Gardner Municipal Golf Course men's championship comes down to the last hole
The 87th Gardner Municipal Golf Course (GMGC) men’s club championship came down to the last hole Sunday.
Bill Wilson, 64, needed to make a 12-foot putt for par on the 18th green to edge Andrew Johnson, half his age at 32, and only four feet away from the pin for his own par.
“I kept telling myself, 'Make this putt and you win,'" said Wilson, noting that he estimated a slight left-to-right break. “When the putt came off my putter, it rolled exactly where I expected it would.”
And right into the cup. Wilson, the defending champion and winner of the Delay Memorial in May, raised his Scotty Cameron putter in triumph and walked away with his fourth victory in GMGC’s longest running tournament, first held in 1937.
Normally a 72-hole competition scheduled over two weekends, the tournament was shortened to 54 holes when the second round was not played because of heavy rains, almost an expected scenario in this very wet summer of 2023.
Last weekend, though, for the first time since Memorial Day weekend, the course enjoyed two days of sunny weather, allowing the final two rounds to be completed, albeit in soggy fairway conditions.
Wilson, in notching his 15th major win at GMGC with rounds of 74-75-74, said it was his strong putting that saved him throughout the tournament, right up to the final stroke.
Just when Wilson appeared cruising to another win, Johnson, a two-time club champion (2017 and 2020), staged a tremendous comeback on the back nine. Trailing Wilson by five shots, Johnson carded birdies on holes 12 and 13 and added a third straight “3” on his card after playing the 14th. During Johnson’s rally, Wilson went bogey, par and double-bogey, his lead evaporating in a flash.
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"I thought I was done,” said Wilson, who, since his early 50s, has become Gardner’s Bernhard Langer, a consistent champ, beating the younger guys. “Andrew got hot and I got very cold."
Still, after both golfers parred the 15th, Wilson took a one-shot lead on the par-3 16th after Johnson three-putted. Both then birdied the par-4 17th hole, setting up the drama on the final hole – the tricky uphill par-4 with a slight dogleg to the left.
Wilson’s second shot was short of the green and, using his sand wedge, he chipped on to 12 feet from the pin. Johnson’s second shot landed in the greenside bunker to the right of the green, and he blasted out of the sand beautifully to within four feet.
If Wilson missed his putt, it was most likely overtime and a sudden-death playoff. That didn’t happen.
“Making that last putt and winning feels real good because you just never know when this is all going to end,” said Wilson.
All the winning, that is.
In the end, both Wilson and Johnson each shot a final round 74, only three shots over par.
“This was the most fun I think I’ve ever had in a golf tournament,” said Johnson, an engineer for Callaway Golf Co., who opened with rounds of 74 and 77. “Bill is such a great putter and he showed that today and in the other rounds."
In solo third place with a 229 total was 42-year-old Mike Gearan of Acton, the 2019 club champion, who carded rounds of 77-76-76.
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Former club champions Mike Beaulieu (the 2008 champ shot 76-79-76-231) and Ryan Pasakinskas (the 2021 champ shot 79-74-79-232) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Jeff Toothaker (83-78-75-236), Joe Oliviera (79-82-78-239), Tyler Piascik (80-82-79-241) and Pete Gamache Jr. (79-83-81-243).
With his fourth GMGC club title, Wilson pulled closer to the five club championships won by Pete Gamache Sr. and the late Vic Tiihonen. Tom Sylwestrzak owns the most club championships with nine, followed by the late Dan Flanagan with eight.
Wilson notched the first back-to-back club championship victories since Sylwestrzak accomplished the feat in 2004-05.
DiNardo storms to victory in handicap flight
Bill DiNardo’s golf game has never been better since the beginning of July, and he proved that in winning the handicap flight of the GMGC club championship from the white tees, carding superb gross rounds of 77-80-78 and a strokes-deducted total of 214.
DiNardo’s triumph, his first in this event, was six shots ahead of the field, including three golfers tied for the runner-up spot at net 220: Francis Phillips after gross rounds of 84-86-83, defending champion and first-round leader Dave Price (75-84-82) and Dave Derzius (82-76-83). In a terrific Saturday round, Derzius, a former Sterling Country Club and Westminster Country Club champ, matched his age with his 5-over-par round.
Finishing in fifth place at net 224 was last-minute entrant Allen Goguen (86-87-90) with a strong retro performance, turning back the clock 55 years to 1968 when he won both the Delay Memorial and the scratch flight of the club championship.
LeBlanc wins women’s championship
With rounds of 88-91 and a 36-hole total of 179 over the weekend, Brenna LeBlanc captured the 52nd Gardner Women’s Club Championship.
Mary Harris, who carded rounds of 93-92 for a 185 total, was runner-up, and also the net champion with a score of 163. Harris was followed by Terri Krieger (108-108-216), Mary Glotch (117-118-235) and Wendy Bedard (128-117-245).
For LeBlanc, the win was her fourth GMGC women’s club championship, adding to her victories in 2017, 2018 and 2022.
The first GMGC women’s champion was Elizabeth Glinski in 1971. Anita Goguen followed as the winner the next year and Agnes Gotantas captured the 1974 title. Patti Owen, no longer a GMGC member, owns the most women’s club championships with 12.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Gardner Municipal Golf Course championship: Bill Wilson wins again
