Ford and Moran Repeat at OSWGA Team Championship

By BOB DICK

Maureen Ford and Ann Moran don’t practice a whole lot during the week. If they get in a round of 18 in anywhere they are lucky. More often than not that doesn’t happen.

But when they get together for team competition, watch out! A year ago Ford and Moran combined shots to win four team titles along the Rhode Island women’s amateur golf circuit.

This year they have started out strong again. They finished second in a couple of early OSWGA events and then put everything together to win OSWGA’s R.I. Women’s State Team Championship at pristine Quidnessett Country Club. Again.

After all 118 players scores had been tabulated, Ford and Moran wound up with an 80 but so did perennial favorite Kibbe Reilly (RICC) and her Montaup partner Nancy Diemoz.

Since no ties are allowed in golf and plus the fact there was no room on the course for playoff holes (a tournament had already started immediately after the OSWGA event concluded), it was decided to match cards on the second nine. Ford and Moran totaled a 39 for those nine holes while Reilly and Diemoz were one stroke more at 40.

Now, if you think you have read this before concerning this tournament and these two ladies, you are correct. A year ago at Quidnessett, Moran and Ford were declared winners at this same tournament in the same manner. They tied for first in the Championship Division with two other teams and were declared the winners when they, again, matched cards on the back nine and, again had the low score.

And, guess what? Reilly again came in second with her partner at the time Jen Hendrick. The other team was the North Kingstown duo of Kim Schold and Cissy Grady. This year Schold and Grady finished third with an 81.

“Actually, this year we should have had a much lower score,” declared Ford. “We missed five or six birdie putts from distances of under five feet.” Added Moran,” I think we lipped out at least two or three. We just couldn’t get the ball into the hole. And, for whatever reason, we both thought the greens were slower. We couldn’t make ourselves hit the putts harder. To us the greens looked faster then they were.”

As for not getting much practice time, Ford says they have too many other things going on. “We probably play once a week at tournaments like this and playing once a week hurts our short game. It’s not as sharp as it should be and that’s why we’re not scoring as well as we should. In this tournament, I played fairly well on the first nine and then Ann took over on the back nine.”

Moran jokes that she is not a morning person. “I tell her she has to be good on the first nine because I’m still asleep and then I’ll take over on the back nine. And that’s the way we generally play,” continues Moran.

As for the team of Reilly and Diemoz, playing for the first time together, they know exactly where they lost their chance at victory – the par 4 10^th and the par 5 11^th holes.

They doubled the 10^th from the middle of the fairway and bogeyed the 11^th. “If we had just bogeyed the 10^th, we would have won,” lamented Reilly. “That was just a bad hole for us.”

Green Valley’s Victoria Johnson, competing in the A-Division, provided the one major individual highlight at this tournament when she eagled the par 4 15^th . That came when her 9-wood second shot carried over a tree from the right rough, hit the pin and dropped into the cup for a remarkable 2. Johnson and her partner, Susie Kim, also from Green Valley, were rewarded for that shot when they captured low gross honors in the A-Division with an 85.

In other division play, Laurel Lane’s Carol Wilson and Jean Maack were the low net scorers in the Championship Division with a 68.

Low net honors in the A-Division went to Exeter’s Shirley Booth and Swansea’s Daniele Gamache, who shot a 70.

The Country View team of Denise Berry and Jackie Schooley were the low gross winners in the B-Division with a 92. The low net honors went to Yung Park from Triggs and Yung Wan Kim from East Greenwich with a 71.