Craig Thomas wins 2024 VGA National Championship in five playoff holes
Urban Meyer stood up in the front row, but on this occasion, the former football coach wasn't the center of attention.
Meyer's red and blue camouflage shirt blended in with a slew of military veterans circling around the 18th green at Grandover Resort to watch the duel between Craig Thomas and mini-tour pro and defending champion Travis Bryant, who were tied for the lead in the ninth Veterans Golfers Association National Championship.
Both Bryant and Thomas would each save par, and Meyer , a supporter of VGA, would leave his spot, but many of the others stayed around the green for over an hour by the time Thomas made a 2-foot putt in the fifth sudden-death playoff hole to capture the Men's A Flight title.
"Unbelievable," Thomas said. "I played with Travis in West Virginia in the regionals, and I honestly thought that everybody here would be playing for second place. He is such a phenomenal player. I'm just happy to be able to keep pace with him for two days."
Thomas' wife's shirt was camo green, but she was one of the spectators who stayed for the long haul as the tournament finish went past the 7 p.m. scheduled champions dinner. After the final putt, she greeted her husband, a former Marine Corps aviation supply clerk stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina, in the early 80s.
"Well, she has seen a lot of bad golf in our marriage, so this was a good one," he said. "I was so grateful that she could be here with me."
Bryant, 27, was the overnight leader of the two-round event by one stroke over Thomas after shooting a 2-over 74 in rainy conditions on Tuesday. After posting the same number, he parred the first four playoff holes, before missing a medium-length par putt from the fringe just slightly left on the fifth playoff hole. The playoff was played on the 18th hole.
"It was a lot of fun," said Bryant, who won the 2023 championship played at Fallen Oak Golf Course in Biloxi, Mississippi. "It is a short course, so I think, with my length, it made the course a lot tighter because I still wanted to hit driver a lot to take advantage of the length.
"The competition was good. It was good practice for me and my golf career. ... It was a good experience, something I can learn from and just do better next time."
Bryant served with the 82nd Airborne Division, was stationed at Fort Liberty, then known as Fort Bragg, and had deployments to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he had played golf his whole life but didn't start playing full-time competitively until about two years ago.
The younger Bryant may have had the prestige, but Thomas, 61, came with experience.
"I know he is good at golf," Bryant said of Thomas. "Before I was even thought of, he was making birdies. He hits fairways, he hits greens and he doesn't three-putt very often, so I knew it was going to be a birdie to win, but it went the other way around. I made bogey."
The VGA was established in 2014 after a group of veterans got together to play golf as a way of improving their games, but also as a way to heal through camaraderie and competition. The national 501©(3) non-profit organization has over 25,000 members and hosts more than 1,300 VGA Tour events across the country in men's, women's, combat wounded, senior and family divisions.
The national championship was first played in 2015 and has been every year since except 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This marked the first time that the event was held in Greensboro and the second time in North Carolina as the inaugural 2015 tournament was held at Pinehurst No. 2. Players in this year's national championship qualified through one of four regional championships, and this year's senior national championship was held in August at Barefoot Resort & Golf in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Josh Peyton, VGA founder, president and CEO, is a Pinehurst native and Army veteran and said choosing Grandover for the 2024 national championships came down to the organization's successful partnership with Wyndham Hotels.
"We couldn't be happier to be supported by the Greensboro community and also the Grandover Resort," Peyton said. "The Grandover hotel has been amazing; the golf course has been amazing. We wish we had some better weather (with rain on Tuesday), obviously, but the Wyndham Championship had some difficult weather scenarios and you push through it, figure out how to adapt and overcome."
The tournament field also included Matt Spang, a three-time national championship participant in the Combat Wounded Flight A division. A lifetime golfer, he first heard about the VGA in 2016 and said playing in the tour's events has helped him with his recovery and mental health.
Spang, a retired E-5 sergeant in the Army, grew up in Wisconsin but was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs from 2007 to 2010. He had both legs amputated after breaking both his legs, feet and ankles after his military truck was hit by an improvised explosive device in December 2011 while deployed in Afghanistan.
After a two-year rehabilitation at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, he moved back to Colorado. Spang, who has two prosthetic legs, said the game has helped heal him.
"Just meeting the people from different states that love to golf and love the military and the camaraderie. ... It is just great to be out here and just be around other veterans," Spang said about the VGA. "The main goal is to get into the western regional and nationals, just meeting old friends and meeting a bunch of new people. I just love traveling and golfing and meeting other veterans."
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