SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Two-player teams dueled in the desert to earn a PGA Team Golf Championship title last weekend at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The 2024 PGA Team Golf Championship saw two-player teams of adult amateurs competing in two separate formats: Best Ball and Scramble. Teams competed Saturday, Sept. 7, and Sunday, Sept. 8, in their respective format on Grayhawk Golf Club’s picturesque Talon and Raptor Courses.
James Cataldo, of Sterling, Massachusetts, and Anthony Carra of North Grafton, Massachusetts, won the Overall Best Ball competition with a 4-under-par performance, shooting rounds of 71 and 69. No strangers to the national stage, the pair were part of a runner-up team at the 2023 PGA Team Golf Championship at Mid Pines and Pine Needles in North Carolina.
“Chemistry between partners is the whole ball game,” said Cataldo. “When you can trust your partner to be there for you or to make a difficult shot, it makes you play better.”
In the Scramble competition, Nick Braydich and Aunders Erickson and Brady Heidemann and Will Efkeman forced a playoff after finishing 15-under par. Following a one-hole playoff that ended tied with pars, the teams went to a closest-to-the-hole contest from the back tee of Hole No. 10 and over the water to the 18th green. Cincinnati-based Heidemann and Efkeman won with a distance of 11’1″ from the hole.
“The best part of this weekend was going out there and having fun with my best friend I grew up playing golf with,” said Heidemann.
“This is our second year in this tournament, and we had another fantastic venue in Grayhawk… We had a blast,” added Efkeman.
The Championship kicked off Friday, Sept. 6, with an optional 18-hole gross Stableford event at Troon North Golf Club’s Monument Course, which was captured by Chad Redfearn.