‘Grand slam’ for pinch-hitter
Barb Brown wins Champion of Champions as replacement for club champ
Barb Brown didn’t just homer pinch-hitting for her club’s defending senior ladies champion at the 2018 Champion of Champions golf tournament, she cleared the bases.
“Oh, I hit a grand slam today!” said the Port Colborne Country Club member, all smiles after carding a 9-over-par 81 Saturday at Rockway Vineyards.
A two-stroke victory over Cindy Wegg of the host club gave the retired Eastdale Secondary School music teacher’s her first win in “11 or 12” tries at a Champion of Champions title.
“I’ve come close before, but this is an absolute dream come true,” said Brown, who taught for 29 years before retiring.
She made solid contact on her tee shots Saturday.
“My iron shots were the best I ever hit,” Brown said. “I didn’t putt particularly well at the outset, but toward the end I struck the ball much better with the putter and I made a few, which was nice.”
The cold and windy conditions didn’t bother Brown.
“Wind is wind, it’s like rain, you play to the conditions,” she said. “At times, I was taking two, sometimes three, more clubs to make sure, especially over the water, I was in play.
“That was my mindset – keep the ball in play and see what happens.”
Seeds for her victory were sown after the need to recover from surgery prevented Port Colborne ladies champion Stefi Markovich from attempting to defend her Champion of Champions title.
Sandra Billyard, this year’s senior ladies champion at Port Colborne and the winner at Champions last year, created the opening for Brown by opting to go Markovich’s place.
Billyard nearly homered in turn at bat as a pinch-hitter. She finished second in the ladies flight, one stroke behind SarahAnne Smurlick of Freedom Oaks.
Men’s flight
Fourth time proved to the charm for Robbie Ellis at the Champion of Champions tournament.
While the 26-year-old civil engineering technician qualified for the battle for regional bragging rights four years in a row as the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club men’s championship, he never got to compete until now.
And compete he did. A fourputt for a double bogey on No. 11 was his only bad hole in pacesetting round of 70 Saturday at Lookout Point.
Driving and putting served Ellis well on Saturday.
“When it comes down to it, it’s the putter, that’s where you either make your strokes or lose your strokes,” he said after finishing 2-under for a six-stroke victory.
Ellis said teeing off on No. 1 in only the second shotgun start in the 69-year-history of the Champion of Champions was a “big help.”
“I find with shotgun if I tee off on No. 1, it feels like a true round,” he said. “If I’m on a random hole on the course, it’s hard to get into that focus for me personally.”
Ladies flight
Momentum from a strong start was enough to overcome a so-so finish and carry Sarah-Anne Smurlick to the top of the leaderboard in the ladies division at the Champion of Champions golf tournament.
The Dunnville resident and Freedom Oaks member started on No. 8 in the shotgun start Saturday at Rockway Vineyards.
Despite playing “real conservative,” she played “extremely well” and was 2-over after the first 13 holes.
“Just trying to hit fairways and greens and two putt for pars,” she said. “It was working for me.”
A long delay caused by someone in the group of hers needing 13 shots to complete the 18th hole, a difficult par-3, knocked Smurlick out of her groove.
"It was cold and windy and watching bad golf, that's not a good recipe," she said with a chuckle.
Smurlick, who finished tied for 30th at the Canadian Women’s Senior Mid-Amateur and Senior Championship two weeks ago at Lookout point, ranks all-around play as the strength of her game.
“People ask, ‘What's your favourite club?’ I like them all, I don't have a least favourite.”
Senior men’s flight
On Saturday afternoon, Bernie Bodogh had to hit the ground running after not having much time to hit the pillow the night before.
After spending the past five days in Bathurst, N.B., where he finished tied for 55th in the Canadian Senior Men’s Championships, the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club member just made his tee time at the Champion of Champions Saturday at Rockway Vineyards.
“I got here with 20 minutes to spare, I just landed this morning, had two hours sleep,” Bodogh, 56, said after a round of 1-over-par 73 gave his first regional title in five attempts.
His game plan was simple. “Today, I just made sure I hit the centre of the club, made pars, made pars, made pars.”
Bodogh already felt like he was in playoff mode by the time he teed off at the regional championships.
“Playing competitive in the Canadian championships and then coming here, I think I had a
little more over everyone else,” he said. “I’ve already been grinding, I've already been mentally working reading the greens.
“I didn't stop, I didn't stop reading the greens, I watched the guys putt.”
Bodogh received motivation by playing neck-and-neck with Rockway Glen’s Tim Dundas, a member of his foursome, throughout Saturday’s round.
“You definitely work with your playing partners,” Bodogh said. “It’s good to have someone playing well in your group.”
Dundas finished the day in second place two strokes back.
Junior girls flight
Kayla Burke shared the CHSC Trophy as 2018 Champion of Champions junior girls winner with her putter.
“I made a lot of really long and solid putts,” the Lookout Point member said after firing a 2under-par 70 for her second regional championship and first since 2014.
Normally, the long game has been the highlight of the 17-yearold Port Colborne resident’s game.
“I’m always in play,” she said. “It’s just a matter of how my short game goes.
“I think everything just gelled perfectly today.”
The cold and windy conditions were an added club in Burke’s club.
“I actually love playing in this weather,” the Grade 12 Welland Centennial Secondary Student said with a laugh. “I have played in very windy conditions.”
Burke fed off one playing partner Payton Bennett, who was making a lot of close shots.
“It kind of gave me the motivation,” Burke said. “If I wasn’t going to that kind of shot, I was going to make this putt then.”
Bennett, the Twenty Valley club champion, finished second nine strokes off the pace.
Junior boys flight
A 2-under-par 74 gave Ben MacLean the junior boys title at the Champion of Champions and his second regional title in as many months.
Last month 14-year-old from Niagara Falls, who plays out of Lookout Point and St. Catharines Golf and Country Club, wrapped up the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour with five victories and the boys under-15 championship.
The A.N. Myer Secondary School student wasn’t sure coming into the clubhouse that 74 would be low enough to carry the day.
“I knew that the wind was strong, but I wasn’t sure what other people were going to shoot,” he said after his fourstroke victory over Grand Niagara’s Nolan Piazza, the defending Ontario junior boys champion.
Despite playing against moreexperienced golfers, MacLean didn’t feel any pressure the first time competing at the Champion of Champions.
“I was just coming out to play for fun today.”