ESTERO, Fla. (Jan. 5, 2011) -- Fifty-four holes of competition were not enough to crown a champion at the 2012 Old Corkscrew Senior Championship which was the season opening event for the top senior amateur golfers. After three rounds, Ron Carter who resides in Monticello, Indiana and Sam Till who makes his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana found themselves tied at 229.
The playoff which started and was concluded on the eighteenth hole was finally settled after three extra holes. Carter, who was the leader after two rounds, beat Till who was the defending champion in the Senior Division. Carter shot rounds of 79, 73 and 77.
In the Super-Senior Division, Ted Smith who also resides in Indiana, never relinquished the first round lead and went on to win with a score of 234. Smith who opened the tournament with a round of 78 sealed the championship by shooting closing rounds of 76 and 80. Fred Silver who lives in Lewiston, NY, and Jerry Caplinger from Shelbyville, Indiana tied for second. Tuesday, round one, the cast of 76 players who entered the tournament not only had to deal with the wonderful challenge that Old Corkscrew offers, they also awoke and had to deal with the overnight frigid temperatures which had dropped into the 30’s.
When the tournament started temperatures hovered around 50 degrees. But to further torment the players, wind gusts at times also topped thirty miles-of-hour.
To avoid the frost delay which was expected for the second round on Wednesday, tee times were moved back to one hour later. This decision allowed the players to be greeted to warmer weather, lighter winds and much friendlier course set-up that the tournament committee had planned for this year’s tournament. In the final round, players received the type of weather Southwest Florida had experienced over the past month, and overall scores dropped significantly.
All the planning in the world can be done to soften the course set-up, which we did, but nothing can prepare us for the outside elements that mother-nature sometimes delivers. Despite the unseasonable cold weather that players unfortunately found in their opening round, having a three hole playoff to crown a champion demonstrates that the course set-up was extremely fair but remained a challenge’, stated Mark Iwinski, General Manager, Old Corkscrew Golf Course.
Old Corkscrew Senior Invitational Golf Tournament: Top Finishers
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Northern California