(Ivan Lendl and Scott Huebner on the 16th green at Shennecossett)
October 9, 2018: It’s been a pretty good summer for lefthanders from Torrington Country Club.
Southpaw Dale Dirk got on the board first, winning the CSGA Super Senior Championship on August 6 at Simsbury Farms (in a playoff over Hartford lefty, Jack Bracken). Five weeks later Torrington lefthanders Ray Underwood and Ivan Lendl combined to capture the CSGA Senior Four Ball Championship at Connecticut National.
Underwood capped that with a victory all on his own when he won the Connecticut Senior Amateur at Shorehaven Golf Club on September 25.
And on Tuesday in the Al Acker One-Day Championship, Lendl was back in the winner’s circle. The big lefthander and former world #1 tennis champion claimed the title in the Dick Siderowf Senior Division with a 2 under-par round of 69 over the Shennecossett Golf Course in Groton.
So much for playing from “the wrong side of the ball.”
“I don’t know about the lefthander thing, but it is no coincidence that we are all playing well,” said Lendl. “We’re very competitive up there. We play five dollars a shot and we hole everything out. Even the tap-ins. I know we are making each other better.”
Lendl’s victory was a narrow one, as fellow competitor Frank Geiger of H. Smith Richardson delivered a spectacular finish to end one stroke back at 70. In the shotgun start, Lendl and Geiger (and Patrick McGuiness and Scott Huebner) started on hole number 13. With birdies at 15, 17 and 18 Geiger was quickly 3-under and in the lead through the group’s first six holes. Five bogies on the front nine erased the nice start, but a wonderful finish including an eagle 2 on the par 4 eleventh, and a birdie 2 on the par 3 twelfth delivered the runner-up prize.
Geiger’s rollercoaster produced a rare scorecard that read 41-29 70.
In the Dick Tettelbach Division for players under age 55, Glen Boggini of Manchester Country Club also fired 69 for a four-shot victory over Chris Maxwell of CC Farmington.
Boggini, the former Connecticut Public Links Champion and a long time standout in New England will represent Connecticut and the CSGA next week in the Tri-State Matches hosted this year by Massachusetts at Oyster Harbors Club in Osterville.
The Al Acker One Day Championship marks the conclusion of the CSGA competitive season. The 94 players who teed it up at Shennecossett earned their way into the Al Acker by finishing in the top-5 in at least one One-Day event in 2018.
