Letter from the commish
Dear Competitors,
On behalf of the Dewey Masters Welcome Committee, we are honored and excited for your participation in the 3rd annual Dewey Masters Tournament. This packet has all the information needed to ensure you have a fantastic stay and competition experience
Saturday Night + Sunday Morning
Concussion Protocol + Buddy System
After the rounds on Saturday, we'll meet back at the DM3™ Official housing projects to clean ourselves up and get a bit lubed up before heading out for the night. Dinner location TBD.
At conclusion of dinner, we will bar hop and burn the town down. PED's encouraged.
Sunday morning is a free for all - if weather is nice feel free to stick around for brunch and a trip to the beach, or feel free to head back home at your leisure. Liquid IV's available upon request.
Past champions
2023
2023
2023
Steven "The Mastodon" Spector
Scott "Firelad" Spector
2024
2023
2023
Mikey "AIDS" Adams
Josh "ExtraBBQ" Hafkin
2025
2023
2025
Possibly you?!? Probably not though.
a walk through the anals of history
2023
While the Dewey Masters Tournament is young compared to other golf championships, it is already steeped in history. The 2023 Dewey Masters saw incredible ups and downs, culminating in a championship moment that will be remembered forever.
It started at the seeding round. It was a strong showing by all competitors and was highlighted by Steven Spector’s two-club round. This future Dewey Masters champion showed that it's not the quantity of the tools, but the competence of the user that defines success. Little did the competitors know that his unorthodox success at the Par 3 was just foreboding of what was to come.
However, things were not settled at the end of 18 holes. Scott Spector and Josh Hafkin were tied for the top seed and they returned to the first hole to settle their score. On this day, Hafkin prevailed scoring a par to Scott’s bogey.
The final results from the seeding round: 1st. Josh Hafkin 2nd. Scott Spector 3rd. Steven Spector, 4th. Mike Whitman. Little did they know that the results of this 19th hole would change the fates of all competitors forever.
The next day, the sun rose on the Dewey Masters, and each competitor felt as though the day was theirs. The Hafkin-Whitman and Spector-Spector teams made their way to the Salt Pond Golf Course outside Bethany Beach with victory on their minds. Rules were announced, strategies were strategized, and the teams began their rounds. The Hafkin-Whitman team started strong. They played with ease throughout the front nine and slowly built a six-shot lead.
As they rounded the turn, the Spector-Spector team was quiet, but a storm was brewing. In the next couple of holes, Hafkin-Whitman, full of hubris and inexperience in major championships, lost focus and gave up stroke after stroke as the Spector-Spector team quietly pulled themselves back into contention through solid, consistent play from Scott Spector. As the teams reached the 16th hole, the Hafkin-Whitman team was desperately trying to hold on while the Spector-Spector team smelled blood in the water.
On the 16th, Hafkin sent his tee shot into the water, but he saved his mulligan and used this opportunity to salvage the situation. He cleared the water and kept his team alive to continue the fight. However, it was just a momentary reprieve.
Two holes later, the teams stood on the 18th, staring out over an ocean of water (pictured). In the distance, the green and victory awaited. The team of Hafkin-Whitman went first, but their luck had run out and both members put their balls in the water. Then, Steven Spector aimed and let it fly. The ball took off like a falcon and arched into the air, but then started to curve and dropped “Kerplunk” into the blue. He turned around, looking like a man possessed, and said “Mulligan”.
Always the strategic thinker, he had saved his mulligan and now, on 18, with the championship on the line, he played his card. He approached the ball again with the inevitably of Thanos and gave it a mighty “Thwack!” The team of Hafkin-Whitman watched in horror as the ball cleared the vast ocean and landed just off the green, all but sealing their fates. When reminiscing about the moment later via text, Spector remarked “It felt like a lightning bolt missed my tip, then grazed and tickled the base of my shaft…especially being down big through the front 9. Do you believe in miracles?!”
All that was left was to finish out the hole, and after a couple of duffed chips from Hafkin-Whitman, the Spector-Spector team clinched the first-ever Dewey Masters Championship.
It was an incredibly resilient performance on the part of Scott and Steven Spector and their combination of steady play and well-timed strategy proved to be the perfect cocktail for success.
2024
The next chapter in Dewey Masters lore tells the tale of an unlikely duo: Hafkin, fresh off what can only be described as a self-imposed golf boot camp, and Mikey Adams, the man responsible for rounding out our field and making us a “Great Eight”. Yes, the number of competitors had officially swelled to eight, and with it, the stakes grew taller and the drama deeper.
The seeding round at Midway Par 3 was a beauty—if you like your golf with a side of ominous cloud cover and light existential dread. The weather was moody, the clouds were thick, and the overcast skies set a cinematic stage for the opening act of the Dewey Masters.
