The Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Senior 27-Hole
Challenge, which was contested Thursday at Brookside Country Club in Pottstown
is almost like three separate nine-hole events, each a little more difficult
than the last.
You start with nine holes of better-ball, not too tough for
two solid players. Then it’s select drive/alternate shot. A little tougher,
because it’s going to come down to one ball eventually. The final nine is the
extra mile with each player’s aggregate total added together for one score.
And it was there, in that final nine, when Thomas Alestock
and Robert Walters of Running Deer Golf Club were at their best, pulling away
from the competition with a 1-under-par 71 aggregate total on the front nine of
the 6,201-yard, par-72 Brookside layout.
“It’s cool, it’s better than not winning,” the 66-year-old
Walters told the GAP website. “These are always fun events. The GAP does a
really good job running tournaments. It’s first-class.”
Alestock and Walters first met as clubmates at DuPont
Country Club five years ago. The 58-year-old Alestock is an environmental
technician who works for Walters’ son.
Alestock and Walters posted a solid better-ball total of
1-under 35 and added a 1-over 37 in the select drive/alternate shot second nine, but it was that
final-nine of 71 that gave them a 1-under 143 total and separated them from the
field.
Bob Buck of Lehigh Country Club and Bert Kosup of The Ridge
at Back Brook, the defending champions, were right with Alestock and Walters
with a pair of 36s on the first two nines, but their final-nine 73 left them
two shots behind the winners at 145.
On that final nine, Alestock followed up a double bogey at
the third with a birdie at four as he drilled a 7-iron shot to 15 feet and
converted the left-to-right breaker.
Walters finished strong, bombing a 4-wood 205 yards just six
feet away in two on the par-5 sixth hole and draining the eagle putt and then
knocking a gap wedge 15 feet away on his approach to the par-4 ninth and making
the birdie putt.
Three teams finished tied for third at 147, including the
Yardley Country Club pair of Gregory Buliga and Paul Dansbury (35-35-77), the
Applebrook Golf Club duo of Gary Daniels and Charles Dowds III (35-35-77) and
Gary Smith of Pine Valley Golf Club and Robert Wurtz Jr. of Philadelphia
Cricket Club (35-36-76).
The Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association pair of Robert
Amen and Michael Quinn went 35, 38 and 76 to finish alone in sixth at 149.
The Aronimink Golf Club tandem of Joseph Lewis and
Christopher Moresco (35-38-79) finished seventh at 152 and Jim Franzoni and
Bill Lydick of Huntsville Golf Club (34-37-82) took eighth, a shot behind Lewis
and Moresco at 153.
In the Super-Senior division, Spring-Ford Country Club’s
Steve Tagert thought he was set for the 27-Hole Challenge with partner Don
Donatoni, GAP’s reigning four-time Super-Senior Player of the Year. And then
Donatoni went and qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur, which tees off
Saturday at The Minikahde Club in Minneapolis, Minn. At 69, Donatoni is one of the oldest
competitors in the field.
So Tagert reached out to another of Donatoni’s partners in
crime, Merion Golf Club’s Carl Everett, who most recently teamed with Donatoni
to capture the Super-Senior division in GAP’s Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play
earlier this month at Laurel Creek Country Club.
Tagert and Everett posted solid first two nines of 35 and 35
and finished off the day with a 3-over 75 for a 145 total that gave them a
three-shot victory in the Super-Senior division.
Buck Jones of Philadelpha Publinks and Michael Nilon of Philadelphia
Country Club had the best final nine in the division, a 1-over 73, after going
38, 37 in the first two nines to take runnerup honors at 148.
The Wilmington Country Club pair of Thomas Humphrey and
Charles McDowell finished alone in third with nines of 35, 35 and 80 for a 150
total.
Four teams finished tied for fourth at 153, including the
Chester Valley Golf Club pair of Ed Chylinski and Michael Civitello (36-36-81),
John Gonsior of Limekiln Golf Club and Eugene Maginnis Jr. of Whitemarsh Valley
Country Club (38-38-77), Dave Jacobson of Medford Village Country Club and Jon
Mabry of the Moorestown Field Club (37-37-79) and Bob Majczan of Lookaway Golf
Club and James Prendergast of Bellewood Country Club (36-36-81).
The Rolling Green Golf Club duo of Edward Pappas and Robert
Zakian finished alone in eighth with nines of 38, 38 and 79 for a 155 total.
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