Paul Simson (left) and Don Detweiler needed sixth extra holes to secure yet another senior four-ball title.
MEBANE, N.C. (August 10, 2019) -- They’ve done it again. Paul Simson and Don Detweiler of Raleigh persevered through a six-hole, three-team playoff on Sunday at Mill Creek Golf Club to win their third North Carolina Senior Four-Ball Championship. The win gives the duo an eighth CGA four-ball title as a team.
“The older you get, the better it gets,” said Detweiler. “It’s a fun place to play. I knew we'd love this course, because I knew we could score here. It's just a beautiful course.”
The two had their work cut out for them in Sunday’s final round. After 54 holes of regulation play, they found themselves tied with defending champions Kelly Stimart and Johnny Elam of Charlotte and 2006 champions Bob Desjardins of Mathews and Bill Boles of Wilson.
The three teams finished at 18-under-par 198 for the championship. The playoff started, and finished, on the par-4, 18th hole. The first three times playing No. 18, no one was able to make a birdie. For the fourth playoff hole, the groups moved to the par-4, 10th hole where Desjardins and Boles dropped out with a bogey to pars for the other two teams. After the short 17th hole was halved with pars, Detweiler rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the playoff and the championship.
“There were lots of critical issues for every team out there,” said Simson. “We just finally persevered and finally made a birdie.”
Of the three playoff teams, Simson and Detweiler were the only pair to play bogey-free for the entire championship—60 holes including the playoff.
“We didn't make a lot of putts but we made enough putts,” Simson said. “We had a lot of low-stress holes. We only had a hole or two where we had to make a 5- or 6-footer for par.”
At 66 and 68-years-old, the two are eligible for super senior events but are still dominating any tournament they enter as a team. Earlier this year, they won the Carolinas Super Senior Four-Ball Championship. They’ll be the defending champions this fall at the Carolinas Super Senior Four-Ball Championship.
