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Haggerty Triumphs
Augusta, GA (23-24 May 1981)
Augusta, GA - 23-24 May 1981 - Ed Haggerty ponders the
thought. Could Tom Watson work his magic here? Sure, two months earlier,
Watson had displayed his putting skills across town at Augusta National golf
Course, home of the famed Masters.
Augusta National ... that posh country club that Bobby Jones
built with its undulating and seductive greens. Augusta National ... where
Snead and Hogan and Nelson and Demaret and Palmer and Player and Nicklaus have
trekked.
It was cool April, springtime when Watson had earlier this
year held off Jack Nicklaus for a second Masters crown. This day, however, was
hot and humid and sultry. Ed Haggerty pondered the thought.
"Watson might even have trouble over here,"
Haggerty was saying in the wake of winning the $10,000 Professional Putters
Association Southeastern Open at the Ft. Gordon Highway Putt-Putt Golf Course.
The Ft. Gordon Highway layout ... the one that the late Tracy Moore, 1965
National PPA Champion, built in 1962. The one that Putt-Putt Golf Courses and
PPA founder Don Clayton remodeled in 1979. Where Connor and Schaefer and Smith
and Sapp and Williamson and Harritos and Strickland and the PPA veterans have
trekked over the years.
"You know," Haggerty continued, "Watson goes
for everything ... for every putt." "Great as he is, I believe, even
he would have trouble putting on this course." Like
Watson mastered Augusta, Haggerty mastered its micro counterpart.
With scores of 29-28-29-30-26-27-29-32 for a 230, 58-under
par, total, Haggerty claimed his second major title of the season and third
straight dating back to last year's U.S. Match-Play Championship.
Haggerty, a 21-year old N.C. State University junior from
Charlotte, NC, is the first player in PPA history to win three consecutive
major titles.
"I was four strokes ahead with nine holes to play and I
knew the only way to lose was to do something stupid and give it back,"
said Haggerty, who finished four strokes ahead of two-time and current PPA
National Champion Ray Browning, Euclid, Ohio, and two-time World PPA Champion
Dick
Florin, the Atlanta Bank executive. Browning and Florin each earned $900
each in a tie for second.
Haggerty, who now owns 12 tournament career triumphs, earned
$1,500 for the victory and added another $1,000 when he defeated long-time
rival Steve Lyon, Thomasville, NC, in the post-tournament match-play event
two-up for a berth on the 1981 Super Putters Television Series.
"This course give you some aces, but its those second
putts that you have to think about," said Haggerty, now 12th on the
all-time PPA money list with $30,791.66. "You had to think about where
you would be if your hole-in-one attempt missed."
In the Amateur Putters Association competition, Augusta
native Jim Schafer, now a computer technician in Kansas City, Kansas, breezed
to a five-shot victory. Schafer, 27, recorded scores of
29-28-33-32-32-30-30-28 for a 242 total. Local standout Butch Dabney followed
at 247 and Greg Ward of
Cleveland, Tenn., was third at 248. |