Tuscarora Duo Wins Senior Best-Ball, Young and Van Gorder Capture Super Senior Title

A pair of Tuscarora members captured the 2025 SDGA Senior Best-Ball Championship at Foxfire GC, with Michael Naton and David Smith emerging victorious. They combined for back-to-back 66s to post a 36-hole total of 12-under 132, good for a two-stroke victory. 

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The duo set the tone early on Monday’s opening round, carding a 6-under 66. Naton started the scoring for his team on the front nine with a birdie on two, before turning things over to Smith, who birdied holes eight and nine to carry the momentum on to the inward side. Smith birdied two more holes, 12 and 16 to keep their score moving in the right direction, before Naton ended the round with the team’s last birdie of the day on 18. 

Despite the six-under score for the day, the Tuscarora duo found themselves two shots off the lead, owned by by Jack Weinerth (Drumlins CC) and John Wessels (Highland Park GC), who combined to shoot a 64 that included an eagle from Weinerth on the par-5 eighth hole. 

Though the leaders struggled to score on the front-nine to start their second round. Wessels rolled in the team’s first birdie of the day on the ninth hole. 

On the other hand, Naton and Smith converted four birdies on their first nine of the second round. Two of them coming from Naton on holes four and five, before Smith made it three straight on six. Naton contributed one more red number on the eighth to get his team’s score to ten-under at the top of the leaderboard heading to the back nine. 

With a two-stroke deficit, Weinerth rolled in another birdie on ten to cut it to one. Anthony Villanti and John Migliore of Skenendoa Club, who entered the back-nine as six-under overall, rolled in birdies on 12 and 14 to put themselves into contention as well at eight-under. 

Coming down the final stretch, Weinerth and Wessels would bogey 15 and 16 to ultimately fall out of contention, despite an ace from Weinerth on the par-3 17th that would cancel out the bogeys. In that stretch, Smith would come through with birdies on 16 and 17 to all but seal their championship title, as Villanti and Migliore bogeyed 16, and birdied 17 and 18 to ultimately fall short. 

Migliore and Villanti finished runner-up at ten-under overall, while Weinerth and Wessels took home a third place finish, also at ten-under. 

In the Super Senior Division, Randy Young (Bellevue CC) and Don Van Gorder (RTJGC at Cornell University) won in a three-way playoff after shooting 71-71 across their 36 holes. 

Van Gorder contributed five birdies to his team’s effort. The side entered a playoff with Gregg Bilyeu and Richard Volcko (Beaver Meadows Golf Club) and Donald Christian (Foxfire Golf Course) and Larry Smith (Bellevue CC), where Young and Van Gorder would win on the first hole.