew had to overcome.
Since 1999, our group—the majority of whom are from north Louisiana—has been going to Alabama each summer in an effort to control the game of golf. We have so far won in so many other areas, but we have failed badly at that.
We have established a yearly pilgrimage that has grown beyond a mere round of mediocre golf and is something that we all look forward to. For a group of friends who have a lot more grey in their beards and on their heads (those who still have hair) than we did when this custom first started, it has turned into a way to bond.
The RTJ Shootout, a competition where we compete for a small amount of money and a lot of bragging rights—oh, and our traveling trophy known as Clinchy—did not start until year four, despite the fact that this was the 27th consecutive year of our journey.
This year, one trend persisted: our reigning champion did not win again.
Brandon After Sunday’s fourth and last round, the Falcon Norris had to give Clinchy up. The Charter Membership Committee (CMC) punished the reigning champion by drastically reducing their handicap the following year, resulting in nearly a quarter of a century without a repeat champion. It has been successful.
For four days, yours truly played awful golf. The past two RTJ Shootouts have seen me whack more balls in the water and miss more three-foot putts than one person should have to endure, two years after I won my second title in 2023.
Let’s go!
Others this year, though, played some really decent golf.
On the last day of Sunday, Ben Haddox, Scott Walker, and Chris Weego engaged in a final-minute struggle in the championship flight. The River Course’s closing hole, a 365-yard par-4 with water flowing down the whole left side of the fairway, was the deciding factor, as any excellent tournament should be.
Scott, Ben, and Chris stood on the tee box on No. 18, separated by only a few shots, while the other three groups were already finished and relaxing in the clubhouse after the trip’s hottest day.
Ben’s opportunity to win his second title—the first one occurred at the same venue in 2018—was ruined when his tee shot hit the water. There were only two left.
With his ball on the green, Scott was ahead by one stroke. Weego’s approach ball had missed the fringe, but he quickly placed all the pressure on Scott by rolling in a 30-foot putt for birdie, his fourth of the day and ninth of the week.
Remember, we’ve never had a tie. Furthermore, our tiebreaker isn’t the optimal format; in fact, we might need to consider revising it after this year. If it came down to it, the better round on Sunday would win a tiebreaker.
Scott would therefore have to sink his last putt. Scott would subsequently quip that he might not have sunk the putt so calmly if he had known it would determine whether he won or lost his fourth title. However, he did.
With only three strokes separating the top three golfers in the 2025 RTJ Shootout, Scott won the tournament by one stroke over Chris in the final standings.
We may not play PGA-caliber golf and we might never be mistaken for pros, but every year we go to Bama with the same goal in mind: win Clinchy.
And there’s always next year for everyone but Scott.
