CHERRY VALLEY — Andy Shiels came back to Rockford for a wedding. He left with another golf trophy.
Shiels has been too busy to golf much after starting One Point Logistics, a company that specializes in providing transportation in the United States and Canada, in Charleston, South Carolina, last July. But three-time Men’s City champ Eric Burch invited Shiels to join his group in the Ballard, and Shiels shot a 63 Saturday at Ingersoll, his lowest competitive round.
“I started making birdies and just kind of kept going,” said Shiels, who played on Boylan’s 2002 Class AA state championship team.
It wasn’t nearly so easy on a windy Sunday at Elliot. Kevin Flack cut the gap to one stroke after nine holes, but Shiels hung on to win with a 63-76—139, two strokes ahead of Flack.
“I got off to a rocky start and also missed a couple of short putts on the front nine, but luckily I was able to right the ship a little on the back nine and hang on,” said Shiels, who also won the 2011 Atwood and Gold Medal titles, the 2006 Aldeen Cup and the 2004 Atwood.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to win. I’d rather shoot 63 again, but sometimes you just have to keep it close.”
Cynthia Bounleutay shot 77-72—149 to beat Madasyn Pettersen (153) and Hui Chong Dofflemyer (155) for the second time after also edging them at the Gold Medal. Melissa VanSistine was fourth at 156.
Dofflemyer led by a stroke after shooting 76 Saturday, one day after finishing second in the Women’s State Amateur, where she played 108 holes in four days.
“I am just really tired right now,” Dofflemyer said. “I have to play and have to work, too. It’s a little too much right now, but we had fun.”
“I know she’s tired. She has to be tired,” said Bounleutay, who caddied for Dofflemyer in Bloomington after losing her first-round match Wednesday in the State Am.
Five of the seven women in the field broke 80 Sunday.
“It’s good competition,” Bounleutay said. “I love this tournament. I play in it every year. Playing with them and playing good golf, it was great fun.”
Robert Dofflemyer III, who won the previous two local tourneys, made double bogey on his first hole Sunday and finished fourth at 148. Paul Burd took third with a 147, despite a triple-bogey on No. 9.
“I shanked my second shot out of bounds,” Burd said. “I’m pretty shank-prone. I shank the ball an awful lot, more than I should. I have always had a tough time controlling my emotions on the course, but lately I’ve just gone out and had fun. It didn’t effect me too much. I knew I was hitting the ball well and would turn it around.”
Flack had a chance until his final shot, a 20-foot birdie try that stayed above the cup on No. 18. After Flack missed, Shiels made his 8-footer for par look easy.
“But if he makes that birdie putt there,” Shiels said, “then my putt gets a lot longer.”
Flight winners Sunday were: Eric Burch in A Flight, Mark Issi in B Flight, Sam Eleby in C Flight, Ang Bounleutay in D Flight, Joe Lambert in the seniors and Joseph Rock in the juniors.
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