Daryl Freeman Wins Second Elton Davis Memorial Title (16-17 August 2003)

Daryl Freeman Fires Second Day 95 to Claim Second Career Elton Davis Memorial Title

Daryl Freeman
1975 and 2003 Elton Davis Memorial Champion

August 16-17, 2003 - The 29th annual Elton Davis Memorial Tournament may go down as the most exciting ever after seven players had a legitimate shot with the final eighteen holes to play. Two shots separated the pack going into the final round and it featured a five-way tie for first in the process.

The Elton Davis returned to a two-day, eight-format for the first time since the 1999 Elton Davis Memorial. It spotlighted defending champion Greg Newport, first ever champion Daryl Freeman, and the other former champion in attendance, Randy Reeves. Despite the format returning to a two-day event on both courses, a low turnout of 28 pros and 13 APA's gathered in the event that began back in 1975.

Newport would start out his run at a successful defense by opening the first round with a 23 to lead by two shots over Tommy Barbour and Randy Carter. Newport struggled into the second with a clean 30 and was passed for the lead. Four players, including Barbour, Rick Baird, Opie Roberts, and Steve Shively, who posted the only perfect nine in the tournament during the front nine of the second round for a 23, were tied for the lead at 51. Newport was two back at 53 and tied for fifth with Jeff Spainhour.

The third round would belong to Roberts as he posted a 25 to take the outright lead at 76. Roberts enjoyed his first outright lead of the season and was up by one over Baird, Barbour, and Newport. Newport came back to take the lead at the break after he fired a 25 for a score of 102. Baird shot 26 to move into the second slot at 103, and Roberts slipped with a 28 but rounded out the lead pairing on Sunday with a score of 104. Barbour was also tied with Roberts for the third position, while Shively was tied with Spainhour and Mike Griffin for fifth at 107. Freeman was entering Sunday's play six strokes back and tied for eighth.

Also, in the APA Division, Brian Hutchins, 2001 winner of the Elton Davis, fired a third round 26 to take a three-shot lead over Matt Page and then held on to the lead by two strokes at the break. Hutchins was in the clubhouse at that point with a score of 107, with Page two back at 109, and four players were tied for third, but 10 shots behind Hutchins.

Sunday's play began with the annual Elton Davis Dedication Award, given to the one player who was most dedicated to the sport of Putt-Putt. Bill Kirby was there to present the honor to Gary English, but English was not available to appear.

After the presentation, play resumed on Course 2. The race for first began to tighten up. Baird shot 25, along with Roberts and Barbour. Baird moved into a share of first with Newport at 128, with Roberts and Barbour both a stroke back at 129. It would look like the tournament would end early as Barbour shot a blistering 22 in the sixth round to manage a three-shot lead. Barbour would go in the house with a score of 151. His lead was by three over Newport and Freeman, by four over Baird and Andy Coradini, and five over Roberts and Spainhour. Barbour then started to feel pressure into the seventh round as he fired a 2-under 16 on the front to re-open the door for the chasers.

Barbour shot 28 in the seventh round to go in at 179. Freeman fired a 25 to join him, and the lead pack (Newport, Baird, Roberts) also shot their way into a share of first. Baird aced 18 to shoot 24, and Newport took a rare bogey on 18 to go in at 179 as well. Roberts capitalized by firing a back nine 10, including acing 17 & 18 to make it a five-way tie for first. Shively was a shot back at 180 and Spainhour was in at 181 heading into an exciting final round.

Meanwhile, in the APA Division, Hutchins and Page were still battling amongst each other. Hutchins opened up a four-shot lead over Page when he fired a 22 to go in at 129. Page rebounded and moved to within one stroke when he shot 23. Hutchins still had the lead at 155 through six rounds. Hutchins pulled away in the seventh round with another 26 and led by two. Then, he pulls away from Page even more. Hutchins carded his third consecutive 26 to finish the event with a score of 207. Hutchins would win the event by five over Page, who finished at 212 and Keith Waters wound up in a distant third at 223.

Of the five players tied for first going in, Newport was going for his second straight Elton win and his third major state tour win this season. Freeman was going for his third win of the season, Baird was gunning for his first win in 14 months, Roberts was going for his first NC win in two years and first PPA win since last August, while Barbour was attempting to win for the first time in his career. Roberts was opening the final round with a flourish with aces on five of the first six holes. The final twelve holes marked the end of a potentially surprising upset as Roberts took five bogey strokes within the stretch, including a pair of fours on two critical holes to drop him all the way to an eighth place finish.

