Jim Engel Dominates in the Early Rounds and Holds on to Win the Monroeville Classic
Bonnie White (APA) on left and Jim Engel (PPA) on right
Winners of the 2004 Monroeville Classic2 May 2004 - Monroeville, PA - Sometimes you can have a bad last round and to come out on top. For Jim Engel dominating the early rounds of a major and a little help from Mother Nature at the end of the tournament garnered him his first win of the GLT season. In an almost flawless performance Jim dominated the GLT field with some spectacular putting for 6 rounds.
Despite some overcast skies and fast carpet throughout the morning, scores were very competitive. The rains that were forecast for the entire day held off almost the entire tournament, with the exception of a small amount of wind and rain during the final round.
Engel found himself with a 1 shot lead over Westlake’s Scott Buddie and Gahanna’s Paul Johns after round 1. In round 2 Engel had increased his lead to 5 shots over local pro Mike O’Rourke and after 3 rounds Engel had blistered the course with a score of 71. This gave Engel a 7 shot lead over John Bambling who fired a very respectable 78.
Engel increased his lead once again after round four with a solid 26. In second place were Todd Viau and the winner on Saturday Jim Cruse. In the last two rounds is where the momentum seemed to take a turn has Viau and Cruse found a way to cut into Engel’s lead by shooting scores of 23 and 24 to be only 4 and 5 back respectively of Engel going into the final round. In the final round the weather decided it needed to get into the tournament and the wind picked up and rain stared to fall with about 10 holes to play for the last 9 players. Viau had taken the lead after 7 holes and it was back and forth between Viau and Engel until Viau took bogies on holes 17 and 18 to fall short by one stroke. Engel played brilliantly all day and despite the bad weather at the end Engel won with a dominating performance. GLT spots were awarded to Engel, Viau, O’Rourke, Bambling and James Weber, who claimed his second spot with a victory in an 18-hole playoff over Craig Williams, Jay Hadsell and Tom O’Brien.
Reigning APA World Champion Bonnie White Wins Monroeville Classic APA Title
2 May 2004 - Monroeville, PA - In the APA division, the reigning APA World Champion Bonnie White won her first GLT major as an APA with a 7 shot victory over the current GLT APA State Champion Walt Kizzie. Bonnie opened the event with a solid 26 and that put her one back of leaders Don Cherry and Don Matthews who both shot 25’s. Going into the lunch break Don Matthew’s had the lead by two over local Karen Hastings with his 79. After the lunch break is where Bonnie got hot and just blew away the APA field by shooting a spectacular 73 for a total of 156, which also was lower than the pro score of 158. In second place was Walt Kizzie shooting a fine score of 163. GLT spots were earned by White, Kizzie, Jeff Brown, Don Cherry and Andy McCoy.
Scores provided and tournament recap provided by Robb Titchell.
Professional Division of the 2004 Monroeville Classic
(Monroeville, PA - Course #3 - 2 May 2004)
Round Prize GLT GLT Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Money Points Spots 1 Jim Engel 25 23 23 26 28 33 158 $275.00 150 Medal 2 Todd Viau 28 26 26 26 23 30 159 $190.00 128 Medal 3 Mike O'Rourke 27 26 27 29 28 24 161 $170.00 113 Medal 4 John Bambling 28 27 23 29 27 29 163 $127.50 101.5 Medal Jim Cruse 28 27 27 24 24 33 163 $127.50 101.5 6 James Weber 30 26 25 27 28 29 165 $67.50 79.25 Match Tom O'Brien 29 30 24 27 25 30 165 $67.50 79.25 Jay Hadsell 32 26 26 26 28 27 165 $67.50 79.25 Craig Williams 29 29 28 27 24 28 165 $67.50 79.25 10 Robb Titchell 29 30 31 27 27 22 166 63 11 Dom Perry 27 28 31 30 26 25 167 57 12 Bill Thompson 28 26 29 29 27 29 168 53 13 Bill Baus 28 30 27 28 24 32 169 48 14 Scott Buddie 26 28 28 25 29 34 170 37 Paul Johns 26 29 31 28 26 30 170 37 John Ventura 33 23 30 27 30 27 170 37 Ken Hastings 33 32 26 26 25 28 170 37 18 James White 30 27 28 27 30 31 173 27 19 Harry Sykes 34 27 29 32 27 26 175 24 Amateur Division of the 2004 Monroeville Classic
(Monroeville, PA - Course #3 - 2 May 2004)
Round Expense GLT GLT Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Money Points Spots 1 Bonnie White 26 26 31 25 23 25 156 $45.00 60 Medal 2 Walt Kizzie 31 27 27 27 23 28 163 $40.00 51 Match Jeff Brown 29 28 27 27 27 30 168 $40.00 45 Match Don Cherry 25 31 29 27 29 28 169 $40.00 42 Medal 5 Andy McCoy 32 25 28 28 28 29 170 $40.00 39 Match Don Mathews 25 29 25 28 33 32 172 $20.00 34.5 7 Karen Hastings 28 26 27 32 35 24 172 $20.00 34.5 8 John Tuite 32 26 27 31 31 26 173 30 9 Barb Mingo 31 28 27 36 24 31 177 29 10 Bill Combs
