Sun

Recent News


382 Golf Rounds Posted in 365 Days

 

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (January 18, 2017) -- Forty-eight golfers in the Carolinas posted at least 250 scores during 2016. The top score posters are listed below. We caught up with the top male and female score posters to find out how they managed to play so many rounds of golf. 


2016's Top Male Score Posters in the Carolinas

NAME

ROUNDS POSTED

CLUB

ROB SHELDON 382 FOXFIRE RESORT & GOLF
HERB SARGENT 347 SALUDA VALLEY COUNTRY CLUB
JOE CARTER 341 DEERCROFT GOLF CLUB
TOM O’HALLORAN 339 GOLF CLUB AT WESCOTT PLANTATION
SCOTT TARCY 331 FT. MILL GOLF CLUB
DAVE HERRINGTON 328 PEBBLE CREEK CLUB
RICK SPADA 321 SEA TRAIL MEN'S GOLF ASSOCIATION
BEN SHOAF 315 BURLINGAME COUNTRY CLUB
BRIAN KENNERLY 308 COUNTRY CLUB OF SALISBURY
JASON LEWIS 307 GASTON COUNTRY CLUB
JIM LUDDEN 307 BELFAIR GOLF CLUB
JASON LEWIS 307

CHECHESSEE CREEK CLUB

 

Rob Sheldon, a member of Foxfire Resort in Foxfire Village, N.C., led the way for all CGA members with 382 scores posted. After finishing with the second-most scores posted the past two years, Sheldon finally grabbed the top spot. Each year, the 65-year-old has steadily increased his number of annual rounds posted (316 in 2014, 341 in 2015). The retired assistant principal and basketball coach from Ohio now lives on the golf course, providing a short commute to play at least 28 holes everyday, regardless of the weather. Ninety percent of the rounds he played were with his wife at Foxfire. When he is not golfing, the Cleveland sports junkie enjoys spending time with his nine grandchildren.

Last year's top male score poster, Jim Ludden of Belfair Golf Club, posted 50 less scores than his 2015 total of 357.  

 

2016's Top Female Score Posters in the Carolinas
 

NAME ROUNDS POSTED CLUB
MO SPADA 347 SEA TRAIL GOLF ASSOCIATION
CARRIE DILLARD 246 RESERVE CLUB AT WOODSIDE PLANTATION
LYNN MCQUAY 243 BERKELEY HALL CLUB
ANN ORMAN 205 COLOLNIAL CHARTERS GOLF CLUB
IRENE BROWNLIE 199 BELFAIR GOLF CLUB
WENDY DUNNAN 199 YEAMANS HALL CLUB
KAYE CASTELLUCCI 197 BELFAIR GOLF CLUB
WANDA ELMORE 197 DATAW ISLAND CLUB
DEBORAH LEVY 200 PINEHURST COUNTRY CLUB
CINDY CASEY 197 FSC GOLF CLUB
HARDY JOHNSON 196 PROVIDENCE COUNTRY CLUB

 

 

Mo Spada

For the second consecutive year, Maureen ‘Mo’ Spada of Sunset Beach, N.C., recorded the most golf rounds played in the Carolinas by a female, according to Carolinas Golf Association records.

And her 2016 total crushed her mark from 2015.

Spada posted an amazing 347 rounds for the calculation of her handicap with the amateur golf organization. That is up from 275 rounds in 2015, which was the most among women in the Carolinas by 32 rounds.

Spada, 61, often plays with her husband, Rick, and his total of 321 posted rounds is nearly equally impressive considering he’s 72, has a troublesome back and was coming off hand surgery.

“He still suffers from a bad back but he would rather play golf than sit at home,” Spada said. “He tells people that golf is his version of physical therapy and is better than joining a gym. We are so fortunate that we both love to play golf and would rather play together than with anyone else.”

They walk many of their rounds. Though the couple lives at Sea Trail Golf Resort – Spada estimates she played 200 rounds on its three courses – they joined Sandpiper Bay Golf Club in October because it allows walking anytime, and have a multiple play pass at The Valley at Eastport because of its walking policy.

“We are ecstatic to have a membership at a club that allows us to walk and it makes playing during the winter easy as you stay so much warmer,” Spada said.

The gaudy number isn’t even a true reflection of the amount of golf Spada played, because there are rounds in scramble tournaments and incomplete rounds meant for practice that weren’t registered for her handicap.

Rick is a retired high school social studies teacher and Mo was a school and reference librarian.

The couple purchased a vacation home at Sea Trail Golf Resort 12 years ago and moved to Sea Trail full-time nearly five years ago from Accord, N.Y. That move freed Spada up to play incessantly.

She is on two traveling teams from Sea Trail called Interclub and the Ladybirds, and travels to play three times a week with the Sandpiper Dragons.

Not much will stop Spada from playing. She tells a story of playing on one of the coldest days of 2016 in December at Sandpiper, when the high was 36 degrees. She forgot to set the handbrake on her push cart and it rolled into a pond. Rick took off his shoes and socks and waded in to pull the bag and cart out. Thankfully, her GPS device fell onto the bank and her wallet and cell phone were not in the bag.

“So, some guys came out and brought us a cart to get our stuff back to our SUV where we put my soaking wet bag in the back and went on to finish walking our 18 holes with me playing out of my husband's bag,” Spada said.

A vacation is no excuse not to play daily, either. They went to Cozumel, Mexico, for 10 days last February and played 36 holes a day at Cozumel Country Club, and participated in a four-day couples’ tournament at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda.

“I loved my career as a librarian but now that I am retired for almost five years my ‘new job’ fits me to a tee,” Spada said.

 


The portion of this article about Mo Spada was written by Alan Blondin from The Sun News
 

##30##



Other News

News Archives

 
Carolinas Golf Association
140 Ridge Road, Southern Pines, NC 28387
910-673-1000 | admin@carolinasgolf.org
Monday-Friday: 8:30-5:00

Web Design by BlueTone Media