Freeman was the first amongst the leaders to finish play as he posted a 24 to go in at 203. With the lead group only -8 through 15, Barbour was the only player that had a shot at Freeman. Barbour needed the last two holes to force a playoff. Barbour aced 17, but missed his tee shot on 18 to the right and had to make the deuce to clinch at least a share of second. Baird followed in with an ace on 17, but needed 18 to wind up in a share of second. His tee shot was missed on 18 and wound up tied for third. As a result, Freeman would eventually become the 2003 Elton Davis Memorial Champion and won the event for the second time in his career. Freeman won the inaugural event in 1975 with a NCPPA tour record score of 67.

Barbour finished in second at 204. Baird tied Spainhour for third at 205. Newport finished alone in fifth at 206. Coradini and Shively finished tied for sixth at 207, while Roberts was eighth at 209. Randy Carter placed ninth at 212, including the tournament's low round of 21 in the fifth round on Sunday. Lance Perdue rounded out the top ten at 214. Randy Carter earned both his NC State Medal Play and Match Play spots, Lance Perdue earned his NC State Medal Play spot, and David Gregor earned the APA State spot.

The next scheduled weekend on the NCPPA tour is scheduled for the weekend of August 30 & 31 in Martinsville, Virginia. This is the last regular season weekend on the tour and the weekend's events are on Course 2. Tournament action on Saturday, August 30 gets underway at 12:00 p.m. and Sunday's tournament will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Tournament recap provided by Opie Roberts and scores provided by Rick Rybaczek..

Professional Scores from the 2003 Elton Davis Memorial
(Burlington, N.C. - 16-17 August 2003)

		Round									NC Tour	Prize
	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Points	Money
1	Freeman, Daryl	29	29	24	26	24	22	25	24	203	40.00	$ 350.00
2	Barbour, Tommy	25	26	26	27	25	22	28	25	204	34.00	$ 275.00
3	Baird, Rick	27	24	26	26	25	27	24	26	205	32.50	$ 200.00
	Spainhour, Jeff	27	26	27	27	26	23	25	24	205	32.50	$ 200.00
5	Newport, Greg	23	30	24	25	26	26	25	27	206	31.00	$ 150.00
6	Shively, Steve	28	23	29	27	23	28	22	27	207	29.50	$ 125.00
	Coradini, Andy	26	28	27	27	23	24	28	24	207	29.50	$ 125.00
8	Roberts, Opie	26	25	25	28	25	27	23	30	209	28.00	$ 115.00
9	Carter, Randy	25	30	30	27	21	27	28	24	212	27.00	$ 110.00
10	Perdue, Lance	27	32	26	27	23	27	25	27	214	26.00	$ 100.00
11	Witcofski, Lee	26	29	29	26	28	25	26	26	215	25.00	$ 95.00
12	Lebo, Brad	31	30	25	30	22	24	28	26	216	24.00	$ 90.00
13	Haizlip, Bob	28	29	29	25	27	27	26	26	217	22.50	$ 83.00
	Britt, Darrell	28	26	31	30	23	27	25	27	217	22.50	$ 83.00
15	Jackson, Tony	33	31	28	27	26	23	24	26	218	21.00
16	Griffin, Mike	28	27	26	26	30	29	26	27	219	19.50
	Carter, Rick	28	30	25	28	29	24	30	25	219	19.50
18	Bunting, Chris	31	28	30	26	28	26	26	25	220	17.50
	Johnson, Robert	31	29	27	30	27	27	25	24	220	17.50
20	Landin, Bear	30	30	27	29	28	24	28	26	222	16.00
21	Rybaczek, Rick	31	26	25	31	26	29	29	26	223	14.50
	Guthrie, Ray	28	29	27	37	25	23	29	25	223	14.50
23	Mersereau, Hank	29	29	30	25	28	27	26	32	226	13.00
24	Caudle, Billy	29	28	26	26	29	31	27	31	227	11.50
	Reeves, Randy	31	28	29	29	31	31	25	23	227	11.50
26	Smith, Adam	28	29	31	28	27	25	30	32	230	10.00
27	Varnadore, Tony	29	29	30	33	27	26	26	31	231	9.00
28	Cardwell, Michael	26	33	33	32	31	24	27	29	235	8.00