You might have heard this story before because of its familiarity, but the husband-and-wife duo of Joey and Kari Baldwin once again captured the men’s and women’s Wayne Country Club titles in the annual Club Tournament held Sunday.
Competing in his eighth club tournament, Joey captured his sixth championship. He finished the 27-hole event with an even par 108 with rounds of 37-35-36. He birdied holes 9-12 and 13 over the first 18 holes and then had birdies on 4 and 7 over the final nine holes.
“I’m very happy with my score because I had to do a lot of scrambling,” Joey Baldwin said. “I hit just three fairways in 27 holes but managed to put most of my second shots in position to get par.”
Doug Rose entered the final nine holes four shots back of Baldwin, but the veteran birdied the first two holes of the final nine holes and then lipped out for birdie on the third hole, closing the gap to just two shots with six holes remaining. Rose birdied hole five to go three-under through the first five holes but bogeyed hole eight and finished the final round with a two-under 34 and a tournament score of 110 (two-over par).
Third place was captured by Alex Salmon with rounds of 38-38-35 (111) while fourth place was taken by newcomer Shad Wellman and rounds of 38-35-39 (112).
“I didn’t like taking a bogey on the final two holes but I knew I had a three-stroke lead heading to hole eight,” Baldwin said. “I pulled by tee shot on the par three, eighth hole and then I over-compensated on hole nine by pushing my tee shot right which got me in a little tree trouble. I still knew I was in good shape even with a bogey for the tournament.”
In other men’s action, there was six flights of golfers with Matt Eischeid claiming first place in the first flight with a 74. Doug Carroll was second with a 77 and Ryan Hix edged Chad Metzler for third by tie-breaker, each shooting 80. Josh Hopkins won the second flight with an 82 followed by Adam Diediker, 83 and Rusty Parker, 86. Joel Ankeny edged Rich Rethwisch by tie-breaker for fourth, each carding 87’s.
Dave Diediker claimed top honors in flight three with an 80 followed by Randy Simonsen with an 83, edging Jim Kenny by tie-breaker. Craig Sharpe was fourth with an 84. Dave Peitz won flight four by tie-breaker over Mark Moser as each shot 86’s while Brad Jones edged Mark Heithold by tie-breaker for third place at 90. Jim Curtiss won the fifth flight with a tie-breaker win over Dan Bowers at 86 while Darin Jensen did the same thing, edging Bill Melena for third with 87. The final flight was won by Rob Burrows with an 87 while Pat Melena carded a 91. Heath Dewald was third with a 95 and Don Koeber, fourth at 103. The last flight was scored by net score.
Turning to the women’s bracket, Kari Baldwin shook off the wet grass from an 8 a.m. tee time and birdied three holes on the front nine which led to a one-under 35. She carded a four-over 40 on the back for a total of 75. The win was her sixth club title as well. “This is one of my favorite events of the year,” Kari said. “Getting out and practicing the week of the club tournament reminds me of when I was playing every day while competing in college.
Kari’s younger sister, Amy Brown, just recently moved back to Wayne with her family, and if winning the club tournament wasn’t hard enough to start with as she competes with the likes of Amber Gamble and Molly Schroeder, she will be forced in the coming years to go head-to-head in a sibling rivalry.
“Amy is a great golfer and I look forward to competing against her next year in this event,” Kari added.
Amber Gamble carded rounds of 42-42 for an 84 while Molly Schroeder finished third. There was one other flight in women’s play which was netted out because of handicap differences. Jessi Jensen carded a 92 to win the flight. Sue Denton fired a 98 and Joyce Hoskins, 100.
