Gavin Stringer produced the third hole-in-one of his golfing career on the 175-yard 11th hole of the Gold Course at Congressional Country Club, helping Hunt Valley win the 17th annual Senior Team Championship of the Maryland State Golf Association. 8-4, September 24.
Two two-man pairings played at each course with six points available at each site. Stringer and Mark Coburn and John Barnes-John Pipitone each got 2 1/2 points at Congressional, while Tom Grem-Jim Biggar swept Ed Harrington-Mike Grady, 3-0, at Hunt Valley. In the other match, Congressional Country Club’s Clay Fitzgerald-Skip Tendall defeated Mike Bertazon-Steve Grem, 3-0.
Stringer’s ace, accomplished with a hybird club, continued a Hunt Valley burst that had seen Stringer and Coburn split wins on holes 8 and 9 to gain a tie for the front nine after Bill Strang had birdied the fourth and sixth holes for the home side.
After Stringer’s one-shot, Coburn kept things alive when he holed a touchy five-foot putt for a winning par and Bob Feinstein missed his par from about three feet. Feinstein made up for it at the next, a 150-yard par-3, where he rolled in a 30-foot putt for birdie. Coburn’s two-putt for par at the 16th restored a 2-up lead and Stringer sealed it with a 75-yard shot to a foot at the 17th for a half, earning a point for the side and a point for the match.
Against Congressional’s George Mavrikes-Jack Vardaman, Pipitone birdied the seventh hole to give Hunt Valley the front nine; Mavrikes birdied the 10th to give Congressional a lead all the way to the 18th green. Pipitone got the side’s half when he dropped a 10-foot putt for a winning par.
This marked Hunt Valley’s third win (all in the last four years) in the series and it enabled Baltimore to pull within one of Washington, 9-8. Congressional leads with four titles. For the Baltimore County Club, it returned six players from last year’s entry which stopped Beaver Creek CC in the final.
Reported By: John Stewart
