MARBLEHEAD — Brad Tufts won his second straight Tedesco Country Club championship over the weekend — and his fifth title overall — defeating Bill Cunningham.
The event began Friday with a 24-player qualifying round. The players were vying for eight match-play spots, George Zolotas was the medalist with 71. The remaining seven qualifiers were Bill Cunningham (73), Paul MacDonald (74), Tufts (74), Jim Katsos (76), Cy Kilgore (78), Chuck DiGrande (79) and Scott Salisbury.
In the first round, Zolotas defeated Salisbury, Tufts beat Katsos, Cunningham defeated DiGrande and Kilgore beat MacDonald.
The Kilgore-MacDonald match was the tightest of the day, with MacDonald 3-up after four holds. However, Kilgore, who has won the title 17 times, birdied 5, 7 and 7 to even the match.
It stayed even through 18, with the player halving the hole — as were Nos. 19 and 20. Kilgore eventually parred the fourth hole and won the match.
In the semis, the turning point of the Tufts-Zolotas match came on the 15th hole, which Tufts won conceded. Cunningham got off to a quick start, but Tufts didn’t wait too long getting back to even with a par on the second hole. His birdie on six got him to 1-up and that’s how the match stood after 9.
Cunningham squared the match on the 10th hole, but Tufts got out to a 2-up lead by the 14th, and eventually won it on the 17th.