WALWORTH, N.Y. (FLX) — The FLX Tour is no stranger to drama, and Saturday’s final major tournament of the season brought it out in the highest order.

The 2024 FLX Cup, held on The Links at Greystone Saturday, revealed a field of 40 young men, although only 39 competed due to a last-minute scratch for a back injury, and one player (we’ll get to him later), decided halfway through hole 18 that enough was enough.

All told, it was a sensational day of competitive golf, with many of the Tour’s top players showing up and showing out for this singles style tournament. At one of the finest courses in all of Western New York, and a gorgeous autumn morning, the scene was set for the glory to follow.

The first Tour groups arrived at 6:30 a.m. — about 45 minutes ahead of the clubhouse attendant, and an hour before competition was set to begin. Void of pomp and circumstance witnessed at this year’s Comissioner’s Cup and Grand Open, this was all business on the driving range, putting, green, and donut box. Come 7:50 a.m., mercifully, it was show time, and the leadership group kicked things off.

The Tour couldn’t have asked for much better from Mother Nature, as a crisp autumn morning sunrise made way for a beautiful, yet comfortable round of golf.

What the Tour received in weather blessings, it also was dealt curses in the form of pin placements. The dedicated and friendly staff at Greystone left no stone unturned in terms of increasing the difficulty of a course that plays hard on its easiest of days. Compared to the Grand Open earlier this summer at Durand — another difficult course — scores were higher up and down the leaderboard for the Cup.

“We had a feeling this would be the case,” said FLX Tour Co-Commissioner Shane Driffill. “Most of the guys on Tour are familiar with the munis, but the poors and high handicaps were coming into this one blind, for the most part, and the pin placements didn’t make things any easier for them.”

“It’s a stick and a ball, be an athlete,” quippped FLX Tour Head of Content and Rules Czar Joey Mortillaro.

Shane and Joey finished tied for 31st and tied for 22, respectively.

It was a rookie and a newcomer in the form of Lou Englert and Serge Whittleton, who were making noise down the stretch. With Uncle Chris Miers joining the gallery on 18 as the leader in the club house, all the reigning Young Man of the Year could do was sit, wait, and hope for these two FLX freshies to fuck up.

And fuck up they did! It was the last few holes that put Englert and Whittleton from first to third, and it was the blue blood Miers who claimed his first FLX Tour major with a -2 net score on the day.

“We couldn’t be happier with our FLX Cup Champion,” said FLX Tour Co-Commissioner Matt Driffill. “Historically, the singles tournaments skew toward mid-to-high handicap players for winners, but we had a feeling this was going to be a chance for one of our single digit sticks to take home the top prize.”

Show up and show out Miers did indeed. Getting nearly no stroke help from the handicap, he came to play. Once Lou and Serge faltered down the stretch, it was BONESKI, Dan Reisenburger, who vaulted into second place with an even net score on the day. Lou and Serge ultimately tied for third place on the podium with a net score of +1. Dan Graves took home the $100 for closest-to-the-pin on hole 6, leaving his putt just under nine feet away from the cup.

On the other side of the spectrum, it was penthouse to the outhouse for Nathan Wirth. After claiming victory at this year’s Churchville Classic, Wirth was this tournament’s Bell Ringer, rounding out the hardware distribution. Wirth sent the gallery into a frenzy on 18 when he was lining up a shot to go over the water, topped it a few feet in front of him, then proceeded to hit that next shot into the water, then quit the round right then and there. Despite not finishing the hole, or round, he finished a clean 8 strokes behind the 38th place finisher, Kyle Pierce.

“Didn’t have it today,” a dejected but neutral Wirth said afterwards. “Just didn’t have it. No excuses. Gotta be better.”

Uncle Chris took home the FLX Cup, but another big award remains yet to be determined.

In an extraordinary twist of fate, this year’s Young Man of the Year award is currently TIED! Leading the pack all year long, Sean Sawyer posted a subpar round by his standards, and his fall in this major’s leaderboard gave way for rookie Chad Christ to insert himself into the discussion. We couldn’t make this up if we tried, but Christ got exactly the amount of YMOTY points needed to push Sawyer to a tie.

The Young Man of the Year for 2024 will be determined in a head-to-head format in the upcoming weeks. Details for this event will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

It was a magical end to yet another magical season of FLX Tour action, and we can hardly wait to get the needle moving for next year.

But before that, we gotta settle our YMOTY business, and then plan a banquet. I said stay tuned.

2024 FLX Cup results

Rank	Tour Pro	Net Score	YMOTY Points
1	Chris Miers	-2	39
2	Dan Riesenberger	E	38
T3	Lou Englert	1	37
T3	Serge Whittleton	1	37
5	Josh Kowalski	3	35
T6	Chad Christ	4	34
T6	Kevin Moynihan Jr	4	34
T6	Tom Dieure	4	34
T6	Jack Hawes	4	34
T10	Jesse Cramer	5	30
T10	Matt Driffill	5	30
T10	Nick Jordan	5	30
T10	Tim Dorsheimer	5	30
T14	Danny Driffill	6	26
T14	Scott Stedman	6	26
T14	Todd Horne	6	26
T17	Brandon Moynihan	7	23
T17	Chuck Pace	7	23
T17	Dom Trento	7	23
T17	Ryan Pancione	7	23
21	Jon Thorpe	8	19
T22	Gene Ferrera	9	18
T22	Joey Mortillaro	9	18
T22	Josh Valletta	9	18
T22	Mike Mortillaro	9	18
T22	Ryan Wirth	9	18
T27	Ben Annal	10	13
T27	Dan Graves	10	13
T27	Steve Nally	10	13
T27	Sean Sawyer	10	13
T31	Ryan Netchke	11	9
T31	Shane Driffill	11	9
T33	Eric Spanbauer	12	7
T33	Trevor Horne	12	7
35	Botson Siwiec	13	5
36	Evan Santiago	14	4
37	Brier Koroly	15	3
38	Kyle Pierce	18	2
39	Nathan Wirth	26	1

Final 2024 Young Man of the Year rankings

Rank Tour Pro Score
T-1 Chad Christ 100
T-1 Sean Sawyer 100
3 Shane Driffill 97
4 Ryan Netchke 95
5 Tom Dieure 90
6 Dan Riesenberger 89
7 Chris Miers 83
8 Tim Dorsheimer 82
9 Joey Mortillaro 80
10 Danny Driffill 73
11 Brandon Moynihan 71
12 Gene Ferrera 68
13 Kevin Moynihan Jr 67
T-14 Dan Graves 66
T-14 Josh Kowalski 66
T-16 Dom Trento 65
T-16 Mike Mortillaro 65
18 Matt Driffill 62
19 Patrick Moynihan 60
20 Chuck Pace 57
21 Boston Siwiec 56
T-22 Lou Englert 55
T-22 Ryan Pancione 55
T-24 Brendan Milward 54
T-24 Jesse Cramer 54
26 Alex M. Dooley 53
T-27 Nick Hawes 50
T-27 Todd Horne 50
29 Kyle Pierce 48
T-30 Ben Annal 47
T-30 Brier Koroly 47
T-30 Jon Thorpe 47
33 Josh Valletta 42
T-34 Nathan Wirth 37
T-34 Serge Whittleton 37
36 Ryan Wirth 36
T-37 Evan Santiago 34
T-37 Jack Hawes 34
T-37 Scott Stedman 34
40 Steve Nally 31
41 Nick Jordan 30
42 Mykola Prkopneko 28
43 Dan Driffill Sr. 24
44 Eric Spanbauer 17
45 Trevor Horne 7
46 Mike Converse 5