Trio, plus one, take Four-Man Team title again

  EASTON, Pa. – For three of the four players, it was two in a row, as a team from Olde York CC, Sandy Run CC and Lu Lu CC, playing steady, spectacular team golf, carded an 11-under-par 131 Thursday to win the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 11^th Four-Man Team competition at The Club at Morgan Hill (par 71, 6,407 yards) by seven strokes.

  The winners were Tony Perla of Olde York, Greg Foster of Sandy Run, and Christopher Kaspar and Stephen Daley of Lu Lu in the two-best scores, 40-team competition. Perla, Foster and Kaspar were members of the winning four-man team in 2004 at Stone Harbor GC.

  It was a true team effort. Foster carded five birdies, Perla and Daley three each and Kaspar chipped in for another.

  “We kept in play, we were never really in trouble, with only one bogey, and every putt we hit seemed to go in the hole,” Daley said.

  “It feels good,” Perla said, reflecting on back-to-back victories. Teamwork is key, he said. “Chris and Greg and I play together all the time. We don’t really worry about score, and we always have a good time.

  “Now,” he added with a grin, “we need to three-peat.”

  The runners-up were Michael Shoup, Jim Muehlbronner and Richard McKay of Sandy Run and David Chenard of Publinks, with a 138 (68-70). Playing early, they were leaders in the clubhouse most of the long day, which was interrupted by a one-hour lightning delay in the morning.

  Muehlbronner and Chenard birdied the par 5, 475-yard first hole, and the team was off and running. Kinsman birdied No. 10 (par 4, 357 yards), Shoup birdied No 16 (par 4, 387 yards), and Chenard finished the round as he began it, with a birdie 3 on the par 4, 356-yard No. 18.

  The team of Tom Faro, Carl Valley and Dan Diamond of Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association and Dan Diamond of Ashbourne CC took net honors at 19-under -par 123.

  Clifford, a scratch handicapper, led the way with natural birdies on Nos. 1 and 2, and another on No. 7. Diamond anchored the group’s consistent play with four net birds on the front and four more on the back.

  The team of Richard Turner, William Bernardo and Jeff Abbott of Concord CC and Hank Grabowski of Fieldstone GC finished second in the net competition with a 124.

  The format was two best gross and two best net scores, with handicaps set at 90 percent of individual course handicaps.