State Line Ohio/Pennsylvania Border- Once again it was Rivalry Week for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Golf Channel Amateur Tours. For 4 years running both teams from rival cites duked it out at Oak Tree Country Club situated on the border of the two competing states. This year was no different as many of the players on both sides dressed in team colors to declare war on the other side. Cleveland had many players wearing their famous brown and orange while those from Pittsburgh were fashioned in Black and Gold. Even Larry (begrudgingly) got into the act to pay off his bet from last year as he wore a Cleveland Browns hat and shirt to declare that the Cleveland team was victorious the previous season.
In this years clash, the players were to play their own individual stroke tournament for individual accolades in their flight and to decide who won the clash, it was determined that it would be decided by an overall Giant Skins game. The team who had the most Giant Skins won would be declared the victor since the Cleveland Team had outnumbered the Pittsburgh Team by a margin of 1.5 to 1 in players.
In the Palmer Flight, it was Tylor Davis (CLE) shooting an 81 to capture the win by 1 shot over Jason Kidd's (PIT) 82. John Hilinski's (CLE) 85 was good enough for 3rd place. A back and forth match between Davis and Kidd had both players changing leads a couple of times, but it was Kidd who had the lead on the back side and was overtaken by Davis late and held on during the last 2 holes to win. Davis' 11 pars were a key to him playing well and having the opportunity to win.
In the Hogan Flight, Pittsburgh got on the board with Fred Favorite winning with a score of 77. He defeated a couple of Cleveland Tour rivals in Dale Thompson and Abram Boyd who fired 82's. Favorite carded 2 birdies and 8 pars in his round of 6-over holding off Thompson who was tied for the lead after 12 holes. It was the first time in 5 tournaments this season that Abram Boyd did not claim the Hogan Flight crown. It was the 3rd win of the season for Fred Favorite.
The Sarazen Flight saw a close battle of Cleveland players in Matt Blum and Jeff Mast. Both have been sharing the spotlight this season winning 4 of the first 5 tournaments thus far on the Cleveland schedule. Mast getting the upper hand thus far 3-1 in wins. But Matt Blum (84) was the winner this week eking out a win over Mast (85) by 1 shot to garner his 2nd victory of the season. Pittsburgh's Robert Babish and Michael Yates tied for 3rd with 88's.
The Snead Flight it was Ronald Shoemaker (CLE) (89) who defeated Michael Scuro (PIT) (92) and Paul Beckwith (CLE) 96. It was Shoemaker's 2nd win of the season as he was able to build a large lead and hold on for the 3 stroke victory.
Now for all the news everyone was waiting for... For the team title. It was the Cleveland tour who was victorious for the 4th consecutive year as the Giant Skins were decided with a score of 5-2. John Hilinski (CLE) and Dale Thompson (CLE) both had 2 skins a piece for and Jeff Mast added another for the winning team. Fred Favorite and Steven Wiley got Pittsburgh on the board. So once again next season Larry must don the Brown and Orange as the two teams will meet.
We would also like to extend a large thanks to tour player Paul Rovnak who provided the event with wonderful danish, donuts, and brownies from his Classic Bakery in the Youngstown/Boardman area.
The tour is also happy to announce that so far we have combined to raise just over $1000 in our charitable giving for the 50/50 raffles to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This is approximately halfway to our goal. Thank you to all who are participating!
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