CARBONDALE, Pa. — Survive a scare, return to your lair.
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Elkview Country Club overtook a plucky Fox Hill Country Club Wednesday to retain the Senior Coal Scuttle Championship. It posted a 13-over-par 301 at home (par 72, 6,179 yards) to best Fox Hill, which held the lead for a stretch, by three strokes.
Elkview now holds eight (2006, 2008-09, 2014-16, 2025) Senior Coal Scuttle titles.
John Pash carded an even-par 72 to lead the Elkview contingent. He defeated Pocono Farms Country Club’s Mark Bartkowski in a sudden-death playoff to earn individual medalist honors as well.
The low four of five scores count toward the team total. Pash, Frank Osborne (75), Tom Piwowarski (76), Edward Hughes (78) and Ken Bolcavage (82) represented the Elkview team.
“For me, I was just grinding knowing that every stroke counted for the team. That’s the main point when I think of the Scuttle,” Pash, 56, of Jermyn, Pa., said. “You just have to bear down.”
“I was on the 17th hole, and Kenny told me, ‘Buckle up. We need a good score,’” Hughes, 59, of Archbald, Pa., added. “I had two pars.”
Fox Hill held a three-shot lead over Elkview with five holes remaining Wednesday. Pash, a seven-time men’s champion at Elkview, eagled No. 14 (par 5, 457 yards) to cut the deficit to one.
“It was pivotal for me to stay in a good mindset,” he said. “I hit a good drive downwind, so I only had a 6-iron from 195 yards. That was probably the best swing I made all day. I knocked it in there to seven feet. It wasn’t the easiest putt. It was above the hole, a downhill curler. I made a good stroke, and it went in for me.”
Elkview, as a team, played its last five holes in even; Fox Hill in 8 over. Hughes, for example, enacted the Elkview grind mentality. He played his second nine in 1 over.
“The difference was I stopped hitting bad shots and I stopped lipping out putts,” Hughes, an Elkview member of 16 years, said. “The greens were much faster today than even in the club championship. It took me a few holes to figure out that the breaks were a little different. That turned things around for me.”
Speaking of an about face, let’s hear from Elkview the course. It staged the men’s championship — a three-day, 54-hole event — during Labor Day weekend.
“It played completely different up here. The wind was completely different today,” Bolcavage, 62, of Fell Township, Pa., said. “It was the opposite wind, and it played long. We play the blue tees normally, but the difference in the wind … when one par 5 is downwind, they’re all downwind. Today, we have irons into every par 5, but for the club championship, they were some you couldn’t even reach in two.”
A different experience for Pash in particular on No. 1 (par 5, 477 yards). He makes triple bogey to start the club championship after playing a wrong ball. He knocks an 8-iron 175 yards to eight feet for eagle in the playoff against Bartkowski.
“Golf’s a crazy game,” Pash, an Elkview member of 20 years, said. “The swing hasn’t felt great the last couple of days, but every day is a new day. I can’t put my finger on it. I’m just slightly off. I’m doing something small probably, and I can’t figure it out on my own.”
Does taking a lesson count as a celebration? Pash, after posing for pictures and chatting with his Elkview teammates Wednesday, traveled to Glenmaura National Golf Club for a session with Ryan Dimmock.
Win a tournament, take a lesson the same day. Golf is indeed a crazy game.
By virtue of its victory, Elkview will host the 45th Senior Coal Scuttle Championship next year.
GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The organization’s 345 Member Clubs and 140,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
