It was a chilly morning at Gross when the Valley Team kicked off the Metro Senior League Season a little after 7:30 in the morning with temperatures hovering just below 40 degrees. Valley was pitted against the home team, but the conditions were against everyone. The winter was not good to Gross with lots of winter kill and variable speed greens compounding the play. Jeff Towey led the Valley team with a solid 40 on the front nine, tying the Gross team captain and halving the points at 1 apiece. Things got tougher on the back as Towey struggled a bit why his opponent shot a nice 38 and took the back and the match. Dean Penk struggled on the front and his opponent ate him up going 6 up. But Dean righted the ship and was able to tie the back nine. Dave Schoeller got off to a slow start going down three holes in the first four but stormed back with three wins, and taking the front nine up 1. The back was a little tougher but he rallied to tie the back and win the match for 5 points. Captain Sheldon Silberman waded holes for the first half of the front until rallying late to win the front up 1. However, his opponent found his groove in the middle of the back and held off Silberman’s late comeback to win the back and the match. The Valley team went down 9-15 and ended up in 2nd to last place after the first week.
The Golden team (Slivken, Von Eschen, Hop, and Bischel) opened the season facing off against Columbia at Gross. There were some outstanding rounds. Steve Slivken shot his age (75), a net 67, to handily defeat his opponent for 6 points. John Von Eschen faced an opponent whose net 73 was able to eak out a win on the front, and also win the back for 0 points. Stan Hop (net 74) easily won his match for 6 points. Tom Bischel faced an absolute buzz saw, the 84 year old Bill Broeckert, who shot well below his age (81, net 67) for 0 points. So, 6, 0 ,6, 0; 12 points. You could say Golden is in the middle of the pack tied for 5th.
Next week Valley and Golden go head-to-head against at Heritage Links.
