BUCKINGHAM — The fourth annual Lake County Alternate Shot Golf Championship took place Saturday and Sunday at Buckingham Golf and Country Club and the team of Brad Pendleton of Lakeport and Hipolito Perez Jr. of Kelseyville prevailed by a three-shot margin with an 8-under-par two-day total of 136.
A difficult format for most golfers, a team of two linksters hit every other shot until the ball is holed out. It is a format primarily seen in the Ryder Cup and other professional team competitions. There is much debate about what constitutes the perfect duo, whether a winning twosome will pair like players, such as two bombers or two control golfers, or whether putting a bomber together with a control player makes more sense.
It was all about bombers versus bombers in the championship flight with Pendleton and Perez Jr. opening with a first-round 71 on Saturday for a one-stroke lead over the bomber team of Juan Lopez of Finley and Brels Solomon of Upper Lake, who carded a 72. It was still a one-stroke lead for Pendleton-Perez Jr. through nine holes on Sunday, but the leaders began to heat up at that point, making seven birdies over the final nine. Their 29 on the back nine was good enough for a 65 on the day.
Lopez-Solomon played well enough to win any other year, yet their 139 (72-67) didn”t match up to the final-nine heroics of Pendleton and Perez Jr.
Net flight
In a tightly contested net flight for golfers with handicaps of 10 and higher, Rick Easter of Lakeport and Todd Colbrandt of Middletown scratched out a one-stroke victory over the fast-charging team of Jack Lucich of Clearlake and Jim DeCristofaro of Lakeport. Easter, a power player, and Colbrandt, a control golfer, opened play Saturday with a net score of 69. It put them one stroke out of the lead behind the team of Kelseyville”s Joe Del Prete and Jason Laveglia, who recorded a 68.
Easter and Colbrandt shot a rock-solid 65 Sunday for a 134 total. Paired with Del Prete and Laveglia, the Easter-Colbrandt team finished five shots ahead of the first-day leaders. However, playing in the pairing in front of the leaders, the team of Lucich and DeCristofaro caught fire over their final nine to card an aggregate total of 135 (74-61), good enough to finish second, one shot behind Easter-Colbrandt.
Del Prete and Laveglia finished in third place after shooting net scores of 71-68 for a total of 139. John Flynn from Cobb and Armond Urbano of Middletown were fourth with 145 (74-71). Matt Wotherspoon, the reigning Lake County Junior champion, and his brother, Peter Wotherspoon, were one shot farther back, carding 146 (76-70).
Senior flight
In the senior flight, Kelseyville High School golf coach John Berry and Jerry Pangle of Lakeport ran away with the senior division for golfers age 50 and older. Pangle, a power player, and Berry, a control player, posted a 152 (78-74) and a 19-stroke margin of victory. Berry and Pangle carried a nine-stroke lead into Sunday”s final round and opened up their lead to 17 shots with just nine holes to play. Afterward, Pangle said he wished that other local seniors teams of note such as Craig Kinser-Alan Mathews and Dennis Layton-Leonard Lea had been able to play to make the competition tighter. Both teams had scheduling conflicts.
Senior net flight
In the senior net flight, the team of Dr. Bob Jolin of Lakeport and Scott Lamanuzzi of Lower Lake got off to an early lead during Saturday”s first round and parlayed that into a nine-stroke victory over the team of Don Joseph and Tom Salie of Lakeport. Jolin and Lamanuzzi carded a 139 (71-68) net total while Joseph and Salie shot a 148 (78-70).
The next event on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit is the Parent-Junior Tournament on Sept. 14 at Buckingham. The next open event is the Lake County Amateur, which takes place at Adams Springs Golf Course on Cobb Mountain the weekend of Oct. 5-6.
