Chester Valley Golf Club’s Ken Silverwood and Matt Hancock thought they had a pretty good idea how to approach the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s quirky Senior 27-Hole Challenge, the 13th edition of which was held last week at Bala Golf Club, just inside City Line Avenue in Philadelphia.
The plan was to make some hay in the better-ball-of-partners foursomes format in the first nine and then hang on during the select-drive/alternate-shot middle nine and aggregate final nine.
Well, Silverwood, a 61-year-old West Chester resident, and Hancock, a 59-year-old from Malvern, got a decent if unspectacular start with a 1-under-par 32 on their first nine. But they surprised themselves a little with a 2-under 33 in the middle nine, each dropping a birdie putt.
And with an aggregate of 9-over 75 in the final nine over the 5,425-yard, par-68 William Flynn design at Bala, the Chester Valley duo captured the title in the intriguing 27-Hole Challenge with a 6-over 140 total.
“I figured we’d have to get a couple under par on the better-ball, which we didn’t, but we made up for it in the alternate-shot,” Hancock told the GAP website. “We played surprisingly well in that format. I think we probably gained four shots or so on the field there. I think it’s safe to say that’s where we won it.”
Silverwood and Hancock were in the first group off Wednesday morning and had to wait all day to see if their 140 total would hold up. Only the Merion Golf Club pair of Carl Everett and J. Kirk Luntey got close and that’s where the solid showing in the middle nine by Silverwood and Hancock was most apparent.
Everett and Luntey actually beat the eventual winners by a shot in the opening foursomes with a 2-under 31. But their 3-over 38 in the select-drive/alternate-shot middle nine left them with a four-shot deficit to make up for in the final aggregate nine.
The 7-over 73 Everett and Luntey put up was better than the 75 posted by Silverwood and Hancock, but by only two shots and the Merion tandem’s 8-over 142 total left them two shots behind the winners.
Commonwealth National Golf Club’s John Alterman and John Nottage closed with a solid 8-over 74 in the aggregate final nine to finish four shots behind Everett and Nottage in third place at 146.
The pair of Steve Kohlbus of Tanglewood Manor Golf Club and Jay Campbell of Bon Air Country Club was another two shots behind Alterman and Nottage in fourth place with a 148 total. Kohlbus and Campbell saved their best for last as they closed with the best aggregate nine of the day, a 5-over 71.
The Lehigh Country Club duo of Mark Fine and Brent Peterson was a shot behind Kohlbus and Campbell in fifth place with a 149 total. Fine and Peterson got off to a solid start with a 1-under 32 in the better-ball foursomes opening nine.
The Honeybrook Golf Club pair of Rick Umani and Chris Terebesi and The 1912 Club tandem of Chuck Caparo and Matthew Mingione shared sixth place, each team landing on 151.
Got a chance to see Umani’s game up close as he was an opponent of the pair I was looping for in our flight of Stonewall’s annual partner-guest – The Bull, as it’s known. The guy can really play. He birdied the first hole we played and was about five inches away from being 3-under after three holes.
Caparo and Mingione closed with a solid 8-over 74 in the aggregate final nine.
Sandy Run Country Club’s David Chenard and Jim Muehlbronner took eighth place with a 153 total and Chris Groves and Peter Krojsa out of Macungie’s Brookside Country Club were ninth with a 155 total.
Rounding out the top 10 were two groups – the St. Davids Golf Club pair of Bill Fagan and Ken Jones and William Christine of LuLu Country Club and Joseph McClatchy of Llanerch Country Club – that finished in a tie for 10th place at 157.
In the Super-Senior Division, Saucon Valley Country Club’s Robin McCool and Great Bear Golf & Country Club’s Craig Scott repeated as the champions with a 139 total.
The 69-year-old McCool, a Center Valley resident, and the 71-year-old Scott, a Marshalls Creek resident, got off to a fast start over a Bala layout that measured 5,082 yards for the 65-and-older set. They teamed up for a 3-under 30 in the better-ball foursomes opening nine and never looked back in repeating their feat of a year ago at Wild Quail Golf & Country Club.
McCool and Scott stumbled a little with a 38 in the select-drive/alternate-shot middle nine, but rebounded with an aggregate 71 on the final nine.
The Springhaven Club’s Rich Thon and Drew Harmer were closing fast at the finish, but McCool buried a five-foot par putt to give the winning team a one-shot edge over Thon and Harmer.
Thon and Harmer closed some ground on McCool and Scott with an even-par 35 in the select-drive/alternate-shot middle nine, but the Springhaven duo’s 72 in the aggregate final nine left them a shot short of McCool and Scott with a 140 total.
It was two more shots back to the Little Mill Country Club tandem of Howard Press and Raymond Pawulich, which finished third at 142 after matching the 72 in the aggregate final nine that McCool and Scott put up.
It was seven shots back to a tie for fourth place as the Sandy Run duo of John Young and John DiMarzio and the French Creek Golf Club pair of Tom DiCinti and Bob Majczan each landed on 149.
Philmont Country Club’s Bruce Berger and Arthur Frankel closed with a solid 71 in the aggregate final nine to finish alone in sixth place with a 152 total. Another team out of French Creek, Andy Donaldson and George Jeitles, finished a shot behind Berger and Frankel in seventh place with a 153 total.
Robert DeLong of Radnor Valley Country Club and Robert Krotee of Willow Hollow Golf Course and the Bent Creek Country Club duo of Gerald Eckert and Alan Over finished in a tie for eighth place, each signing for a 155 total.
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