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By JOE SOPRANO; Times Leader Sports Writer
Sunday, August 08, 1993 Page:
DALLAS — Losing never enters Ron Pieczynski’s mind.
At least not when he’s playing in the Irem Temple Potentate Tournament with
Walt Kuharchik.
The duo, which has teamed to win seven titles in the
better-ball-of-partners tournament, added two more teams to its list of
victims on Saturday, advancing to the semifinals at Irem Temple Country Club.
“When we step up on the first tee, we feel we’re going to win,” the
47-year-old Pieczynski said. “I don’t feel anybody can beat us up here.
“I mean we have been beaten, but not too many times.”
Pieczynski and Kuharchik will face Ray Cecconi and Mark Kopec in the
semifinals today at 9:10 a.m. The other semifinal will pit Tom Davis and John
Olszewski against Jim Blinn and Brian Corbett at 9:20 a.m. The winners will
meet in the championship match, scheduled for 2:40 p.m.
“With the experience we’ve had and the many times we’ve won it, usually
that is a plus in our favor,” said Pieczynski.
Pieczynski and Kuharchik, whose most recent Potentate wins came in 1991 and
’92, started the day by defeating Leon Remakus and Tom Crossin 3-and-2 in the
morning. Then in quarterfinals they defeated John Kennedy and Jack Zarno 1-up.
“Usually our second match up here is always 1-up or sudden-death for some
reason,” the 58-year-old Kuharchik said. “Now tomorrow morning, we’ll have a
lot more momentum.”
In both the morning and afternoon matches, Pieczynski and Kuharchik got off
to fast starts.
“We went three up on the first three holes in both matches,” Pieczynski
said. “Then you have a tendency to put it a little on cruise control, and
that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Pieczynski and Kuharchik’s cruise control was interrupted several times
during their quarterfinal match. First by Kennedy and Zarno, who rallied to
within one hole of tying the match, and then twice later by rain delays.
“It helped us in both cases,” Pieczynski said of the two rain delays. “I
think it calmed us down a little bit because we started to coast a little bit.
“We made a bogey on seven, they made a birdie on eight and now we’re in a
match.”
Cecconi, 55, and Kopec, 25, advanced to the semifinals by defeating Gary
Baker and Mike Sharok, 3-and-2, in the first round, and Tom Gauntlett and
Rollie Schmidt, 1-up, in the quarterfinals.
“We played in and out,” said Kopec, who played golf under Schmidt at
Wilkes. “The holes I was out of he was in, and vice versa.”
While Kopec was playing against his old college coach, Olszewski was
teaming with his high school and college coach to reach the semis.
“He and I have been together since ninth grade,” said Olszewski, who played
for Davis at Meyers High School and King’s College. “So he knows my swing, he
knows how I play, and I’m familiar with his game. So we compliment each other
well.”
After beating Jim Carr and Dennis Puhalla, 2-and-1, in the morning match,
Davis and Olszewski had to survive the most exciting match of the day in the
quarterfinals.
Davis was forced to sink a 12-foot birdie putt to half the final hole of
regulation with Tom Stitzer and Eddie Rome and force a sudden-death playoff.
The two teams then tied the first playoff holes with par before Olszewski
ended the match with a par on the second hole.
“The whole thing was right there and he hit a great putt to make birdie,”
said Olszewski of Davis’ clutch putt. “That just pumped me a little bit up for
the two extra holes.”
Blinn and Corbett advanced to the semifinals by defeating Bill Yoh and
Santo LaFoca, 3-and-2, in the first round and Bruce Muchler and Bob Zagorsky,
2-and-1, in the quarterfinals.