VILLAGE OF LOCH LLOYD, MO -- The 2017 MCA Gold Championship set up similar to the 2016 edition. Steve Jackson entered with a lead in the overall race in both years. While 2016 ended on a sour note, Jackson left no doubt in 2017 as he capped his 15-1 season with a pair of wins to claim his first Gold Series Championship and third straight Gold tournament title.
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Roughly one year ago, Jackson came into the MCA Gold Championship with a 9-5 record and five-point lead over Jodi Adams. Jackson was knocked out in round one 13-12 by S. Jason Cole and had to watch as Adams advanced to take both the Gold Championship and Gold Series title.
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Gold Finalists Griffith and JacksonThis year, things started off with a bad omen as two players dropped from Gold on the day of the event (a last minute drop also occurred in 2016). That left a seven-player bracket after Di Berg accepted one of the spots as the next player in. Unfortunately, that left Jackson with a bye in round one. So going from a cold start, he got to face off against his wife Wanda who advanced with a 10-8 win over Cade Millican.
It was a tight battle that seemed to echo his first rounder from 2016. Steve played tense and didn't really ever assert control until the latter stages of the game. But he ground it out and came away with an 11-9 win to advance to the final.
There he faced off against Ellie Griffith who had just knocked off the main challenger in the Gold Series race Justin Marciniak with a 17-16 win. Assuming that points would be awarded for his first round bye, that effectively clinched the Gold Series title for Jackson.
Still, there was a Gold Shield to fight for and this time around Jackson got a rhythm going and effectively kept Griffith at arm's length and secured a 23-12 victory to claim his first MCA Gold Championship.
When the dust settled Jackon's big year ended with a 15-1 overall record, a 12-game win streak and an unprecedented three-straight Gold tournament wins. He was awarded 17 points for the round one bye/forfeit to finish with 274 points on the season. Jackson now has a record five Gold Division tournament titles surpassing Jason Johnson and Deborah Millican's shared record of three Gold tournament titles. The question now is will he back to defend ... or is he off to take on the Pro Division in 2016?
2017 MCA GOLD SERIES FINAL STANDINGS
Player report by Dylan Goodwin