Bloomfield, CT – Jim Tierney from Richter Park Golf Club played the most consistent golf of his career over the last three days and came away with his first CSGA major victory.
Tierney’s tough road to the final began in with his semifinal match against Dave Szewczul, the defending Senior Match Play champion, from Tunxis Plantation Golf Club. Tierney played his best golf of the week in the morning match. He started out with three birdies in his first five holes and did not look back. Szewczul would get to one down after a Tierney bogey on the sixteenth hole but Tierney hit his third shot on the par five seventeenth hole to eight feet to setup up his fifth birdie of the round to win the match two and one.
Tierney’s opponent in the finals did not have an easy match in the semifinal either. Rick Lawrence from Ridgewood Country Club had the challenge of playing three time Connecticut Amateur champion and Connecticut Golf Hall of Famer, William Lee from The Course at Yale. Lawrence would jump out to an early three up lead through four holes and never looked back. His margin of victory in the finals would mirror Tierney’s.
The afternoon heat would be a challenge for both players in the finals as the temperatures rose into the high nineties. Jim Tierney’s consistent ball striking would put him into position to take a three up lead through nine but Lawrence’s par on the ninth brought Tierney’s lead back to two at the halfway point. The two would halve the first five holes of the back nine before trading holes at fifteen and sixteen. With a two up lead with two holes to play Tierney made another par on seventeen to capture the 5th Senior Match Play championship.
“Despite the heat, the conditions at Gillette Ridge were outstanding and I think the players really saw a difference over the last couple of years,” said CSGA Director of Rules and Competitions, Malcolm McLachlan. Gillette Ridge has hosted the Connecticut’s top senior amateurs in this event for the last three years but this event will move to Silver Spring Country Club in Ridgefield in 2012.
