2017 Richardson Memorial Invitational Recap

On Saturday, October 14th, Gerard Connolly of the Nassau Players Club defeated Brett Cooper 3 & 2 in the final match

to become 2017 Richardson Memorial Invitational Champion.

 

Jay Sessa of Gardiner's Bay CC defeated Rene Bosne, a 2017 LIGA Associate Member in 20 holes to win the Senior Masters Division.

For complete match play results, click here for the Championship Division and here for the Senior Masters Division.

 

The LIGA thanks the members and employees of the Seawane Club for the outstanding hospitality they show the Richardson competitors and the LIGA officials who are their guests year after year. Once again, those competitors who were new to the Richardson this year came away raving about the quality and the condition of the golf course and the level of amenities provided on the property and in the clubhouse.

The golf and the experience at the Seawane Club are top shelf. 

 

The final match in the Championship Division started off like a house afire: Cooper birdied the par four first hole to go one up, and then Connolly's birdies on the par four holes two and three merely kept him from falling further behind, as Cooper's first three hole scores totaled 9. Cooper won the short but water and sand-infested par four fourth hole with a four to go two up, but lost the long par three fifth to Connolly's par, which brought it back to one up. They halved the next four holes with pars, Connolly making a particularly impressive par five on the ninth, from the right rough, over a no man's land of humps, bumps, pot bunkers and fescue, to a very challenging back right hole location. When Cooper bogied the 10th hole, with its impossibly-shallow green, the match was all square. They both bogied the difficult par three 11th, but Cooper took the lead again with a par on the short par four 12th, with its very narrow fairway flanked by ribbons of sand and its sideways-tilted green. Cooper then proceeded to drive the ball left on the par four 13th, a major mistake because the whole left side is flanked by one of Seawane's famous canals, and the five yards of dry land next to the canal all down that side is thickly-covered with 10 foot tall phragmites reeds; Connolly won the hole with a bogie to square the match again. On the treacherous par three 14th, playing at over 200 yards, with its huge windswept green and a wickedly placed hole location almost off the back of the green, Connolly took command (and his first lead of the match) with a dagger of a six iron to four feet. He than added a second consecutive birdie by hitting his third shot on the long par five 15th to eight feet. He then won the match when Cooper, lying four on the 16th green, outside Connolly's lying two ball position of seven feet below the hole, conceded the hole. 

 

In the Senior Masters Division final match, Sessa took control by winning the long par four seventh hole, and was two up after 14; Bosne won the par five 15th with birdie, to cut his deficit in half. Then they halved 16 with pars and Bosne dropped a birdie putt on 17 on top of Sessa's birdie for another halve.  Sessa came up short of the 18th green, in the runway, with his second shot, but his long putt slid by the hole and continued to fall away from the hole into a little trough behind it on the green. Bosne, who had 20 feet for birdie, rammed his putt; it caught some of the hole and stopped four feet beyond. Sessa then missed his 12 foot putt, and Bosne made his second putt to win the 18th with par and send the match to extra holes. They halved the 19th hole with pars, but Bosne could not par the 20th, and the match was over.

 

On Friday, Gerard Connolly of the Nassau Players Club, Jason Monroe of Fenway Golf Club, Jay Card III of Gardiner's Bay Country Club and defending Champion Brett Cooper of the home club each won two matches in the Richardson Memorial Invitational Championship-Championship Division  to reach the semifinals. In the Senior Masters Division, Jay Sessa of Gardiner's Bay Country Club and Rene Bosne, a 2017 LIGA Associate Member, each won two matches to reach the final. 

 

Kevin Talty, a 2017 LIGA Associate Member, shot even par 71 on Thursday (Day One) in the 2017 Richardson Memorial Invitational Championship-Championship Division at the Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor to lead 15 other competitors into match play. In the Senior Masters Division, Jay Sessa of Gardiner's Bay Country Club also shot 71 to lead 7 other competitors into their match play bracket.

For complete Day One scoring, click here for the Championship Division and here for the Senior Masters Division.

There was a 9 for 2 match of cards at 78 to make match play in the Championship Division; there was originally a 3 for 2 match of cards at 80 in the Senior Masters Division; however, Peter Rymer withdrew soon after that, allowing the third player who shot 80 (Tom Fox) to qualify for match play.