With a handful of past Topeka Golf Association champions in the hunt for the City Two-Man Best Ball/Scramble title on Sunday, a couple new faces stepped up and joined the ranks of city TGA champions.
Tyler Baumchen, who is 20, and Bryan Tyrell, who is 19, fired a final-round 60 on a soggy Lake Shawnee Golf Course on Sunday to pull out a one-shot win for the Two-Man title. Their two-day total of 123 edged out a pair of veteran twosomes as the team of Phil Frost – this year's City Match and Stroke Play champion – and Jay Summers and the tandem of former TGA city champion Mac McFarland and Jeremiah Nelson each finished at 124.
Baumchen and Tyrell opened with a 63 during Saturday's best-ball format, matching Frost and Summers. Both, however, trailed the team of Megan Deiter and JB Cunningham, who posted a 62 best-ball score.
But when Deiter and Cunningham slipped to a 66 in Sunday's scramble format, it opened the door and the top-three teams took advantage. After a 90-minute rain delay to start Sunday's play, Baumchen and Tyrell got hot early and stayed that way throughout, shooting a 60.
Frost and Summers had a chance to force a playoff for the title, but bogeyed the final hole to finish a stroke back, winning a tiebreaker over McFarland and Nelson, who matched the 60 shot by Baumchen and Tyrell.
Deiter and Cunningham finished fourth with a 128 total, tied with Troy Simoneau and Braden Dimick who had matching 64s.
The low round Sunday came from the team of Adam Head and Drew Judd, who fired a 59 to win the first flight with a two-day total of 125, three shots ahead of Andrew Burdett and Tagan Rodriguez.
Gavin Wilhelm and Turner Depperschmidt won the second flight with a 131, beating Brady Sisk and Jake Bervert in a scorecard playoff. Eddie Shirron and Jack Huey won the third flight with a 134, Matt Kreutzer and Boshner Whitaker won the fourth flight with a 144 and John and Aron Waldo won the fifth flight with a 151.
While Frost came up short of winning his third straight TGA event title of the summer, he did wrap up the Player of the Year honors for 2025.
After capturing the first TGA City Match Play title of his career in June, Phil Frost hoped it gave him some momentum "to have a little better showing in the Stroke Play than I have the last couple of years."
That it did.
Trailing Jeremiah Nelson by two shots going into Monday's final round at Topeka Country Club – despite posting under-par rounds of 69 and 68 in the opening rounds at Lake Shawnee and Cypress Ridge – Frost was able to put together a 4-over 76 to edge Nelson by one stroke after Nelson shot a 79 in the final round.
"Our group struggled all day," Frost said. "I was just able to hold on to get the one-shot victory."
While Monday's round was a grind for both Frost and Nelson, Frost did get a pretty big pick-me-up early. He already had made up his deficit with Nelson when he parred the first two holes while Nelson made bogey. Still tied going into No. 7, Frost holed out from 117 yards for an eagle while Nelson made bogey for a three-shot swing that gave Frost some breathing room.
He finished the front nine at a 1-over 36 after making double bogey on No. 9, but held a one-shot lead on Nelson, who got back two strokes with a par on No. 9.
Frost restored a two-shot lead with a par on No. 10, but Nelson got it back to one when Frost bogeyed No. 13. Both bogeyed Nos. 14 and 15 but a bogey by Nelson on 16 put Frost back up two, but he gave it right back with a bogey on No. 17. When both parred 18, Frost had his second straight city title. Frost finished with a 76 for a three-day total of 213, while Nelson carded a 79 and finished at 214.
Hayden Beck, Adam Head and Brian Walker each finished tied for fourth with 216s. The low round of Monday came from Tyler Baumchen who shot a 2-under 69 to put him seventh with a 218 total, tied with Blake Buessing and Jason Buessing.
Since ending a nearly 25-year layoff from competing in Topeka Golf Association events in 2022, Phil Frost had met with moderate success in the handful of tournaments he'd competed in. But nothing to fully satisfy where he felt his game needed to be.
"Playing in the TGA events the past couple of years, I was disappointed in my performance," said Frost. "I felt going into this year, I was going to do some practicing and try to shoot the scores I used to shoot."
Frost capped his run with a 4&3 win over Patrick Golden in Sunday's championship match at Cypress Ridge Golf Course, using a surge on the back nine to pull away from Golden, who also was playing in his first Match Play championship match.
Frost set the tone for his run in the Match Play by earning the No. 1 seed, shooting a 70 in the June 14 qualifying round at Shawnee Country Club. After getting a first-round bye, he survived what turned out to be his toughest match of the week in the second round, pulling out a 1-up win over Norvin Daniel. From there, Frost was all but dominant — a 5&4 win over Justin Reamer in the quarterfinals and a 3&1 win over Hayden Beck in the semifinals set up the finals showdown with Golden.
In Sunday's title match, Frost grabbed an early lead with a birdie on No. 2 and pushed it to a 2-up lead on No. 5 before Golden fought back and got things to all square on No. 8. Frost won No. 9, then birdied No. 11 and won the par-5 Nos. 13 and 14 to go 4-up. Matching pars on No. 15 ended the match.
Jerry Kruger defeated Kevin Boyle 3 and 2 to win the President's flight.