The only problem with battling your best friend for what would be – for either of you – the biggest win of your career, is that somebody has to lose.

On Sunday it was Holyn Handley that was on wrong end of this equation, coming up short of the title and watching her friend Ella Hansen receive her first Elite Series trophy.

Both Hansen and Handley, who won what is probably the most prestigious non-Elite or Major title last year when she took down the 2023 Throw Pink Women’s Championship, got off to an ideal start.

As the FPO lead card prepared to round the corner of hole 18 on Saturday, it looked to all the world like a three-woman race heading into championship Sunday.

Instead, Kat Mertsch hit an early tree -- one of the large majestic oaks that pepper the Swenson Park golf course -- and sent her next shot out of bounds on the way to a deflating triple bogey.

It was an unfortunate turn for a play who had, until that point, produced at such a high level including highlights like an obstructed C2 putt on hole 7 that was off-the-charts in terms of difficulty.