By Rick Colvin
Victories by the Oakridge and Deer Creek teams on the Oakridge course April 7 evened up the standings in the yearlong Bouchillon-Ambrose Cup, with those two teams tied with Marshwood at 2-1 after three outings. The Palmetto team remains winless after three matches. The event had been rescheduled from March due to weather and the Korn Ferry Tournament.
Oakridge beat Marshwood 7 to 4 ¼ and Deer Creek bested Palmetto 7 ¼ to 5 ¾.
The format for the day was four-ball but the Deer Creek and Oakridge teams failed to field a full team; typically, when there is an imbalance among the teams the excess players play Stableford against a preset benchmark and, if they surpass that score, they earn ¼ point for their team. An alternate solution was used in some of these matches, requiring some of the players on the teams with shorter rosters to play two singles matches at the same time. As an example, Deer Creek’s Bruce Bertkau played simultaneous singles matches against both Ned Mahoney and Bill Wolod and lost both. Deer Creek's Bob Benson played against Oakridge's Ed O'Donnell and Bret Hardy and won both, notching one point for his team. Even that strategy could not even out the teams and 1 1/4 of Oakridge's points came from Stableford overflow play.
The next B-A Cup match will use the modified alternate shot format on the Deer Creek course and will be held April 21; all LMGA members are encouraged to participate to ensure that all the teams have a sufficient number of players.
Membership Notes
New LMGA member James Headley moved to The Landings from Naples, Florida, closing on his new home April 1. He was a Realtor in Naples and will continue to operate his business there and also pursue a Georgia real estate license and work here. He started playing golf in high school in a small town in western Pennsylvania when he wasn’t playing competitive baseball and basketball. He says he is self-taught which, he said, “probably explains why my handicap has only dipped into single digits briefly in my life.”
Bruce Gabbitas, a new LMGA member, and his wife, Bari, lived in Guilford, CT until about 10 years ago, which is when they retired. They moved to Murrells Inlet, SC, where they lived until they moved to The Landings last May. Bruce worked for the DuPont Co. for 36 years and before spending the last five years of his career with a specialty manufacturing company based in Detroit. He began playing golf when he joined DuPont but work-related travel allowed him to play only a few times per year. He, too, picked up the game on his own and has never had a lesson.
