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Elmcrest members win Senior Four-Ball Championship

Date: 6/19/2015

KINGSTON – They had to battle rain, wind, cold temperatures and a strong field but in the end the team of Jack Kearney and Bill Barry Jr., both of East Longmeadow’s Elmcrest Country Club, proved that nothing could stop them from becoming the 2015 Massachusetts Senior Four-Ball Champions.

Following 36 holes at four-ball stroke play over two days and two courses – Pembroke Country Club and Indian Pond Country Club – the duo finished with a 7-under-par score of 136, two strokes better than the team of Marc Forbes (Norton Country Club) and Bill Vine (Foxborough Country Club) and more than enough for them to claim their first-ever team Massachusetts Golf Association Championship title.

“This feels good,” Barry said. “We have been playing in these events for so long that we trust each other, we coach each other and we know that whatever happens will happen. We never get upset at each other. This is fun.”

The road to victory was one that they will remember for many years. After all, they began the title pursuit on June 2 in Pembroke where they played two-under par golf through their final seven holes – including a key birdie on Pembroke’s 335-yard par 4 ninth hole – to remain in contention with a 1-under par 70 and just two strokes off the overall lead.

“Yesterday was way more important than today,” Kearney said. “We could have totally blown ourselves out of the water, but we didn’t. We hung in there and made a lot of good pars and then birdied the last hole.”

On June 3, under much favorable weather conditions at Indian Pond Country Club, Kearney and Barry knew that those both above and right below them on the leaderboard would be in hot pursuit. And indeed they were.

Kevin Carey – a two-time winner of this event – and his partner Joe Walker, both of Dennis Pines Golf Club, were just one stroke off the lead at the turn, but despite making birdie on their final hole of the day fell just short at 4-under par 139.

Earlier in the day, the team of Robert Locke and Dean Parziale of Cummaquid Golf Club had posted a score of 4-under par 139 and were waiting comfortably in the clubhouse.

Forbes and Vine continued their solid play and were leaders in the clubhouse for about an hour with a score of 5-under par 138.

But once Kearney and Barry signed their scorecard just after 6 p.m., they knew that they might have done something special. After making the turn on Wednesday at 3-under par 33, the duo made three birdies and zero bogies down the stretch.

“Jack played wonderfully well and my job was to hang around and make a few birdies and I did,” said Barry, who last November underwent a right knee replacement.

A quick look at their scorecard said it all. It was an example of pure and classic four-ball play as both competitors contributed on both nines.

Barry kickstarted the “perfect” stretch of golf with a birdie on the 531-yard, par 5 eighth hole. Kearney followed by making birdie on the 13th and 16th holes. Looking back on that final nine, however, both players credited Barry’s par save on the 14th hole for keeping the momentum moving forward. After all, he somehow managed to send his 4-rescue shot over the trees and onto the green.

Despite posting a tournament-low round of 6-under par 66, Kearney’s face showed more concern than joy when they signed their scorecard.

“I missed making birdie on the last hole so I didn’t know what that would mean,” said Kearney.

“Back in 2010, we lost to [Paul] Murphy and [Jim] Finnerty,” explained Barry. “They made up five shots over the last four holes on us, and we played even with a bogey on 17 to lose by a shot. This feels great.”

The warmth of the moment did wonders to erase any memories of the day before.

Victory has a way of doing that.