Running Deer’s Alestock, Walters win Senior 27-Hole Challenge

POTTSTOWN, Pa. — As teammates, Thomas Alestock and Robert Walters are a perfect four-for-four when it comes to Delaware State Golf Association events. The Running Deer Golf Club members finally erased a Golf Association of Philadelphia drought Thursday.

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  Alestock and Walters carded a 1-under-par 143 to win the 10th Senior 27-Hole Challenge at Brookside Country Club (par 72, 6,201 yards). They defeated defending champions Bob Beck of Lehigh Country Club and Bert Kosup of The Ridge of Back Brook by two strokes.

  The Senior 27-Hole Challenge features three formats: better-ball of partners, selective drive/alternate shot and team aggregate.

  “It’s cool. It’s better than not winning,” Walters, 66, said. “These are always fun events. The GAP does a really good job running tournaments. It’s first-class.”

  “It was fun here today,” Alestock, 58, said. “We had some trouble reading the greens, but that’s everywhere you go for the first time. We enjoyed it.”

  The Salem, N.J. residents made their triumphant push during the event’s final leg. Alestock redeemed a double bogey on No. 3 (par 4, 366 yards), the team’s 21st hole, with a birdie on No. 4 (par 3, 168 yards). He drilled a 7-iron to 15 feet and drained the left-to-right breaker. Alestock, an environmental technician works with Walters’ son, moved his team into red figures following an eagle on No. 6 (par 5, 467 yards), where he powered a 4-wood 205 yards to six feet for eagle. He birdied the team’s last hole (No. 9, par 4, 328 yards) for good measure, hitting a gap wedge 100 yards to 15 feet.

  Alestock and Walters finished their first 18 holes unscathed at even par. They trailed leaders J. Kirk Luntey and Robert Wagner of Merion Golf Club by three strokes, but knew that a comeback existed within reach.

  “All we wanted to do was shoot par,” he just hitting it right down the middle, and we finally got a couple of birdies.”

  “We were just thinking get it on the green, two-putt and make pars,” Walters added. “If we made a birdie, all the better.”

  Alestock and Walters previously held membership at DuPont Country Club, where the two met five years ago. They became good friends and take to the course twice a week together these days.

  “Rob’s got one of the best swings I’ve ever seen. He hits it dead down the middle every time,” Alestock said. “He’s the kind of guy you want to play golf with.”

  “Tom’s a very good player. He’s got a great short game,” Walters said. “I know when he stinks, and he knows when I stink.”

  Not much stinking Thursday.

Super-Senior Division

  No Don Donatoni, no problem.

  Carl Everett and Steve Tagert, past partners and champions alongside the Association’s four-time reigning Super-Senior Player of the Year, joined forces for the first time Thursday. The two filed a 1-over-par 145 to take the event’s Super-Senior (par 72, 5,832 yards) title.

  “Don and I were going to play together, and then Don qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur,” Tagert, 67, of Collegeville, Pa., said. “So I started hunting around and asked Carl. I was lucky. He hadn’t signed up.”

  “I wasn’t going to play. I was going to sulk,” Everett, 70, of Harleysville, Pa., added.

  Everett and Donatoni won the Senior 27-Hole Challenge twice (2008 as Senior, 2014 as Super Seniors). Tagert, a Spring Ford Country Club member, teamed with Donatoni to take the 2015 Super-Senior trophy.

  Ironically, Everett and Tagert didn’t meet through Donatoni. The two attended the Pennsylvania Women’s Open in May and exchanged e-mail addresses.   After 18 holes Thursday, Everett and Tagert stood tied with playing partners Thomas Humphrey and Charles McDowell of Wilmington Country Club at 2 under. They trailed their groupmates by three strokes entering the event’s 25th hole (No. 7, par 3, 137 yards). Both Everett and Tagert pulled 7-iron on the tee. Everett kicked his off the green’s bank to six feet and made par; Tagert knocked his to three feet for birdie. Humphrey and McDowell made 4 and 5, respectively.

  That four-shot swing proved to be the decisive turning point.

  Both Everett and Tagert came away impressed with the other’s makeup as a competitor.

  “He’s a very straight hitter, a good putter and good around the greens — all of the things I’m not,” Everett said. “He doesn’t give you much to be upset about.”

  “He’s just a solid player. He doesn’t make mistakes,” Tagert, a Golf Association of Philadelphia MagazinePlayer to Watch in 2017, said.

  As for their mutual friend Donatoni, well, he won a piece of hardware Thursday, too.

  “We have to give him the Wally Pipp Award,” Everett, a Merion member, said.

  Tagert, not knowing the namesake, questioned his teammate’s suggestion.

  “Wally Pipp played first base for the (New York) Yankees until a guy named Lou Gehrig came in and played the next 2,130 games,” Everett said.

  The Senior 27-Hole Challenge replaced the Senior Net Championship on the tournament schedule.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 153 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.