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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 28, 2005 Holman bags another win in celebrity tourney play Tee Talk By TIM TROWER Mail Tribune Marshall Holman, the Hall of Fame bowler, has a gazillion trophies. One is displayed prominently in his Medford home, and it’s for golf, not bowling. The trophy came from winning the Tom Dreesen Celebrity Invitational three years ago, and it will soon have company. Holman, long a participant on the Celebrity Players Tour, was again a member of the winning threesome at the tournament hosted by comedian Dreesen at Bolingbrook Golf Club near Chicago. With former baseball star Andy Van Slyke and another bowling great, Walter Ray Williams, Holman’s group edged the team of Michael Chang, Mickey Tettleton and Jim Thornton by one shot last week. Playing an 18-hole scramble, then playing another nine holes using one best ball, Holman’s squad was 16 under par. The team was in the middle of the pack after the scramble, but it played the best ball in 5 under to pull away. Advertisement The crystal that was to be sent to him will take its rightful place — a bookend for the other piece of golf hardware. "Not to belittle what I was able to do in bowling," laughs Holman. "Bowling was wonderful to me and I’m proud of what I accomplished. But when I bowled for a living, I was supposed to win my share of tournaments. Winning a golf tournament to me is more like going up to Seven Feathers and winning. You don’t really expect it." Holman’s handicap is on the brink of scratch status, and he plays about four to six celebrity events a year. The Dreesen is special to him for a couple of reasons: One, during his visit he’s able to help raise funds for a friend whose son has cystic fibrosis; two, it’s the only one he’s won. Victory didn’t seem likely as the tournament took shape, he says. For starters, Van Slyke, the group’s "A" player, missed the drawing ceremony and had to have former Cardinals teammate Ken Reitz draw for him. That Holman landed on the same team as Williams, the only other bowler in the tournament, was quite a coincidence. "Gosh," says Holman, "I bowled with the guy for 20 years, and now I’m playing golf with him?" He surveyed the other teams that were drawn and decided, "This doesn’t look that good. Andy is an excellent player, and Walter and I are about the same. We didn’t have a real weak player, but neither one of us is real strong, either." You wouldn’t know it by the end result. They got off to a decent start in the scramble but didn’t birdie any of the last four holes. Van Slyke set the best-ball goal at 4 under, hoping to possibly forge a tie and get into a playoff. Starting on the back nine, Williams birdied the second hole, and Van Slyke had three birdies in a stretch of four holes to get the team to 4 under through seven. At the finishing hole, a 430-yard par 4, Holman and Williams each had blind approach shots to the green after Van Slyke hit it wild off the tee and became a nonfactor. Holman was left with a 30-footer for birdie, which he drained. Williams didn’t need to putt his 18-footer. "It wasn’t until the 18th green that I looked over at the scoreboard and saw that we were actually tied for the lead at that point," says Holman. "My putt was not one you expect to make, and Walter’s was very makeable. I felt like I had a free run at it. I wasn’t worried about running it by the hole or anything." Tettleton’s group had to birdie the last hole to tie, and when the former major league catcher blasted a 400-yard drive at No. 18, it seemed possible. "He hits the ball as far as anybody I’ve ever seen," says Holman. But Tettleton chunked a 30-yard flop shot, and when Thornton missed a 30-foot putt similar to Holman’s, the latter and his teammates were winners. Other teams in the top five, in order, were Joe Morgan, Bernie Nicholls and Scott Sanderson, third; Johnny Bench, Shane Rawley and Cliff Richey, fourth; and Mike Ditka, Wally Joyner and Jim McMahon, fifth. ED FISHER found his way to the winner’s circle as well this past week, claiming the Senior Oregon PGA Chapter Championship. The teaching pro, who sets up his golf instruction business at Quail Point, won three matches through the summer to advance to the semifinals. The semis and finals were Thursday at Columbia Edgewater in Portland. After downing Bruce Stewart of Arrowhead 1-up in the semifinals, Fisher topped Joe Peccia of Rose City 4 and 3 in the finals. Fisher, 51, who won the regular section crown two years ago, found himself in a dogfight in the semifinals after taking a seemingly comfortable lead. He was 3-up with four holes to play, but Stewart won holes 15 and 16. Fisher closed him out with two pars. Against Peccia, victories on the ninth through 12th holes set up the victory. Fisher estimates he shot even par for 33 holes. He claimed a $1,000 first prize. A key, he says, was keeping his driver in his bag and simply putting the ball in play with his 3-wood and driving iron on the relatively short, narrow course. From there, strong iron play brought him home. Last year, says Fisher, "I kept trying to gain an advantage with my driver, and it’s hard to have an advantage in the woods." Thirty-two players began the bracketed tournament. In his earlier matches, Fisher beat Jerry Lee 3 and 2, Pat Huffer 2-up and Rich O’Hara 3 and 1. Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail Holman bags another win in celebrity tourney play ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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