Far Oaks Continues to Play Tough for National Championship Competitors

 

With near perfect scoring conditions, the players at the US Deaf Golf Championships keep battling a tough golf course with every shot in their bags.  Several holes are giving the field of the nations best deaf golfers fits.

 

Susan Zupnik holds a slim 2 shot lead in the Women’s Division.  Her lead would be larger if it were not for the 8^th hole.  A par four with a creek that crosses the fairway halfway to the elevated green has been a monster.  Zupnik challenged herself to cross the creek with her tee shot and two times in a row lost her ball.  This led to a 10 and most of her large lead was gone.  She is up only a few shots on Lauri Ponikiewski who rallied today with a strong score of 79.  Her round was consistent with nine’s of 39-39 and a near hole in one on the 7^th with the ball stopping only inches from the cup.  Defending champion Patty Sue Ploysa inched closer to the leaders.  Her round of 80 was the second best ladies score of the day.  Ploysa shot a 2 over 38 on her first nine and was cruising until she made 5 bogeys in a row.  She is 8 behind Zupnik and 6 out of second place.

 

John Rush from Colorado pulled away from his Senior Division competitors.  He tied for low round of the day with a one under par score of 71.  He made 5 birdies in his round starting at #2 and followed at #6, 8, 10 and 18.  Neil Johnson is 10 shots behind after a round of 76. He had two birdies but played the easy par 5’s at Far Oaks in four over par hurting his chances of staying close to Rush.

 

Kevin Hall managed his third straight under par round, but it was a struggle.  He made 5 birdies but drowned those away with 2 double bogeys.  Hall has made three doubles in his last 24 holes costing him 6 shots to par.  His birdies came at holes #5, 10, 17 and 18.  On his third hole of the day Hall over shot the green landing in tall grass and bushes.  An unplayable lie and penalty shot accounted for the double bogey there.  Then on #15, the dangerous par three with a creek in front of the green and the pin placed in the back left corner, Hall turned his draw shot a little too much and the ball found the water.  He chipped on and two putted for a five.  Second place belongs to Doren Granberry, but he is 18 shots behind Hall.  The second best round for the day belonged to Keith Worek from Rochester, N.Y.  The current President of the USDGA made two birdies in his round of 75 to move into third place, only five behind Granberry.

 

The final round is tomorrow and tee times have been pushed back one hour and are scheduled to start at 8:30.  A strong storm in the afternoon after the completion of play dumped over an inch of rain on Far Oaks.  The forecast for Friday’s final round is for a sunny cool day with the high around 80 degrees.