Crystal Springs golfers compete for Crystal Cup

HARDYSTON — The venue for the 2nd Crystal Cup Tournament was the Crystal Springs Golf Club ranked by Golf Digest magazine as #36 among the America's 50 Toughest Golf Courses.
The course is a classic Robert von Hagge layout with towering fairways, tumbling grassy knolls leading to greens perched on limestone ledges or beneath rocky ridges. The l1th hole is a par 3 featuring tees that are perched on the rim of an old lime quarry challenging golfers to hit a tee shot that drops 300 feet to an irregularly shaped green carved around the quarry pond.
This hole has been named as the most beautiful par 3 in the state of New Jersey by the author of the book “The Search for the Most Beautiful Golf Holes in New Jersey.”
Crystal Spring’s members playing in the 2nd Crystal Cup Tournament found themselves competing on one of the most difficult golf courses in America, but at the same time enjoying one of the most beautiful. The field of golfers included female and male Crystal Springs Members competing for prizes in the tournament in 4 Division: Men’s, Women’s, Senior’s and Couples, and for points toward qualifying for the Crystal Cup Championship held at the end of the golf season.
The format for the event was a two-player team scramble in which each golfer hits their shot and the team then plays the best of the two shots to complete the hole and for the remaining 18 holes. The team with the lowest gross score and lowest net score after handicaps were declared the winners.
The evet also included a Putting Contest with golfers seeking to hole their putt on a downhill lie from 40 feet from the cup. The only competitor to achieve this task was Pete DeGraaf on his first attempt.
Top honors in the day’s competition went to the team of Anthony Fioretti and Randy Halat whose low gross score of a 4-under-par 68 bested the second place team of Bob Spetz and Bud Markowick by just one stroke. Other winners included the team of Scott Egan and Todd Egan in the Men’s Division with a low net score of 8-under-par 64, Barbara Hurt and Barbara Newhouse with a low-net score of 1-over-par 73 in the Women’s Division, Steve VanDyk and John Brandt with a Senior Men’s Division low gross score of 4-under-par 68, Ed Lemire and Bob Mosier in the Senior Men’s Division low-net-score of 8-under-par 64, and Donna Wallerius and Robert Wallerius in the Couples Division with a low net score of 8-under-par 64.
Golfers competed for honors in two skill events. Bud Makowick won closest to the pin for the men with a tee shot that landed 5-foot-5-inches from the pin while Stephanie Boswall’s tee shot which landed 19 feet 2 inches from the pin on hole No. 5.
Long drive wins went to Mark Mastandrea for the men and Dona Wallerius for the Women’s Division.
— Photos courtesny John T. Whiting