60th Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play

Laurel Creek duo prevails in scorecard playoff

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ROYERSFORD, Pa. — Mark Walker sensed the significance emanating from his golf ball on the last hole Thursday. That’s why he jubilantly pumped his fist, emphatically shouted “Yes!” and embraced teammate Joseph Russo once his 12-footer for par dropped into the jar.

With that conversion, Walker and Russo secured a 5-under-par 67 in the 60^th Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play at Spring Ford Country Club (par 72, 6,399 yards). The team matched scores posted by Overbrook Golf Club’s Oscar Mestre and Andy Thompson as well as Wilmington Country Club’s Randy Mitchell and Steve Walczak.

In a scorecard playoff, Walker and Russo prevailed. The Laurel Creek Country Club members tied Mestre and Thompson on Spring Ford’s back nine, which moved the USGA-recommended tiebreaking method to last six holes. Walker and Russo inked a 21 to their counterparts 22. Mitchell and Walczak posted a 23 during that stretch.

The Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play is a better-ball-of-partners event. Walker and Russo also triumphed in 2013 at Indian Valley Country Club.

“For me, it means a lot just to help Joe out with any points he gets for Senior Player of the Year. I just wanted to play well for Joe,” an emotional Walker, 62, of Marlton, N.J., said. “I have three best friends, and Joe’s one of them. He might be the best because he tells me what I need to know, not what I want to know. He’s a class act.”

Walker did more than play well for his teammate; he donned a cape on Spring Ford’s closer (par 5, 485 yards).

Knowing their status on the leaderboard, both Walker and Russo pulled driver to attack the tree-lined, slight dogleg left tester. Walker attempted to elevate his over the branches left, but pulled it into no-man’s land. Russo tried to navigate the corner right, but blocked it into an unenvious area. He then popped out a 3-wood from 242 yards. It caught an obstructing tree and swerved into a penalty area.

Walker managed a return to civilization — sort of. With his golf ball nestled in a hole for his third shot, Walker left a 6-iron 40 yards short of the green.

“That is death. For me, from 40 yards, all I try to do is get on the green,” Walker said. “I said, ‘OK. Let me try to hit one actually good.’ I literally had the yips. But I was able to pull it off and make the putt.”

That he did. Walker targeted the cup’s left edge, eased the putter back-and-through with confidence and widened his eyes in exuberance once it tumbled in the right side.

Walker’s birdie on No. 17 (par 4, 387 yards) proved as imperative as that 12-footer. Picturing No. 8 at his home course, he towered a drive over a guarding tree-line, which afforded a yardage of 137.

“I figured, ‘OK, I haven’t been in this position before with the adrenaline pumping, so I figured I could get a wedge there,” Walker said. “And I hit a good one.”

One that set up a six-footer for birdie, which moved his team to 5 under. Perhaps the adrenaline Walker felt on the 17^th hole started stirring after he witnessed a remarkable eagle on No. 15 (par 5, 491 yards). Russo sunk a sweeping left-to-right-breaking 30-footer following a masterful 3-wood from 240 yards.

“If I try to hit it right-to-left in there and miss it right, then I’m dead over there given where the flagstick it. I aimed at the left bunker, hit a big cut and got it into the middle-back part of the green,” Russo, 61, of Washington Township, N.J., said. “The putt barely went in. It had to have six feet of break to it. The weight of the ball on the hill is what made it go in.”

Russo and Walker, who also captured their fourth Capital Cup title at Trenton Country Club earlier this year, met in 2013 when the former joined Laurel Creek. The two quickly became friends and golf compatriots.

Better-ball success continues to follow.

“He’s great, and I have the pompoms,” Walker said jokingly.

“We enjoy playing golf with each other. It seems like we spur each other on and play well together,” Russo, who won the Senior title in the Brewer Cup presented by Callaway Golf last month, said. “There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Donatoni, Everett take Super-Senior title No. 4

Only a trip overseas to the R&A Seniors Amateur Championship, theoretically speaking, prevented a four-peat for Carl Everett and Don Donatoni.

The latter bypassed the Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play a year ago to compete at Royal Porthcawl. Donatoni rejoined Everett at Spring Ford (par 72, 6,011 yards) and helped issue a return to the winner’s circle. The longtime friends carded a 5-under-par 67 to take the event’s Super-Senior title — their fourth in the last five years (2015-17).

“We hit a lot of greens together today, which, in a better-ball event, is the formula for success,” Donatoni, 71, of Malvern, Pa., said. “We’re just a club different, so we can club each other pretty easily. We’re both relatively calm and patient, and we strike it pretty well. We sort of feed off of each other.”

“It’s nice to get another win,” Everett, 72, of Harleysville, Pa., added. “We’ve been at it for a while. We know each other well. We’ve both had success.”

Donatoni, the six-time reigning Super-Senior Player of the Year, hinted at the latest addition to that success early at Spring Ford. He opened with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 1 (par 4, 412 yards) and 2 (par 4, 366 yards): an 8-iron 145 yards to 30 feet, a gap wedge 90 yards to six feet. After sprinkling in a 15-footer for birdie on No. 6 (par 4, 311 yards), Donatoni closed the team’s outward nine with a right-to-left breaking 10-footer on No. 9 (par 5, 482 yards) following a soft 58-degree wedge setup.

Donatoni and Everett moved to 5 under — three clear of the field — following a birdie on No. 11 (par 4, 330 yards), where the former knocked a gap wedge 100 yards to 12 feet. Next came “Clutch Carl.”

“Carl was really steady on the last seven holes,” Donatoni, a White Manor Country Club member, said. “As far as I’m concerned, the most critical hole was No. 16. I don’t want to say what I did, but I was totally out of the hole. I kind of left him naked.”

On the par 3, 175-yard 16^th hole, Everett, a Merion Golf Club member, executed an exemplary sand save after leaving a 5-iron in the front left bunker. Two subsequent pars stamped the team’s Super-Senior success in the Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play.

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 274 Full 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.