By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com.
Did Ryan Honeycutt feel any pressure while playing against defending champions Mallory McDaniel and Richard Cobb during the 55th Labor Day Four-Ball Memorial Golf Tournament on Sunday at the Country Club of Salisbury?
“I did the first couple of holes,” Honeycutt said. “After that, I relaxed and played my game.”
Did Honeycutt’s sidekick, Dusty Holder, feel any pressure?
“Yeah. But my partner played great. He’s the one.”
A team effort is the best way to describe their victory over Cobb and McDaniel. Those two had won the tournament two of the last three years.
Honeycutt and Holder won by a 2-1 score.
“We caught them on a bad day,” Holder said. “They had some bad holes and we got up early. We held on.”
Holder and Honeycutt built a 2-up lead with birdies on the 11th, 12th and 15th holes. They protected it to the finish.
“We just made a lot of pars,” said Honeycutt, who credited the team’s work on the green.
“My putter saved me a lot the last two days,” he said.
Honeycutt and Holder will now face the team of Ronnie Eidson and Curtis Kyles in one semifinal today.
“We probably have to shoot better than we did today,” Holder said.
Kyles and Eidson advanced with a 4 and 3 win over Corey Basinger and Addison Smith.
“We played real good today,” Eidson said. “We didn’t have any bogeys and that helped. We played a real solid round.”
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Today’s other semifinal will pit medalists John Kyger and son, Johnny, against brothers Keith and Michael Dorsett.
The Kygers advanced with a 1-up decision over Jim Hubbard and John DeRhodes to advance.
The Kygers, who won the qualifying medal with a 6-under-66, turned in the same score in taking the afternoon win over Hubbard and DeRhodes.
“We got off to good start,” said Johnny Kyger. “I eagled the third (a par-five) and we won the 10th with a birdie. It was a good win for us. We played well. We were six-under par.”
The Dorsetts advanced with a 2 and 1 victory over Glenn and Roy Dixon.
It will be a full day of golf for the team that wins the tournament. The two semifinal winners will collide for the championship at 1:30 p.m.
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The championship will also be decided in the senior flight. Eric Norris and Charlie Andrews will face Bob Rusher and James Poe for the crown.
Norris and Andews turned back Terry Julian and Greg Medinger while Rusher and Poe edged Bob Steele and Frank Eason to reach the senior finals.
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NOTE: Matches in all flights except the championship will decide their winners in the morning.
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Horace Billings contributed to this story.