Golf: Clements, Kapalla make it happen despite rain at GBCC

I don’t know about you but this was one of my favorite U.S. Open Championships. No, it did not have the drama of a head-to-head duel with anyone except Rory McIlroy. That’s right, his own head-to-head because many were expecting the same result as the Masters back in April. Instead, we watched history in the making as this 22-year-old guy played superb shot after superb shot, setting records on one of the toughest golf layouts in the world. He is exactly what I want the children of today to see in a golfer. He looked like he was just having a good old time with his buddies and played to his strengths. I loved it and hope we can see a lot more of Rory McIlroy in the future.

The ladies played their annual Member-Guest tournament last Friday in a format they called “Bay Breezes.” The amount of work that these ladies put into a tournament is beyond belief. Veronica Clements and Betty Kapalla chaired the event and did the major part of the setting up of this successful day that early morning downpours tried to ruin.

Because of these heavy rains, play was delayed for over two hours and of course the format had to be changed to nine holes. Everyone that signed up showed up and shut up as they were told by a determined couple of women that they were going to play.

The low gross honors went to Karen D’Auria and her guests, Valerie Street, Randy Lee Villani and Beth Sachs with a total 39. Sue Scanlon, Narea Dokjan, Hermine Gladstone and Babs Rotner won second low gross with a 41.

First low net with a 29 went to Betty Kapalla, Beverly Sage, Julie Ben-Susan and Judy Victoria. Tied with them with 29 but losing on a matching of cards were Veronica Clements, Tay Traut, Barbara Mahoney and Sandra Leary. Strange how the two tournament chairladies, Kapalla and Clements, could work that hard before a tournament and then tie for first place. No wonder they wanted to play, rain or shine.

Nancy Barr hit the longest drive for a member on the 6th hole and Sandra Leary for the guests. Barbara Mahoney hit the straightest drive on the first hole for a member while Sandra Leary also hit the straightest for a guest. Dr. Caren Nederlander was closest member to the pin on the 4th hole at 3 feet while Dianna Schiller was closest for a guest with 5 feet.

On Monday, it looked like John Doughty and Jerry Glassberg copied a little bit from a 22-year-old named Rory the day before, as they both were 3 points over their quotas. Tom Demakos was 2 points over his for another fine round.

Doughty also knows how to inspire partners as his team of Morton Goldfarb, Mike Rouzee and Jerry Cohen also took first place as a team with only 3 under their quota. With 4 points under their quota, Tom Demakos also got a little piece of the pie with his second-place finish with Charles Mahoney, Peter Pettibone and Al Collard.

All alone in 3rd place with 6 under quota was Jerry Glassberg, Jerry Berner, Jim Gibbs and Sid Beckwith.

On a perfect Monday afternoon, the ladies hosted an invitational match with Laurel Links and Westhampton that was run by Sue Scanlon. The winning team, playing one ball out of four, won by 3 shots with a net 60. Joy Simpson from GBCC, Lori Jessup WCC, Lynda Folz LLCC and Nancy Bell LLCC were just too hot for this field.

Second place was a tie with 63’s so it had to be decided by a matching of cards. The winning team on the match of cards was Nancy Barr GBCC, Joan Gruber GBCC, Sue Santora LLCC and Mary Ellen Weisser WCC. Also with 63 but taking 3rd place were Debbie Rouzee GBCC, Betty Kapalla GBCC, Patty Reilly WCC and Kathleen Hilpl LLCC.

Judy Bennett is always the one to beat in the President’s Cup and this year was no exception. Bennett shot 90 and that was good enough to win by 5 shots over her nearest rival, Christina Nemeth. Congratulations Judy!

The Vice President’s cup finished in a tie between Sue Scanlon and Nancy Barr with net 72’s. In all the major tournaments, we did not have a matching of cards to determine a winner but we did have a sudden death playoff. In the playoff, both Scanlon and Barr tied the first hole and on the second hole Rory McIlroy would have taken the third shot that Nancy Barr hit into this par 5 green. From 175 yards away, with the flagstick tucked behind the left bunker, Nancy Barr hit a fairway wood into the small opening and onto the green. With that shot and a couple of putts, Barr took home the Vice President’s Cup.

It was nice to see Betty Fogarty back on the course and just finishing one shot back with a 73 for 3rd spot. Fourth place went to Barbara Mahoney with a 75.