1979

May 19, 1979

With five holes left to go, we were down five shots. Surely, this could not be happening -- not with the kind of talent we had, and not with the kind of success we enjoyed all season long. But yet here we were, in the last round of the Ohio Regional Campus state golf tournament Kent State-Tuscarawaras, about to watch everything go down the tubes. And then it happened. All of us caught fire. Collectively, we were 9-under over the last five holes, good enough to put us on top, winning by four over OSU-Newark. You'd think someone would have taken our picture. But no. I don't have a single photograph from the entire season. We won tournaments at Sinclair, Lima, Granville, and at our place, plus we finished third in the Xavier Invitation against a lot of schools that were a whole lot bigger than us.

Steve Dalton played in a group that included a player from Louisville. "Middletown?" the guy said. "Where the hell is Miami-Middletown?"

"See the scoreboard?" Steve responded. "We're about eight places ahead of you guys, that's where we are."

Steve, who was one of my best friends in high school, was our number one player, having transferred back after the first semester at Arizona State. Kent Stevens was our number two, the former Middletown Middle who would later be a PGA pro at NCR Country Club and the Country Club of the North. Then we had Andy Horn as our number three, the Fenwick grad who is the PGA pro at the Kings Island Golf Center. Yeah, that was a powerhouse three, a group I would put up against any three from the main campus.

Steve, Kent, and I each made two birdies over the last five holes, but Andy did us one better, doing 3-under -- which including an eagle-3 at the par-5 17th. He repeated his last four scores the entire 4-hour drive home. "3-3-3-4," he'd say. "Boom!"

Steve was medalist for the whole tournament, shooting 72-70 -- 142. Kent tied for second at 147, while Andy finished at 152 and I was at 155 (78-77).

Hey, we got our name in the paper! 

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