Published: September 05, 2008 11:49 pm      

SENIOR PORTER CUP: Sovik edges Silver in playoff

LEWISTON — The key wasn’t who’d played the hole most, but who’d played it most recently.

Sure, Fred Silver had challenged the first hole at Niagara Falls Country Club thousands of times. Silver is perhaps the club’s most accomplished player, with 27 Niagara Falls Country Club championships under his belt.

But when Friday’s final round of the Senior Porter Cup sent Silver and Ray Sovik to an extra hole — the par-4 No. 1 — Sovik was fresh off a trip to No. 1; his grouping had opened the shotgun start by playing No. 2 and finished on the first hole.

And Sovik finished his regulation round in style — hitting a solid drive, dropping the ball nearly pin high, and sinking a birdie putt that got him into the playoff. When he needed to repeat the feat a few moments later in the playoff, he did.

“I almost played the hole the exact same way,” Sovik said.

Sovik sank another birdie, and Silver’s par putt was too high, giving Sovik the title in the first-ever standalone Senior Porter Cup.

Although he was ecstatic to win, Sovik quickly nodded to Silver, who’d just missed a downhill par putt on No. 18 that would have clinched his second Senior Porter Cup title.

“Fred’s a legend,” said Sovik, a Powell, Ohio, resident. “I’m really blessed to even get to play with him, and to play as well as I did today.”

Silver had his chances. He bogeyed No. 17, but still held a one-stroke edge heading into the final hole. Silver caught his iron a little thick, and although it was right on line with the stick, it dropped into the bunker in front of the guarded green. His pitch went to the back of the green, and a downhill putt leaked ever so slightly to the right.

Bill Zylstra could have taken part in the playoff, but he also bogeyed No. 18. Zylstra pushed his tee shot on No. 18 into the right bunker, then his pitch ran through the green and into the fringe. He missed a short chip, then tapped in for bogey.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t nearly as much drama on the super seniors side as Rich Anderson’s three-round score of 214 gave the nation’s second-ranked super senior a seven-stroke victory.

Anderson had a commanding lead for much of the day and didn’t squander the opportunity.

“I’ve played enough of these to know you’ve got to play all the holes,” Anderson said. “It was a tough out there with the wind, and sometimes it’s easier if you’re closer (to the competition), but I felt pretty comfortable out there.”

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.