Remembered

Why we play it

Leo Siltanen passed away in 2015, and that year the group started playing the Friendly Finn every Sunday of the Malone Fall Classic in his memory. The 4-man scramble was Leo's favorite way to play a round -- everybody in the same boat, everybody's best shot counts, no one carrying the group and no one getting left behind.

The trophy gets handed out at the end of the day to whichever foursome posts the low score. It's a lighter, no-stakes counterpart to the Monday/Tuesday team battle -- fitting, since "friendly" was the whole point.

Why we give it

Brian McGeachie was one of the original founders of the Malone Fall Classic, running the trip alongside Phil Tomsett since it began in 1996. For more than two decades he was the one keeping everybody moving -- hit a great shot, a terrible one, or anything in between, and you'd hear the same line out of him: “Get in the fuckin' cart.” It wasn't a complaint. It was just Brian.

Brian passed away in 2024 after a short battle with cancer — far too soon for the group, and for the trip he helped build. Starting that year, his catchphrase became an award of its own, handed out each season to the player who best embodies the spirit of Malone.

It's not just a party award. Brian was a genuinely good golfer, sharp in every part of his game, and what made him Brian was doing that while still being the loudest guy pulling for a good time -- win, lose, blow up on a hole, didn't matter. So the award goes to whoever plays well and carries that same spirit: good golf, good attitude, no matter what the round throws at them.