Turner, Bolon, Chocol and Baldino capture ‘Very Modified’ Stableford tourney at BMGA
Submitted by ED O’NEIL
A fellow named Stableford figured out a way to keep a golf tournament exciting down to the last shot by assigning a point value to each good deed. By allocating eight points to the player who scored a double eagle on a hole, he made it possible to come from very far back to first place in a few minutes.
The PGA plays a Stableford point tournament only once a year and they jiggered that around because, in olden days, half of the field got sent home after the first day. A terrible waste of private jet fuel… plus the embarrassment.
The Beachview Men’s Golf Association played two forms of the Stableford last week. On Tuesday, it was a “Very Modified” version that gave a point for a bogie. It has been said that a player even gets a point simply for finding the course!
The winner of that version was the team of Wayne Turner, Tom Bolon, Dick Chocol and Tony Baldino with 162 points. They outdistanced the runners-up Barry Humphries, Dan Lautermilch, Dave Bugby and Joe Barbieri at 152.
Don Hummel, John Moores, Rene Lohser and Frank Klepacki won the nine-hole version with a 92.
On Saturday, a poor start didn’t hurt the big winners. The first and second place teams in “Modified” Stableford failed to get any points on the starting holes. Marty Gallagher, Jack Tukey, Jim Hopson and Dick Chocol shook off the slow beginning and registered an 88. Jim Mulka, Don Hummel, Jay Allen and Ken Karasin also finished fast with an 81. Taking third after a playoff were Rich Rompala, Bjorn Olsson, Al Krause and Gholi Dareshore, also with an 81.
Sauer, Mulka win Beachview Ladies League event
A few brave souls put on layers as they headed out in what felt like a late fall day up north. The winds howled as calls of cancellations came into the pro shop, but as stated, we still managed to gather a decent sized group of ladies.
The cold proved to be no match for the warm dispositions of the Beachview ladies as they headed out to take on the course in an individual play event in which one’s putts were deducted from the gross score to come up with the final event score.
Sandy Sauer managed to rack up a large number of putts — which usually spells trouble, but for this event proved to be beneficial — as she took first place in the 18-hole division with an event score of 54. This was a full 10 shots ahead of second place finisher, Joan Schmidt (64), and 11 shots ahead of Debbie Smith (65) in third place.
Barb Mulka took top honors for the 9-hole group with an event score of 40, just ahead of second place finisher Jane Fredericks and third place finisher Alice Fournier.
Everyone ended up a winner, though, just for taking on the tundra-like course conditions. We only hope that our lovely Florida weather we have all come to enjoy returns quickly.