Manchester Country Club's Boggini Wins State Senior Match Play Title

OLD LYME, CT — In what shaped ip to be a memorable battle featuring several shifts in momentum, Glen Boggini of Manchester Country Club defeated Dave Olender of Ellington Ridge Country Club on the first extra hole to capture the 17th Connecticut Senior Match Play Championship.

The tournament at the Black Hall Club was presented by Middlesex Health.

With Boggini leading 1-up following a win on the Par-3 17th hole, the match headed to the long Par-4 closing hole and a chance for Boggini to to earn his first CSGA major title since he won the 2014 Connecticut Public Links tourney. With honors, Boggini pulled his drive left and out of bounds.

Olender's tee shot found the bunkers guarding the right side of the fairway but he hit a second shot to 8 feet, leading to a conceded birdie and a tied match.

Spinning back around to the par-4 first hole for the playoff, both players split the fairway with their drives. Barely away, Boggini was the first to play his second shot and, with a gap wedge from 118 yards, he knocked his approach shot to within 5 feet. Olender left his approach shot well short of the green in the front right bunker.

Needing an up-and-down to force Boggini to make his birdie putt, Olender took two tries to get out of the bunker. Olender then removed his hat, conceded the birdie putt, and congratulated his longtime friend on the victory.

"It is always hard to play with your friends but in the senior events, there is a lot more camaraderie,” Boggini said. "It isn’t quite as cut-throat and you know, win or lose, they are going to be your buddies. It was a pleasure to play with (Dave). He is a gentleman, and if it went the other way I would have been happy for him."

Boggini took the early lead in the match and after five holes he led 1-up. Olender tied the match with 15-foot right-to-left birdie putt on No. 6 and then took his first lead of the match with another birdie on the downhill, Par-3 seventh.

The next four holes were tied before Olender, who just turned 55 years old on June 25 to become eligible for the tournament, won the difficult Par-4 12th with a par to take a 2-up lead with six holes remaining.

Boggini cut into the deficit with a two-putt par from across the green on the Par-3 13th. He then was able to tie the match despite a poor drive with a win on No. 16.

On the ensuing hole, the Par-3 17th, Boggini hit a 9-iron to 10 within feet. After Olender found the water off the tee, he nearly chipped in to save par as the shot clanged off the flagstick, but once his attempt stayed out, he conceded the hole, allowing Boggini to take his first lead since the fifth.

"This win is special because they are so few and far between because when you are a golfer, success is a very low percentage," Boggini said. "When you happen to run into one it is really special and when it happens at a place like this it is even more gratifying."