The Little 9-hole Course that “Could” Repeats as 2007 PLGA Team Champion at Griffith Park’s Harding Golf Course

Because of PLGA Team Play’s single-elimination format, just getting back to the Championship Match is unlikely.   Repeating? – that’s something that has not been accomplished in many a decade! 

But Pasadena’s “other public golf course,” as Eaton Canyon Team Play Champion Bill Barker likes to call it, did just that and did it in a rematch with the same Club they bested last year, South Bay Public Links of Los Verdes. 

Well, not exactly a rematch.  Eaton Canyon has so many Championship caliber players on its roster that it has begun fielding two teams each year in PLGA Team Play, and technically it was the other Eaton Canyon Team that defeated South Bay Public Links in 2006; however, it was certainly a rematch in the sense that South Bay Public Links defeated this “other” Eaton Canyon team on its way to the 2006 Championship Match – a win that wasn’t notched until South Bay Captain Lew Murez sank a 120-yard wedge for an Eagle 2 on the 2nd hole of a sudden death playoff.

So, each Team had a bit of rematch revenge on its mind entering the 2007 Championship Match – Eaton Canyon to assuage the hurt of Murez’ spectacular 2006 shot, South Bay Public Links to advance from bridesmaid to bride by beating the 2006 “bride.”

By a 12 – 6 margin it was the Eaton Canyon Team of Bill Fennessy (Captain), Bill Barker, Joe McCord, Dennis Chang, Adam Doty, and Chris Bohler that prevailed, leaving the men of South Bay Public Links in the role of bridesmaid for yet another year. 

“Bohler birdied 7 holes in the 4-ball he and his partner Adam Doty played against Valerio and me, and in defeating Swanson and Moore, Bill Barker and Joe McCord beat two players with remarkable winning percentages over the years in PLGA Team Play,” said Murez.  “Eaton Canyon earned the title.”

Captain Murez said that his team of Neil Moore, Chips Swanson, Chris Rossberg, Bob Suppelsa, and 2007 PLGA and Long Beach City Senior Champion Bob Valerio would give it another shot in 2008.  No doubt Eaton Canyon will.  We’ll just have to wait to see if they again field two Championship Teams, or if they’ll concentrate all their talent into one team.  Can anyone say, “threepeat?” 

EATON CANYON B-FLIGHT WINS!!!