MARBLEHEAD — Marblehead residents Greg Mahan and Matt McCreedy were crowned champions of the 80th Fourball Invitational Tournament at Tedesco Country Club Sunday.
The local duo cruised through the final round Sunday, shooting birdies on five holes to go up seven and clinched the win after the 12th hole against the team of Chris White and Kevin Rogers. Mahan and McCreedy shot 4-under through 12 holes.
“I thought we had a good chance coming into the tournament but I wasn’t sure if we would actually win the whole thing,” McCreedy, 44, said. “I thought we had been playing well all week. We knew we had a good shot in this tournament and it worked out well.”
Mahan and McCreedy dropped the first hole and halved the second before settling in. The pair wouldn’t lose a hole for the rest of the afternoon. Mahan led the way with birdies on holes three, five and nine. McCreedy wasn’t far behind with a pair of birdies including one on the par-four 12th hole to seal the win.
“Every match is competitive,” Mahan, 48, said. “It doesn’t matter what the handicaps are or how many strokes you’re giving, everyone is here to bring their A-game and compete. You get that match in and match out. It’s great.”
The competition didn’t seem to faze the member-member pair Sunday, with Mahan being more than a little familiar with the course at Tedesco.
“Greg Mahan’s father was a member here so he basically grew up playing this course,” Tedesco head pro Bob Green said. “Matt is a fairly new member, only been here for a few years.”
The final round capped a busy week for Green and Tedesco’s staff. More than 60 teams competed in the four-day tournament, which began Thursday, making scheduling a tall task.
“You have 160 players and when you’re doing six rounds in four days you’ve got double rounds,” Green said. “It’s a situation where these guys in the final played Saturday morning and won and then played again in the afternoon. At one point during the week we had basically all 160 players on the golf course. Trying to get that many people a round, people take longer to play golf these days, it’s challenging.”
But overall the tournament was a success highlighted by nice weather and plenty of skilled golfers.
“It was a great tournament,” Green said. “Fourball creates incredible situations with some of the incredible shots that these guys hit. This is their sixth round in four days, so it’s a lot of golf. You see all sorts of shots with the different skill levels and handicaps.
“The temperatures have actually been good,” Green said. “We dodged a few storms this week that missed us. But all in all it’s been a great week of golf.”
A list of the club’s upcoming tournaments includes the Ladies Club Championship and Queens Cup Aug. 6-9, Ward Cup Aug. 11, Men’s Club Championship rounds Aug. 16-18, Ladies 9 Club Championship Aug. 29-30, Alex Ellis Fall Member-Member Fourball Sept. 14-15, Les Dunn Memorial Men’s Tournament October 4-5, and the Peter Dalton Memorial Outing Oct. 7.