By TONY CHERBY/For the Sentinel
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — I started calling the Ocean City Tuesday Senior Golf League’s weekly rounds a “May to September Journey” and a “Race to September” many years ago because it sounded good.
It does represent how our golf year unfolds, albeit far too quickly, and now for the 35th time. It really is both a journey and a race. What’s more important is that we are blessed with fun in the sun and turf in the company of great, grizzled golf buddies, each with a story to tell. I thank all for letting me ramble on about a few of them. This year, five new friends came our way: Pat Chestnut, Greg Harlan, Bill Mackey, Lou Salgado and Bob England. The best friends you can make are the ones you find on a golf course.
By way of wrapping things up, as best I can tell, our annual awards to Ocean City High golf team grads we’ve been happy to do 52 times since the late Derek Rearden championed that mission in 2010.
Ralph DeLanzo won our 2026 Most Match Points race with 40 notches. Dane Mayson was second at 31, Tony Cherby and Chris Ramsay were T-3 with 28, and Greg Harlan had 27. DeLanzo never fell out of first place. While I was tied with him for several weeks in the beginning, and Dane Mayson came within striking distance in the backstretch of the season, no one ever swept Ralph and he manufactured a wire-to-wire victory.
Greg Harlan’s 80 average took Low Gross, our second big contest. That included a record even par 72 for us at Buena Vista Country Club a week before his hole-in-one. And Boiler Maker Greg also tossed in three 78s. Then Roger Probert fired a 77, our second-best on the same day that Mark Lapham shot his 78. Those sub-80s are the most we’ve seen in one year at Buena Vista.
It’s an understatement to say that Harlan had the best scoring year in league history. (Our lowest card ever was Bob Heer’s 68 at Mays Landing.) Greg’s many great rounds included a league-leading landslide of 23 birdies, and he racked up 69 pars. Roger Probert was second in birdies with 9, and Chris Ramsay led the par race with 77. Chris had 8 birdies, as did DeLanzo. Steady Ralph also notched 75 pars. In the other two “Big Four” races, Ed Lyons won for Low Average Net, and Tony Cherby took home the Low Average Putts prize.
We also hand out five smaller crystals. In the Closest to the Pin for the Year contests on the threes, Greg Harlan nailed our first hole-in-one in 11 years. His came on hole No. 5. And Dave Carter did the same on No. 12. Two aces in one season could go down as the Story of the Year. And since they came along on holes called “Thread that Needle” and “In that Bunker Again,” you know something special happened.
Bill Gardner won 2026’s Closest to the Pin on No. 8 in a more conventional fashion with a 2’10” effort, and Tony Cherby took the prize on No. 17 with a 3’4” shot. Rich Hawthorne went home with the Fewest Putts/Single Round crystal with a 27. His 24 taps last year is the league’s record at BVCC. Dave Carter’s 25 in 2024 puts him in second on that elite list. (Mike Smith owns our all-time mark with 21 short stickers many years ago at Mays Landing.)
We also keep track of bogeys. After all, as I keep saying, for golfers who remember when gas was 39 cents a gallon, they are the “New Pars.” Dave Carter led with 109, DeLanzo had 102, Dane Mayson 92, and Rich Hawthorne and Bill Wright had 89 one-overs. In some “Bragging Rights Only” counts, Bill Mackey’s Low Net 64 was the best we saw. Harlan and Probert both had 4 birdies in a single round, and “Who Else” Harlan had the most pars (11). Carter had the most bogies (11).
But wait. We did have a final scramble, and two groups tied for first at -3: Team Lapham, Baird, Curtis and Van Zandt, and Team Coppenbarger, Cherby, Franks and Greene. Lapham’s gaggle had 6 birdies, but bogeys bit them thrice. And my guys had 3 birdies and 0 bogies. Coming in second at -2 was Team Harlan, England, Mayson and “Is he Here Yet?” Goldberg. (He was late for the team photo, but I patched him in.) Lyons, Salgado, Wright and Gahr also came home at -2, and DeLanzo, Carter, Chestnut and Shultz had -1. Team Probert, Hawthorne, Mackey and Borucki had +1 despite 4 birdies; they just couldn’t stand prosperity, tossing in 5 bogies on a wild up-and-down day.
I’m going to end my tenure in the league with what I said last year. Once again, we thank all the great people at Buena Vista C.C., especially Bobby DeFonzo who, like all outside guys, runs the place. And thanks as well to Stephanie Murray, the Queen of the Bunker. Of course, as always, our sincere gratitude goes to the Ocean City Sentinel staff under the leadership of David Nahan, their wonderful editor in chief. They are more than generous with their coverage of our marvelous merry making.
In this game, being able to repeat a good swing time after time is the best thing we can ask for. I’ll extend that logic to my final words. Winter well friends, and don’t be sad; it’s but a 9-iron down the fairway before you tee it up again. And never forget that “The Most Important Shot in Golf is The Next One.” Which is also as good a lesson for living well as I’ve come across.
This is all she wrote for me; I won’t be back again. I have run out of ways to put things. And all of you have most certainly had enough by now. Thanks for listening.
