Two groups tied for UCC Fall Classic lead
Michael O’Connor of Erie and Billy Anderson of Wilmington, N.C., were in the clubhouse a good long while before Jonathan Clark of Hurricane, W.Va., and Sean Farren of Oakmont, in the last group off the course, matched their 10-under-par 61 for a share of the lead in the UCC Fall Classic. But that doesn’t mean the four golfers are strangers.
“We’ve played with them many times before,” Farren said. “I worked with them at Oakmont.”
With that, Farren and Clark began recalling previous encounters, some wins, some losses. At this point, however, all four players likely would settle with just being able to play another 18 holes, regardless of the winners.
The forecasts that are calling for an inch of rain to be dumped on the area forced tournament officials to change today’s second and final round to a 9 a.m. shotgun event.
“The committee met this morning and decided to go ahead and make a change,” host pro Gary Gibson said. “We figured that by changing it to a shotgun, even if it rains, we have time to wait and play between showers, if need be. We wanted to give the guys the best chance of playing all 36 holes this event calls for.”
The event is in its fourth year under this name, but it celebrates its 35th anniversary at Uniontown Country Club. It had previously been hosted by Morley Frank and his family, with various charities benefiting.
Under any name, the pros truly enjoy coming to Uniontown and competing in this event.
“This is our fourth year here and we’ve finished first, second and third, in that order,” Farren said. “This year, we’re hoping to start over at the top.”
Farren credited Clark with having the better round and Clark admitted that he at least got it going in the right direction on UCC’s No. 7 hole.
“I chipped in for an eagle and that kind of got us going,” Clark said. “We birdied five of the next six or seven holes after that. Sean made a big birdie on No. 11 with a 25-foot putt.”
Similarly, the O’Connor-Anderson team started slow and hit a hot streak that produced its share of the lead.
“We were 1-under through six, then Billy drove the green on No. 7,” O’Connor said. “We birdied that one and the next six. We finally got something going. You take birdied where you can get them, but the key was that we played a bogey-free round.”
As for holding on to win the event, O’Connor said it will take more of the same.
“We have to stay patient,” he said. “It would be nice to get another day like today, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’ve been coming to this event for nine years and it typically takes 15, 16 or 17 under to win it. It’s tough to shoot two really low scores back-to-back.”
Alone in third place at 62 is the Ohio team of John Lucansky of Ashtabula and Dwayne Randall of Chardon. Three teams are next with 63s, including John Aubrey and Robert McClellan of Butler, Ohio’s Jack Pawelkoski of Kettering and Rick Cramer of Xenia, and Pittsburgh’s Tony Traci and Ryan Sikora.
Aubrey, who has played in this event for at least 25 years, and McClellan had a unique round in that it included three eagles.
“I made the first one on No. 4,” Aubrey said. “It was about 60 yards and it just hopped in the hole. Robbie had the other two, one on No. 8, when he hit a 6-iron to about four or five feet, and the other on No. 14, when he hit a gap wedge to about a foot and a half.”
Even with three eagles, the Aubrey-McClellan team trails by two strokes, “but at least we’re still in the hunt,” said Aubrey.
There was another notable shot during the first day of pro-pro competition. The Indiana team of Dan Braun and Scott Cortazzo carded a double eagle on the par-5, 531-yard No. 8 hole.
One quick question brought an even quicker response from Cortazzo.
“It was mine,” he said. “I had 224 yards to the hole and I hit a 5-wood. It was short of the green, maybe 15 feet, but it released and when in. I couldn’t see it, but someone playing ahead of us said they saw it go in. That was a special shot.”
If the weather cooperates, there may be even more special shots today.