Written by Shane René, P.J. Boatwright Media and Communications Intern

The 2023 IGA Match Play Championship came to close Friday afternoon, ending with the kind of drama we’ve all come to expect from golf’s original format. Jerome Country Club played firmer and faster as the week went on, ramping up the difficulty as the field whittled its way down from 70 players to six.

With six divisions — four of them competing over the course of 72 holes — the 2023 champions run the gamut from familiar faces to rising stars in the Idaho golf scene. IGA board member Karen Darrington and Fran Matthias returned to the IGA winners’ circle, while junior stand-outs Caroline Caven and Derek Lekkerkerk took home their first non-junior titles.

MEN’S DIVISION:

The final match in the men’s division featured two of the top junior players in Idaho, both of whom made quick work of the fields in front of them.

Trevor Garus, a capital high senior and UCLA commit, took on the title of the No. 1 seed and brought the game to back it up. In his four matches, he played beyond the 16th hole just once, with margins of 5 & 4 and 8 & 7 in his first two matches.

Storming out of the other side of the bracket, the No. 11 seed Derek Lekkerkerk might have been a surprise addition to the championship match if you’d never seen him play. Lekkerkerk moved seamlessly through quality competition in each round before meeting his toughest test in the championship match.

Lekkerkerk hugs friends after winning his final match.

“I’ve known Trevor for quite a while,” Lekkerkerk said. “[My thought process] was the same it’s been for the last couple of days. I kept saying to myself: ‘Process oriented, neutral to positive.”

Lekkerkerk had his back against the wall as the championship match, which had been close all day, moved into the final three holes. One down with three to play, the soon-to-be Colorado State freshman made birdie on the par-5 16th to square the match, before pars on 17 forced the match on to 18.

Lekkerkerk found the fairway, and hit a quality approach to 20-feet right of a tucked-left hole location. Garus, finding trouble right off the tee, advanced his second shot just short of the green and chipped it up to inside of 10 feet. But Garus wouldn’t need to hit the putt as Lekkerkerk rolled it in for birdie to win the championship on a green surrounded by friends and family.

“I love [match play],” Lekkerkerk said. “I feel like it’s a lot more of a battle and it brings out that competitive side. In stroke play events, the last day is what kinda feels like match play when it’s just you and the other guy. But you kinda get that last-day Sunday high every match and I love that part of it.”

WOMEN’S DIVISION:

In the Women’s Division, Caroline Caven introduced herself to the field and let everyone know she was here to stay.

Caven, a junior player out of Cole Valley Christian, showed up on Wednesday morning excited to play in her first ever non-junior IGA event and cruised through her opening match with a 4 & 2 victory.

“I was excited to be out here playing with some older women and just seeing how they play different and seeing the strategy behind match play,” Caven said.

In her semifinal match, Caven ran into a tough test against No. 1 seed Christine Cho from Northwest Nazarene University. Caven found herself 3 down through the front nine but hung around to force the match to the 18th hole where she would advance to the championship.

“That back nine was one of the best rounds I’ve ever played,” she said.

While trying to close out her final match, Caven found trouble on the par-5 16th and was forced to take an unplayable. After the drop, she knocked her 4th shot from about 70 yards onto the green, where she would use two putts to tie the hole and close the match.

“I was really proud of that shot afterwards because I was kinda like: ‘okay, I can still tie the hole, I’m still in this, I’m good,” she said.

SENIOR WOMEN’S DIVISION:

If you see her name in the field, she usually has a good chance of winning. And once again, Karen Darrington showed her competitors why she’s the one to beat in what was a comfortable setting at the 2023 IGA Match Play.

“This is kind of like home to me,” Darrington said. “I grew up in Twin Falls and my brother lives here and he likes to caddie for me. We had a great time together... I always look forward to that relationship.”

But Darrington’s victory this week was a far cry from a cake walk. After a comfortable 3 & 2 victory in the opening round, No. 4 seed Abby Black took her to extra holes. Darrington was finally able to close the match on the 22nd hole.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match and Abby is one of my best friends,” Darrington said. “I could have finished it off on like the 16th hole and it just kept going.”

In the championship match, Darrington faced Marylin Celano, who had managed to win her first two matches in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion on the 18th hole. But Darrington proved to be too consistent on what she says was one of her best ball striking days of the week. She closed the match on the 15th green, winning 4 & 3.

“We had a great field; it was really tough. You can’t look past any match. I just tried to look at one match at a time because you can’t move on if you don’t win each match... I like match play, so I’m just thrilled to win it.”

MEN’S MASTER-40 DIVISION:

Jason Clifford says he’s not going to let match play change the way he plays his own game, and his game proved good enough to beat a strong Master-40 division at the 2023 IGA Match Play Championship.

Clifford, the No. 4 seed coming into the week, sailed through the first round, with a 4 & 3 victory, but he was forced to battle from there. He lost his momentum late in his second-round match against Ryan Hansen, dropping the last two holes to find himself in a playoff, where he closed the match on the 1st hole.

“That match was tough,” Clifford said, “Ryan played really well.

Clifford says he focused on simply keeping the ball in play and forcing his opponents to make birdies. That formula worked well in the championship match against Brian Riff, where he took an early lead and never gave it back, locking up his match play title with a birdie on the 16th hole.

MEN’S SENIOR DIVISION:

In a stacked men’s senior division, 2014 Senior Amateur champion Jay Sutton came out of the No. 4 seed to take down No. 1 seed Darren Kuhn in the championship match.

“If you look at the senior group we had here, anybody could have won this thing,” Sutton said. “I’ve got a lot of good friends here... and they are all great players.”

Sutton snuck through his first two matches on thin margins, winning 2 up and 1 up, respectively, taking down 2019 Senior Amateur champion Scott Vermeer in the quarterfinals.

In the championship match, neither Sutton or Kuhn were able to get more than 1 up at any given time, trading blows the whole way. Kuhn, sitting one down on the 18th tee, made birdie to force the match into extra holes, where Sutton would end the match and clinch his title.

“It was a great match,” he said. “It was up and down all day.”

Sutton says the secret to his week was his ability to get the ball up and down, which he did at a 77% clip. He credits an old friend and short-game master, Joe Stump, for helping him sharpen up his game around the greens.

“That makes a big difference,” Sutton said. “When you start missing greens a little bit, if you can get it up-and-down, you’re really going to go somewhere.”

MEN’S SUPER-SENIOR DIVISION:

Another familiar winner, Fran Matthias, breezed through the Men’s Super-Senior division, needing no more than 14 holes to close either of his matches.

The six-man field was the only division to play a seeding round of stroke play on Wednesday, where a cool, calm and collected 73 bought Matthias the No.1 seed and Thursday morning bye. He says avoiding a match on Thursday morning was important to help him feel fresh for his final two matches.

His championship match squared him off against a familiar face in Bob Lutz, who has multiple IGA titles to his name.

“It was fun to see Bob Lutz come through, he’s a close friend of mine,” Matthias said. “Bob said he got a good night's sleep and he’s still a great golfer for somebody in their 80s — the guy can flat-out play.”

Matthias says the championship match turned on the 10th hole where he knocked his second shot close to go 3 up. He rode that momentum through the 14th hole, where the match ended with a pair of pars.

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