Teenager Wins Golf Tourney
Sixteeen-year-old Matt Scott, an East Hampton High School junior who is about to begin his third season as the Bonackers' number-one golfer, became the youngest person ever to win the South Fork Country Club's championship on Sunday.
The talented, modest teenager, who is working this summer with the East Hampton Sports Camp based at the Neighborhood House and at the Sag Harbor Golf Club, demurred, however, when asked to comment on the victory, deferring to his opponent, Max Rampe, 43, whose road through the match play tournament, Scott said, was more worthy of note.
Rampe, a New York State Highway Department employee, who played on East Hampton High golf teams in the late 1960s and early '70s, defeated his first-round opponent, Dick Powell, on the 18th hole; bested Pat Bistrian 3d, a former club champion, on the 17th, and Richie Tiska on the 18th before tangling with Matt in a 36-hole final that wasn't decided until the penultimate hole.
"Great Match, Great Kid"
"It was a great match - he's a great kid," Rampe said of the teenager, who is a son of East Hampton Town Police Chief Thomas Scott. "It was tight all the way. He had me four down with five to go. I won the next two holes to go two down, but I lost on the 35th. Matt played really great - he deserved to win. He should have a future in golf."
A gallery of about 40 or so followed the finalists as they traversed the nine-hole course almost four times.
Lee Dion, the club's president, said later, in answer to a question, that he doubted that special dispensation had to be given the 16-year-old to play in the tournament, but apparently Jim Salisbury, the golf committee chairman, did waive a recent bylaw that limits club championship participation to those 18 and up.
Since He Was 12
Scott, who started playing the game at South Fork just a few years ago, has improved rapidly, rising from an 11 handicap two years ago to four today. It was the first year that Rampe, a third-year member who has an eight handicap, had played in the tournament.
According to Larry Cantwell, who was in the gallery, the two previous youngest club champions were Gary Salisbury and Chris Becker, winners at 18. "The beauty of it was that we've all watched Matthew develop on that golf course since he was 12. It's a good story. He's a terrific young kid."
Claude Beudert, the East Hampton High School golf coach, said of Matt, "He's the best I've seen in my 10 years of coaching. He began playing for me as a freshman, when he was number-two and Carl Libert [now a sophomore at the State University at Binghamton] was number-one. He's coming into his own. He won all three of his matches in the recent Ryder Cup match between Nassau and Suffolk County high school players. Golf's a passion for him."
In other South Fork tournament news, the A flight championship pitted father - Alex Walter Sr. - against son - Alex Jr., who is about to begin his junior year at Brown University. Alex Sr. won on the 15th hole, four-up. While both have nine handicaps, Alex Jr. began last season as a 24 handicap.
Sweep For The Walters
"After the match, he called Brown's new coach to see if he couldn't play on the squad," said his mother, Debbie, a first-year player who brought home the women's D flight trophy, completing a sweep for the Walters.
John Keeshan was the men's B flight winner with Cantwell the runner-up; the C flight men's champ was David Griffiths with James Cornehisen the runner-up, and Michael Santopolo was the D flight champion with Robert O'Brien the runner-up.
Among the women, Rose Millevolte won the club championship, besting Sue Byrd; Liz Levandoski was the A flight champion with Joann Claflin the runner-up; Roma Karp was the B flight champion with Julie Kopka the runner-up; Marlene Dion won the C flight championship over Sara Portnoy, and Maureen Lydon was the runner-up to Walter in the D flight final.