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Jim Borchelt Wins Northern
Open Title
Columbus, OH (20-21 June 1981)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jim Borchelt watched his ball trickle away from
the hole.
"I just hit it too easy," Borchelt muttered to himself s he tapped in for his
par at the fourth hole during the final round of the $10,000 Professional Putters
Association Northern Open.
With the miscue, Borchelt lost his bid for a perfect score. The error would be one of
Borchelt’s last in this, one of the PPA’s longest running events.
A 35-year-old landscaper from Loveland, Ohio, Borchelt would miss the relatively easy
13th hole and the 18th hole for a closing 21 and a dramatic
come-from-behind victory.
"It was one of those rounds where you know that everything you hit….well, you
just know that it’s going to go in the hole," said Borchelt, who overcame a
four-stroke deficit in the final round for a 214 total, 75-under par for eight rounds, and
a three-stroke triumph over near wire-to-wire pacesetter Eddie Coy.
The victory was worth $1,500 to Borchelt, the ex-Vietnam army veteran who recorded his
fourth triumph of the season and added another $1,000 to his bankroll by defeating Keith
Barfield, Dallas, Tex., 7 and 6 in the post-tournament match-play battle for a berth on
the 1981 "Super Putters Television Series."
Now a winner of more than 20 PPA events, including the 1977 National Championship on
this same Georgesville Rd. course, Borchelt increased his season money earnings to
$2,492.50 and his 19-year professional career total to $34,210.24, tenth on the all-time
PPA money winnings list.
"I never took the game seriously enough until 1972," said Borchelt, now one
of the few professionals to own two major PPA titles. "I feel that I can compete with
anybody and I play, too, to prove it to myself."
For Jim Borchelt…the proof was in the performance.
He began Sunday’s final 54 holes six shots in arrears of Coy, the diminutive
21-year-old apprentice electrician from Louisville, Kentucky, who in 1979 also won the
National title here.
Borchelt found himself further behind with a double-bogey at Sunday’s starting
hole. He recovered and salvaged the round with a 28. Followed that with a 27. Then came
Course No. 3, the "Pride of the North" was on his way. "I felt like I was
going to win the tournament when I made the 14th hole," said Borchelt of
the famed "Sally Dockery" test, one of the most notorious designs in PPA
tournament history.
Coy, meanwhile, held on for runner-up laurels and a $1,000 payday, an effort that
vaulted him to ninth on the 1981 PPA money list with $1,120.
Local professional John Napoli, one of two men in PPA and Putt-Putt Golf Course history
to score a "perfect game," was third at 219 and won $800.
Ed Haggerty of Charlotte, N.C., the reigning U.S. Match Play Champion who was bidding
for an unprecedented fourth consecutive major tournament title, was fourth at 220 and
earned $650, enough to move the game’s finest player the past 3 ½ seasons to 11th
on the all-time PPA money list with $31,600.66.
Two-time World Champion Dick Florin, an Atlanta bank executive, and local rookie Mark
Coup, a 16-year-old high school senior, shared fifth at 223, both winning $500.
Rounding out the top 10 were steady-playing Charlie Greenwalt, Indianapolis, Ind., 224;
1980 "Super Putters Television Series" winner March Portugal, Waco, Tex., 224;
Paul Pastilong, Cleveland, Ohio, 224; unheralded Dan Berendt, Cleveland, Ohio, 225 and
two-time National Champion Ray Browning, Cleveland, Ohio, 227.
Defending champion Mike Sherrill, Atlanta, Ga., tied for 11th at 228, the
1980 titleholder was in contention until suffering an eight on the fifth hole of the
seventh round.
Lacey Claims Northern Amateur
Local whiz Ken Lacey, competing in his first major event, turned in a closing
26 for a 225 total and a two-stroke victory in the Amateur Putters Association division of
the $10,000 Northern Open.
"It really hasn't hit me that I've won," said the 21-year-old Lacey, who
hopes to turn professional in the future.
Terry McCarthy, Cleveland, Ohio, who appears headed for an impressive career in the
Ladies Professional Putters Association, was second at 227 followed by local talent and
1979 National Amateur Champion Don Ferrell at 229. Richard Schnelle, Springfield, Ohio,
and Tony Gerbasi, Livonia, Mich., shared fourth at 231.
Rounding out the top 10 were Gretna, La., course owner Nick Gill, 232; former Junior
Putters Association standouts Greg Ward, Cleveland, Tenn., and David McCaslin, Memphis,
Tenn., both at 233; Paul Grider, Ft. Wayne, Ind., 234 and Allan Rausch, a local product,
234.
PPA Notes and Quotes
"There just ain't no point in me trying to play this game until
school’s out," said Chattanooga, Tenn., veteran high school teacher Vance
Randall during a practice round in Columbus. Incidentally, a very severe back problem has
taken its toll on Randall in recent years. "I had a buddy of mine extend the shaft on
my putter and I’m playing better."
"That’s just fantastic," said Ron Frederick, Toledo, Ohio, when he
learned of Jim Borchelt’s final round 21 to win the $10,000 Northern Open.
"Simply fantastic!"
Well…they did it. Dick and Evelyn Florin flew out of Columbus on Friday afternoon
and were in hometown Atlanta to see daughter Felicia take part in her dance recital, and
by 2 a.m. Saturday morning, the game’s most noted putting couple were back in
Columbus.
University of North Carolina (Charlotte) freshman Dean Dwiggins, who is battling Mark
Coup of Columbus, Ohio, for PPA "Rookie of the Year" honors has broken into the
victory column finally. Dwiggins outdueled veteran Randy Stone in the North Carolina PPA
Greensboro Open $500, June 24.
He has more PPA geographical listings than any pro in history---Miami, Louisville,
Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tommy Hoag is moving from Charlotte back to Atlanta.
"No, I’m really not that disappointed," said Ed Haggerty, the Charlotte
pro after seeing his bid for an unprecedented fourth straight major PPA tournament victory
end with his fourth-place finish in the Northern Open.
PPA National Tournament Directory Roger Moore is recovering from June 29th
surgery and is doing quite well. Roger is expected to be up and around in about two weeks.
"Bumping in Effect for National Championship"
The 32 spots for the morning flight for the 1981 National Championship are
nearly full. If you have an afternoon spot already and qualify again after the morning
flight fills up, the last person who qualified with a single spot and chose the morning
flight will be bumped into the afternoon flight. |