Albany’s Out of Control Ski Club won the Inaugural G.E. Ski Club Cup Golf Challenge, easily coasting to victory in the medal play tournament. Hosts G.E. Ski Club finished a distant second. OOC’s Matt Zeist was medalist, with his teammate Steven Ford finishing second. Indeed, the top four spots went to OOC golfers, who took the lead early, and then galloped home to victory with a strong finishing kick over Green Lakes’ final six holes.
Zeist’s round was powered by two clutch back nine birdies in a three-hole stretch. At the long, difficult par-5 12th, he hit a strong tee shot to the right center of the fairway, then powered a fairway metal into position for a pitch to the narrow green, perched precariously on a shelf. His shot finished just past the hole pin high, about 18 feet away form the cup. His uphill putt was center cut all the way.
Then at the drivable, but tricky, short par-4 14th, he smashed a tee shot that could have waved to the Goodyear Blimp as it sailed deep into the narrow fairway well into the speed slot just short of the green. He executed a fine pitch, letting his ball out well to the right of the pin and having the greens wild contours circle the ball back toward the cup, settling ten feet away. He then rolled in a sidewinder of a putt, punctuating the birdie with a fist pump worthy of Tiger Woods himself.
“YEEEEARRRGH!” he roared.
Later, Zeist and the rest of the Out of Control team credited a pre-tournament practice round as pivotal to their success.
“It was especially important on 14. Having seen that putt before, I knew what it did,” Zeist admitted candidly.
In the ladies competition Jeannine Murtaugh Reath of G.E. Ski Club started slowly, trailing by three shots after two holes, then righted the ship and coasted to victory by double digits, giving the home squad something to cheer about. Sherri Himes finished second for the Huggers Ski Club of Rochester, New York.
“Green Lakes was terrific golf course, really pretty, and fun to play,” added Ford, and he was spot on. Green Lakes is one of the earliest designs of Robert Trent Jones, Sr., an immortal of American golf course architecture. Short, but hilly, well-bunkered and with remarkably undulating greens, the course showed its teeth with longer, thicker rough than usual. The iconic par-5 ninth threw the most devastating thunderbolts at the field: there were two 10s, two nines, and three eights carded by players.
“I really liked the Catcher’s Mitt,” added Zeist, and he should. He was the only player in the field to carry one of Green Lakes’ most iconic features – a large catcher’s mitt shaped grass bunker at the knee of the par-5 seventh hole’s dog-leg. Several players, including Himes and G.E.’s Mike Mosely found themselves deep within its maw, struggling to get out.
“All in all, we had a wonderful day and are grateful to all the competitors, our friends from all across the New York,” stated G.E. Ski Club president Gerald Gortner. “Congratulations to Out of Control, Huggers, and all the rest of the competitors.”
The G.E. Ski Club Golf Challenge invites any and all ski clubs in New York and New Jersey to compete for “Aunt Jean’s Kettle” – a silver teapot owned by one of the club’s earliest members.
