Key/Rifkin win Southern States Four-Ball
Jimmy Key, Marty Rifkin
JUPITER, Florida (Jan. 13, 2013) --Former
MLB
pitcher Jimmy Key and teammate Marty
Rifkin
won the featured Mid-Am divisiion of the
10th
Southern States 4-Ball with a final round
5-
under-par 67 Sunday at Jonathan's
Landing Old
Trail.
Palm Beach Gardens' Key, who
pitched 15 years for the Blue Jays,
Yankees and
Orioles, carried most of the load for their
36-
hole lead, but it was Rifkin, of Jupiter, who
nailed the championship with a pair of
long
birdie putts on the final nine to break
away from
a tight pack of contenders. They finished
at -13-
under 203 to win by two strokes over
Jupiter's
Mike Weeks and Palm Beach Gardens'
Scott
Wilson.
Rifkin ran in a 35-footer on the
14th
hole to put his team in front, then nailed
another long birdie at 17 from 51 feet to
end
the drama.
Clarence Hardison of Fuquay
Varina
NC and Skip Runnels of Richmond IN, won
the
Senior division in a playoff over Randy
Elliott of
Winter Park and Robert Hess of
Casselberry.
Hess holed a 20-foot birdie on the final
hole of
regulation to force the playoff, both teams
tied
at 14-under 202. Hardison ended the
match by
making a curling, 30-foot birdie on the
second
extra hole and watched as both
opponents
missed birdies from shorter distances.
Charles Bagby of Hobe Sound
and
Peter Roby of Gulfstream ran away with
the new
Super Senior division, notching an 8-under
208
for a 10-stroke romp.
The Southern Golf Association
tournament, which featured several
former U.S.
Walker Cup members and other longtime
amateur golf luminaries. will be held in
2014 at
Mayacoo CC in West Palm.