2025 Missouri Open Pro Final Offers Thrilling Finish

/

PRO FInaliSTS GREG CLOUSE AND DYLAN GOODWIN

The 2025 Missouri Open, held in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, brought together 15 competitors for an exciting Saturday of nine wickeet croquet action. The tournament featured two divisions: the Pro/Gold division, with 10 players split into two blocks of five, and the Silver division, which hosted five players.

In the Pro/Gold division, the top two finishers from each block advanced to the Pro playoff, while the third and fourth place finishers moved on to the Gold division playoff. Ron Millican rolled to a 4-0 record in Block A to claim the top spot, while there was a tie for second place with Steve Jackson and Matt Griffith both having 2-2 records. Jackson had the head-to-head win in block to break the tie for second place. There was a delay and discussion about the MCA event tiebreaker process as the event announcement didn’t include the tiebreaker rules. That was an error on the part of the event director and the information will be posted in the future.

Block B was more straight forward with Dylan Goodwin posting 4-0 record and Greg Clouse going 3-1 for second place.

Despite a number of long hoops and impressive hit-ins by Jackson, Goodwin was able to manage his semifinal against Steve Jackson to get a 20-10 win. Clouse squared off against Millican and also nothed a 20-10 win to set up a rematch of the last year’s pro final between Goodwin and Clouse.

Bidding to become the first repeat winner of the event, Goodwin saw a much tighter contest after pegging out for the win in 2024. He wasn’t able to capitalize on an early out-game advantage and actually put himself in jail early with partner deadness with balls for H2 and H4. Clouse capitalized and worked his ball out through the doubles to the second half of the court and eventually through H14.

Goodwin scrapped to stay alive and using the deadness clearing got both balls alive and managed a couple of fortunate rushes to get a couple of peels that kept his partner balls alive and together at H5. With Clouse at the south end, Goodwin never really looked to do the full court attack. Still, as time wound down, he mustered a 17-16 lead and ultimately set up a play to destroy Clouse’s blue ball to the south quadrant, leaving red set up for the turn peg with black also nearby. In attempting to place yellow (which was now first-last ball) near the peg for red, the yellow ball hilled off and rested on the stanchion of H7/H9. Clouse took resulting wire from corner three and hit red. From there, he rushed yellow out on court, but that left a 12 yard takeoff to set up for hoop 3. He got it into a hoop attempt position and dutifully scored to tie the game, but that ended his turn. 

Red had a two-yard shot at the turn peg and that was successful and bounced off close enough to black for a manageable roquest on black, which he destroyed. Clouse’s final boundary hit in attempt with black just missed to secure the win 18-17 win for Goodwin.

Gold Division

Based on the issues with the tiebreaker for block play and a withdrawing player, the initial draw for the gold playoff was set up wrong. The draw had to be reset, but once play got underway, Matt Griffith rolled through to claim the top spot in the bracket with two peg-out wins — 32-8 over Deborah Millican and 32-13 in the final against spouse Ellie Griffith. Ellie Griffith made the final by virtue of a 19-0 forfeit win over Greg Adams, who withdrew.

GOLD DIVISION FINALISTS ELLIE AND MATT GRIFFITH

Silver Division Recap

The Silver division featured a five-player round robin, with each participant playing four games. Kansas City Croquet Club’s John Rensenhouse went 4-0 with three pegout finishes to claim the division. The key game in the block was in round three with Rensenhouse getting a 32-17 win over Randy Garrison. Garrison went 3-1 in the event to get second plance. Despite the placing being settled, the final round saw Rensenhouse battle KC Croquet Club teammate Jim Ratzaff in a club rivalry game. Ratzlaff did everything he could to end the win streak for Rensenhouse, but he came up one wicket short as Rensenhouse took the 18-17 win to close out the perfect day.

SILVER MEDALISTS RANDY GARRISON AND JOHN RENSENHOUSE