Team of Petrella, Toscano takes first-round lead in Pro-Pro tournament
This is one time that the first shall be last, but you won’t hear Dave Petrella and Harry Toscano complain about it. Petrella and Toscano, both playing out of the Stonecrest Golf Club in Ellwood City, combined for an 11-under-par 60 yesterday to take the first round lead in the annual Pro-Pro Golf Classic, being played at the Uniontown Country Club. Scoring is based on best ball of two.
The second and final round, which is open to the public at no charge, will be played today, with the first teeoff slated for 7:53 a.m.
But Petrella and Toscano won’t have to worry about getting up that early. Because of their first place status, they earned the right to a few more winks of sleep, and the honor of being last in the field to teeoff today. Tournament officials explained that the lower your score, the later you will be teeing off, and in this case, Petrella and Toscano will be going off 59th.
They finished one stroke ahead of Jonathon Clark (Sleepy Hollow Golf Course, Hurricane, W. Va.) and Sean Farren (Totteridge Golf Club, Greensburg), who came in with 61, and also earned a little extra sleep. Then came three pairs at 63, Mike Spolarich (Night Hawk GC, Bowie, Md.) and Brian Meyer (Pine Ridge GC, Bel Air, Md.), Michael O’Connor (The Kahkwa Club, Erie) and Billy Anderson (Eagle Point GC, N.C.), and host Uniontown CC Pro Steve Superick and John Aubrey (Aubrey’s Dubbs Dread GC, Butler).
Of their lead, Toscano said “for 16 holes, it was marvelous, but those last two holes were (Hades). We had bogies on 17 (366, 4) and 18 (163, 3), just hitting lousy shots, and that kept us from breaking 60, for we were 13-under after 16.”
They got off to a torrid start, with a nine-under-27 on the front nine, starting with birdies on the first five holes, par, bird, eagle on eight (516, 5), and bird. Then came two more birds and another eagle 14 (466, 5), before the last two missteps.
Petrella said “I got an eight-foot putt on eight for our first eagle, and a 10-footer on 14. We hit good drives and good second shots to the green to get both. We did everything good for 16 holes, we drove well, we got on the greens, we putted well, but then came those last two.”
Toscano added “the 17th has punished us over the years, but on the 18th we just ran out of Advil.”
Petrella said, “We had a lot of fun making those birds and eagles. We had never been 13 under before so this was a new experience for us. I putted better than I had been doing lately, but Harry hits them so straight and long that all I have to worry about is putting and keeping score.”
To which Toscano added, “Don’t let him kid you. He was impressive out there.”
Clark and Farren started off with a par on one, then came two birds, an eagle on four (281, 4), and five successive birds to finish the front nine at 8-under-28. Birds on 14 and 16 left them two-under 33 on the back nine, and 10-under for the day, alone in second place.
Clark said of their eagle “four is a tight par four, but I drove the green and got a 30-foot putt. We were eight-under after the first nine, but we couldn’t get anything going on the back nine. We missed a two-foot birdie putt on 10, then didn’t pick up again until getting birds on 14 and 16 (364, 4). The pins were tough all day, especially on the back nine, but we did hit close and got some birds. Sean made a 40-foot putt on seven (301, 4) to get a bird. Overall, we hit the greens in regulation and had a lot of one and two-putt greens.”
Meyer noted he and Spolarich “played solid, with no bogies. On the front nine, we missed a couple of birdie putts, but then we picked up after that and had a lot of one and two-putt greens.”
Spolarich added “Bryan is a long hitter and his driver got us jump-started on the back. He birdied 10 (284, 4), 11 (166, 3), and 12 (322, 4), I birdied 13 (466, 4) and 14 (466, 5), he birdied 16 (264, 4), and I got 17 (366, 4). Driving and wedge play were big factors for us. I’m not a real long hitter, but I did hit the middle irons pretty good.”
Host Pro Superick felt he “started off good, with a bird on one and a par on two, then played pretty good after five. We hung in and got a bird on 10, an eagle on 14, where John hit a five-iron to about 15 feet from the pin and we got the putt, then John birdied 15 and 16. I was close on 15. John hit to the front of the green and we got a four-foot putt, then John birdied 16 and I parred 17 and 18. I’m happy we finished the way we did after the way we started.”
UCC Pro Pat Calvaresi, playing in his first home tournament and co-host pro with Superick, said, “I didn’t have a good game overall. It would be nice to win, but the most important thing is knowing the tournament went off as well as it did.
“Hopefully everybody has had a good time and they will want to come back next year.”