Stephen Bullock and Guy Hoskins took charge early and easily won the Goode Crowder Dorsett Memorial Labor Day Four-Ball Invitational golf tourney on Saturday.

Bullock and Hoskins downed Frederick Corriher and Cameron Lee 5-4 in the rain-delayed finals of the popular match play tournament at the Country Club of Salisbury.

The champions were 2 up after three holes had been played, then stayed in command the rest of the way. They were 3 under par with Bullock making three birdies and Hoskins contributing important pars.

“With all the people out here watching, you just don’t know how tense and tight that championship match is,” said Bullock, who also won in 1997 with Brian Chapman as his partner. “You just don’t expect a lot of birdies. I was just real solid today, real steady. Usually in the championship match, that’s what it takes.”

Hoskins, who came to Salisbury from Louisville, Ky., about three years ago, said he really didn’t expect to win the championship when he and Bullock teamed up.

“I knew he was that good:He could carry us. I was just hoping I could contribute a little bit, and I did a few times,” said the chief financial officer of F&M Bank.

“He (Hoskins) was just solid the entire tournament,” countered Bullock, a sales manager for Power Curbers. “Every time I hit a poor shot, he came through with a good one.”

The champions won No. 1 with routine pars, then Bullock birdied the par-5 third hole before Corriher and Lee could attempt shorter birdie putts, which they missed. Hoskins put his team 3 up with a par at No. 6, where Bullock had a free run at birdie after his partner made par.

Corriher, the 1994 champion with Christopher McCoy, came through with a birdie 3 on No. 8 to close the gap to two holes. However, both he and Lee pulled iron shots into the creek to the left of the par-3 No. 9 green. They lost that hole to Bullock’s par.

Bullock’s dramatic, long birdie putt from the fringe on No. 10 ruined any Corriher-Lee hopes of a rally on the back nine.

“The biggest turn was on 10, where Steve made the 65-footer. We’re thinking we’ve got a (birdie) putt to get to 2 down, and all of a sudden we’re 4 down,” exclaimed Lee.

“I don’t know how long it was, 70 feet, something like that,” said Corriher. “All of a sudden, it’s a putt to tie, instead of a putt to win. That’s what match play is about, putting pressure when you can. We didn’t have an opportunity to put any pressure on them all day long, because we weren’t making any putts.”

Corriher and Lee missed their share of short putts, especially Lee’s missed birdie from 8 feet on No. 4 and Corriher’s from 5 feet on No. 5.

“It seems like if you don’t get them to fall early, they don’t fall the whole time,” said Corriher of his team’s putting woes.

Hoskins had plenty of praise for his partner, a scratch golfer as compared to Hoskins’ 5 handicap.

“I know he’s always going to make par. Even if he were to miss a green, he’s going to get it up and down. If he gets that putter hot, he’s going to throw up a lot of birdies. He probably had 15 birdies in the tournament,” said Hoskins.

The Kentuckian said he’s sure golfers who grew up in Rowan County have a better feel of the Labor Day event’s tradition, but he said, “I enjoyed this one for sure. ... I’m sure it doesn’t mean as much to me as these guys, but it’s pretty close. It’s an honor to make the championship flight, much less to win four matches. That’s tough to do no matter who you’re playing.”