Inaugural Women’s Four-Ball

Casey, Daniel capture Women’s Four-Ball

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — A subtle “let’s boogie” echoed from the first tee at Glen Oak Country Club (par 73, 5,486 yards) Wednesday.

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Murmurs of “great drive” and “in the fairway” followed. Kathy Goeringer even summoned the late Ely Callaway before swinging a club.

The sounds reflected the spirit of the inaugural Women’s Four-Ball at Glen Oak. Chants, cheers, and camaraderie. And channeling spirits.

“It was the theme today. I was using a Callaway golf ball, and so was [teammate] Ruthie (Dettore),” Goeringer, 67, of Tunkhannock, Pa., said. “God bless Ely Callaway for coming up with the company.”

The Women’s Four-Ball, a better-ball-of-partners event, is officially in good company on the GAP/AGA calendar. It is open to any female member of a GAP Member Club with a handicap index of 32.0 or less. The Women’s Four-Ball featured three divisions: Amateur, Senior (55-64 years of age) and Super Senior (65 years of age or older).

Berwick Golf Club’s Amy Daniel and Pocono Farms Country Club’s Mariah Casey carded a 12-over-par 85 to capture the event’s overall title. In the Senior Division (par 73, 4,841 yards), Fox Hill Country Club’s Wendy Cimoch and Wyoming Valley Country Club’s Natalie Sokoloski prevailed with a 3-over-par 76. Home-club hopefuls Carolyn Beers and Marlene Smith fired a 5-over-par 78 to edge Goeringer and Dettore by a stroke in the Super-Senior Division (par 73, 4,841 yards).

Glen Oak absorbed close to two inches of rainfall the day prior. Mother Nature smiled upon an event needing water in its roots.

“Honestly, I’m shocked that we got it in, that the golf course was as dry as it was,” Goeringer said. “Last night, I had a bible study meeting, and you couldn’t hear anybody talk because of the rain coming down hard enough on the aluminum roof. It came down in buckets. I’m thrilled GAP stuck it out to see what the conditions would be. It turned out to be beautiful.”

A random league night pairing at Berwick in 2022 turned out to be the start of a beautiful friendship between Casey and Daniel. Competition, conversation, connection.

“When we had tournaments where we could pick our team, we’d like to go play together,” Daniel, 35, of Berwick, Pa., said. “We did a simulator league at [The Clubhouse 315] in the winter. We were the only women’s group, and we won. It was fun.”

Casey and Daniel, although unenthusiastic about the final number, embraced Wednesday’s result. First Four-Ball Champions.

“I feel like we play with each other enough that we know what to say to calm each other down,” Casey, 26, of Jefferson Township, Pa., said. “We managed. We had our blowups. We had our good holes. We play well with each other.”

Daniel pointed to pars on Nos. 13 (par 4, 300 yards) and 14 (par 4, 325 yards) as a confidence booster. On the former, she slipped an 8-iron from 150 yards through a gap in overhanging trees. Daniel then two putted from the front of the green.

“The common thought is trees are 90 percent air, so when I hit it I was like, ‘You’re right,’” Daniel said of her approach.

Casey, who works for a biotech company and serves as an assistant golf coach at Marywood University, moved to Pocono Farms during the winter. Despite the club change, she and Daniel, an eighth-grade science teacher, plan to connect for rounds of golf this summer.

Wednesday was a good start.

Seconded by the sounds in the scoring area.

Susan Stravinsky’s cellphone rang as she watched the leaderboard in the scoreboard. Her ringtone? The Rocky theme.

Emblematic of the event’s fighting spirit.  

Women’s Four-Ball
GAP introduced the Women’s Four-Ball in an effort to expand its women’s programming in Northeast Pennsylvania. It serves as a forerunner to the Women’s Coal Scuttle Championship, set for Aug. 8 at Berwick Golf Club.

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 125,000 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.