AREA GOLF
Senior Porter Cup led by Silver
LEWISTON — The Senior Porter Cup Tournament is stacked with talent.
The tournament field features 30 nationally ranked golfers, including eight who are listed in GolfWeek’s top 10.
So, if tournament chairman/ organizer Fred Silver does manage to capture the tournament title later today, he truly would have earned the crystal championship trophy in amazing fashion.
Silver, the only local competitor, is the one and only golfer in the field of 95 in the red after 36 holes at Niagara Falls Country Club. Silver carries a one-stroke lead into this morning’s final round at his home course after firing a second-round 72 Thursday on a track that played slightly longer than it did during Wednesday’s first round due to overnight rain.
The shotgun start for the senior and super senior (age 65 and over) portions of the tournament today is at 8:30 a. m.
“I’ve played extremely well and I’m delighted [to be in the lead],” said Silver, the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame member who opened the tournament with a 3-under-par 67 and stands at 1-under 139. “I wasn’t sure how my game would respond with running the tournament.”
Silver’s game has responded quite well considering he’s handling all of the tournament’s logistics, including scheduling of tee times and organizing post-golf events for the competitors and their wives so that they can enjoy the Niagara Falls-area experience.
“It’s even more remarkable because he’s running around before and after he plays . . . making sure everything is working right,” said Paul Schlachter of Pittsburgh, the nation’s second-ranked senior amateur who trails Silver by three shots.
This is the first year the senior portion of the tournament is standing on its own legs after years of the senior event being a tournament within the main Porter Cup competition. By breaking off from the tournament proper, the senior event was able to expand its field from 24 to nearly 100 and is now considered one of the majors on the national senior amateur circuit.
Silver, a winner of seven Buffalo District Golf Association titles who is ranked 16th nationally, could win his second Senior Porter Cup title and first in 12 years if he finds his putting stroke again.
After draining seven birdies during the opening round, Silver cooled a bit with the short stick Thursday, canning just one birdie and 13 pars through the first 15 holes even though he struck the ball well. He bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 after missing the greens with approach shots before securing the overnight lead with a par on the 18th.
“That’s golf,” said Silver, who has won the club championship at NFCC 27 times. “That’s just what happens. I hit the ball the same both days and I’m hitting my irons really well. That’s the key to my scoring.”
Eleven golfers are within three shots of the lead with Bill Zylstra, Tony Green and Ray Sovik all trailing Silver by one stroke. Sovik moved up the leader board thanks to a 2-under 68 after opening with a 2- over-par 72.
Schlachter, a four-time national senior-amateur circuit winner, could have joined Sovik as one of only a handful of golfers to break par Thursday but sank only one birdie even though he hit 16 greens in regulation.
Rich Anderson of Minneapolis leads the super-seniors portion of the tournament with a 1- over-par 141. Walt Martin trails by two strokes, while Fred Rowland moved into a tie for third at 4-over-144 after shooting his age, 69, for the first time.
