CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLF ASSOCIATION

“He was out and wasn’t able to make it,” Davis, 44, said of his original accomplice. “I asked John if he wanted to take a run at it and he said yes.”

The tandem took more than just a run, advancing all the way to the Championship Match before defeating four-time event champions and No. 1-seed Chadd Slutzky (Deer Park / The Grove CC) and John Ramsey (Glenview / Glenview Park GC), 4 and 3, to claim the title Wednesday at The Mauh-Nah-Tee-See Club in Rockford.

“Brien said he’s been working hard this year and this is kind of validation,” said Ehrgott, 49, following the win. “I haven’t won a CDGA event since 2018. To partner up, to play with Brien is always a blast. He played great, we ham-and-egged it and we got it done. It’s a great feeling.”

In Wednesday morning’s Semifinal match, Ehrgott and Davis took on David Beto (Rockford / Rockford CC) and Jason Wombacher (Byron / PrairieView GC). The teams traded wins on holes No. 1 and 3 before Ehrgott and Davis amassed a 2-up lead with wins on Nos. 5 and 6. They kept the pedal down around the turn, with birdies on the par-5 eighth and par-3 ninth holes before a par win on No. 10 grew the lead to 5 up. Ties the remainder of the way secured the 5-and-4 victory. 

Meanwhile, Ramsey and Slutzky, in search of a challenging threepeat, squared off against the duo of Bradley Rendell(Chicago / North Shore CC) and Brett Tomfohrde (Chicago / Butler National GC) in the morning’s other Semifinal. The back-and-forth match featured no more than a 1-up lead, crescendoing in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th green by Ramsey to force a sudden-death playoff. Another birdie on the third playoff hole by the Ramsey/Slutzky side secured their Championship match appearance. 

Two varying lengths of Semifinal matches meant that Ehrgott and Davis were forced to wait for a longer-than-anticipated period over lunch. Various trips to the range and a reprieve from the mental and physical taxes of a long week were a welcomed byproduct.

“Anytime on a 36-hole day in match play, if you can win early, I think it only benefits you because the mental stress and constant thinking out there, it can wear you down,” Ehrgott, a former Michigan State University Spartan, said. “And going for however many holes they went, it’s tough to do that and then try and reconfigure everything and get back and play another match.”

The afternoon’s title tilt began in uneventful fashion before Ramsey and Slutzky grabbed a 1-up advantage with a birdie on the par-4 fourth hole. Ehrgott and Davis answered with red figures of their own on Nos. 5 and 6 to seize a 1-up lead. The side pointed to confidence in each other’s games as a key to their momentum swing.

“I think it took us a little while to get the rhythm of playing with a partner,” said Davis, a University of Las Vegas-Nevada alumni. “I realized that I just need to trust John and I don't need to worry.”

“If one of us hits a bad shot, most likely the other one is going to hit a good one,” Ehrgott added. “Just to have that trust in your back pocket, it’s immense in a game like golf where confidence is everything.”

That poise showed itself in the form of an Ehrgott birdie on the par-3 11th and a Davis birdie on the par-4 12th. The latter then followed that up with an eagle 3 on the par-5 14th to build the lead to 4-up. A tie on No. 15 secured the victory, one that has seemed to elude Ehrgott, who had finished runner-up in the event’s first two iterations. A four-time CDGA-administered mid-am event winner himself, Ehrgott’s return to the winner’s circle was a welcomed sight.

“It feels great,” Ehrgott said. “Finishing runner up, it’s nice once. It starts to get annoying the second time. It feels great to finally win this.”

As for Davis, the title validated a summer of hard work and time put in. A T-20 finish in the Illinois State Amateur Championship last month was a nice stepping stone, but nothing beats etching your name on a trophy.

“I’ve worked hard this year,” he said. “I’ve never really played as well as I thought I could, until this week.”

The 2024 CDGA Championship schedule will shift gears later this month, as the state’s top mid-ams will converge on Park Ridge Country Club for the 32nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur Championship, Aug. 26-27.