Sports

Golf: South Fork visitors take opening GBCC tourney

As the tour pros are battling in their fifth major down in Florida, the guys at Gardiner’s Bay Country Club were just as involved in their Opening Day Tournament on Saturday. In a best two-of-four tournament, two teams tied for first place with 11 under par rounds of 129. These fine rounds were four shots better than the nearest competitors, the third-place team.

BOB DeSTEFANO PHOTOS | Kevin Scanlon
Ken Schwartz

Since everyone always heads home before all players are finished, we have to have a matching of cards to find a winner. Scorecards get matched by the back nine, the first with the lowest score on that side being the victor. In case of back nine ties, the last six holes determines the winner, then three and finally the last hole.

Well, we all know that if you don’t win the first one, then you can’t win them all. So having a chance to win them all are the boys from the South Fork, Kopelson, Scanlon, Gerald Silberman and Ken Schwartz.

Excellent rounds were posted by Kopelson and Scanlon, both shooting better than their handicaps.

The South Side boys endeºd up with a 65 on the back nine while second-place finishers Mike McConnell, Larry Winston, Ken Walker and Steve Kessler finished their back nine with a 66. Steve Kessler also handed in one of his best performances on this day with this foursome.

Finishing in third place with 133 were Larry Adler, David Doyle, Russell Holmes and Jerry Katz but a little tetchy that they should be receiving a low gross award by shooting even par without handicaps. In spite of their insistence and constant babbling, the rules committee that claims they never had a gross division somehow ignored their grumble. However, we would like to say “nice round guys.”

Last week I briefly wrote about Jay Sessa’s accomplishments in the Richardson Memorial Tournament at Seawane Club and this week Sessa duplicated his performance in another 60-year-old tournament, the Havemeyer Invitational. This popular amateur event is played every year at the Southward Ho Country Club and named for Horace Havemeyer, a man who saved the club from bankruptcy in the early 50s. This invitational event has always had just two criteria for a player to be invited. The number one rule was that one must be a gentleman, and the second rule was that he must possess an excellent golf game. Jay Sessa easily passed both these standards.

Sessa again qualified and defeated Don Enga from Cherry Valley in his first match and Matt Corrigan from Nassau in his second round but was again disappointed in his finals by losing to Joe Sommers from the Winged Foot Golf Club. Jay, your friends on Shelter Island are all proud of your performance. Congratulations!