There were highs, there were lows, but through it all, Hafkin set the tone. Raised on these bumpy greens, the casual chaos of Midway suited his "The Dude Abides" energy perfectly. Hafkin torched the 18-hole par-3 course with a calm swagger and questionable putting stroke, while the rest of the field chomped at his heels. The seeding round shook out as follows:
1. Josh Hafkin
2. JP Perez
3. Scotty Spector
4. Mike Whitman
5. Jake Hafkin
6. Nick Kaufman
7. Steven Spector
8. Mikey Adams
After the dust had settled, the pairings for Saturday were locked:
Josh Hafkin & Michael Adams
Scott Spector & Nick Kaufman
Steven Spector & JP Perez
Mike Whitman & Jake Hafkin
The morning sun rose slowly over Baywood Greens, affectionately and generously known as the “Augusta of Delaware.” The players had earned a few slow hours—coffee, bagels, maybe a brief existential crisis—before heading off to the day’s battlefield. Putts were dialed in, range balls were struck with purpose, and strategies were whispered like state secrets. The chase for Dewey Masters glory was on.
The groupings were poetic—Hafkin-Adams vs. Hafkin-Whitman, and Spector-Kaufman vs. Spector-Perez—dividing bloodlines and alliances like a sporting version of the American Civil War. Brothers were paired against brothers, friends became foes, and the fairways bore witness to it all.
In the opening group, Hafkin-Adams delivered steady, unflashy brilliance. Pars, bogeys, and no disasters—their game plan executed to perfection. A smooth birdie on the par 5 7th pushed them to a solid 41 on the front nine. Right behind them, Whitman-Hafkin kept the pressure on with a tidy 43, no fireworks, but no flames either—just honest, grind-it-out golf.
Over in Group Two, Spector-Kaufman found their rhythm early, carding consistent pars and bogeys to post a very respectable 42. Spector-Perez, despite battling a few double bogeys, hung in tough with a 44, refusing to let the round slip out of reach.
At the turn, all groups were still in the mix:
- Hafkin-Adams - 41
- Spector-Kaufmand - 42
- Whitman-Hafkin - 43
- Spector-Perez - 44
The turn flipped a switch. Intensity spiked, swings loosened, and the course demanded answers.
Spector-Perez stumbled early on the back, surrendering ground with a string of doubles. Whitman-Hafkin responded with a gritty sequence of bogeys, highlighted by Whitman’s all-time sand save—a bunker blast that nestled up to three feet and nearly broke the internet. Spector-Kaufman wavered slightly—par, bogey, double—but remained in striking distance.
And then came the 13th, a par-5 that Hafkin-Adams would make their own. Hafkin, now fully locked in, was launching missiles off the tee. Adams, on a redemption arc after a rough seeding round, came alive, pouring in clutch putts like it was Sunday at Augusta.
The par-5s became their proving ground. Birdie-birdie on the back nine’s longest holes gave them separation, momentum, and just enough cushion to breathe. But then, with the title in reach, Hafkin-Adams blinked—a double bogey on 18 opened the door.
Spector-Kaufman, cool under pressure, closed strong: par, bogey, par. Their rock-solid play down the stretch made it too close for comfort, but in the end, the buffer was just enough.
The birdie blitz on the par-5s had made the difference. Hafkin-Adams held on for a two-stroke victory, etching their names into Dewey Masters history. They had answered the call, stared down the pressure, and walked off as champions—not without scars, but certainly with swagger.
After the round, Adams remarked to the press, “Everyone doubted me and I stuffed it in their fucking faces. Boom shakalaka bitches, yall can suck my nuts from the back!”
Truer words have never been spoken.
It was, by all accounts, an incredible round—a display of resilience, rhythm, and respect for the game. Every team brought something to the table: steady play, clutch recoveries, and moments of magic that reminded us why we show up year after year.
But in the end, the defining factor was Mikey Adams, the underdog, seeded last and written off too soon. With ice in his veins and a putter that turned red-hot, he drained the pressure putts that flipped holes, flipped momentum, and ultimately flipped the leaderboard.
And as the final scores were tallied and the sun dipped behind the Delaware trees, one truth became clear: you don’t win the Dewey Masters on paper—you win it with heart, guts, and a short game that doesn't flinch.
The final scores:
- Hafkin-Adams - 41/41 - 82
- Spector-Kaufman- 42/42 - 84
- Perez-Spector - 44/42 - 86
- Whitman-Hafkin - 43/45 - 88
2024 Competitors
Scott Spector
Steven Spector
Mike Whitman
Josh Hafkin
JP Perez
Nick Kaufman
Jake Hafkin
Mikey Adams
2024 Champions
Mikey Adams and Josh Hafkin