49th Four-Ball Stroke Play

Maguire, Sokol shoot 66, snag Four-Ball

TELFORD, Pa. — They played tee-ball together. They grew up at Brookside Country Club together. They took a seat in each other’s wedding party.

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But on Monday, Alexander Maguire and Brad Sokol, after some 1,200 rounds, finally won a golf tournament together. The childhood friends carded a 6-under-par 66 to capture the 49^th Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship at Indian Valley Country Club (par 72, 6,505 yards).

Maguire and Sokol decluttered a leaderboard logjam; Six teams finished at 67 Monday.

The event’s format is better-ball-of-partners.  

“We literally played golf together when we were kids, like 200 times a year,” Maguire, 45, of Pottstown, Pa., said.

“We were at Brookside every day,” Sokol, 43, of Wayne, Pa., added. “We’re pretty comfortable together. I know what he’s going to do. he knows what I’m going to do.”

The team knew it needed a flurry finish for a chance at victory. It delivered.

On No. 16 (par 3, 119 yards), Sokol, a Green Valley Country Club member, lifted a wedge to 12 feet below the flagstick. He drained the ensuing birdie putt. On No. 17 (par 4, 385 yards), Maguire, uncertain of an optimal angle for the dogleg left, crushed a drive that settled right of the cart path. Maguire then took a full swing with a lob wedge from 80 yards, sending it over obstructing trees and onto the green. He sunk a decisive 40-footer for birdie with 10 inches of break.

“Alex made birdie from nowhere on No. 17. He was right of the path, right of the tree,” Sokol said. “It was great.”

“The real story here is I drove the ball, on average, about 40 yards offline. And I was able to get it near the green and make putts,” Maguire, who hails from Brookside, added.

That he did. Take the team’s first birdie, for example. Maguire flew an 8-iron approximately 30 yards over No. 3 (par 5, 484 yards) green. A full flop shot stopped three feet from the cup. Maguire cleaned up the birdie putt. On No. 9 (par 4, 362 yards), he and Sokol saw their respective golf balls resting two feet apart. Sokol, facing a friendly lie, elected to putt, rolling his birdie attempt into gimme 4 territory. Maguire executed a chip-in birdie from 20 feet following a 50-yard wedge setup.

Despite poor tee position, Maguire continued to manufacture red. He reached No. 12 (par 5, 478 yards) green in two strokes with 6-iron infused with 60 yards of hook. Two putts thereafter translated into a birdie. Facing a lie in thick rough, Maguire knocked a wedge 140 yards to 15 feet on No. 14 (par 4, 362 yards) for birdie.

When Maguire didn’t produce red, he relied on Sokol’s par penchant. The latter converted knee-knocking midrange putts on Nos. 6 (par 3, 198 yards), 8 (par 5, 495 yards) and 15 (par 5, 534 yards) to keep his team afloat.

“When one of us was out, the other one was in,” Sokol said.

Maguire and Sokol flirted with success in better-ball events at Stone Harbor Golf Club and Stonewall in years past. Monday marked their first round of golf together in 2020.  

“In better-ball events, I don’t think we’ve ever had a really good score. Usually we figure out a way to screw it up,” Maguire said. “We did better today.”

A GAP trophy suggests so.

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 Association’s 288 Member Clubs and 75,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Delaware. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.