Mighty Neighborly

Next-door neighbors Lipscomb and Moore birdie the first hole of a playoff to win the Calhoun County Team Championship

By Al Muskewitz

SILVER LAKES – Randy Lipscomb and Dane Moore have been next-door neighbors in Gadsden for just about two years now. They’ve been playing golf a lot longer than that.

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Lipscomb had always thought about pairing up together, but it just never happened. Until this weekend.

And the first time they got together as partners, they come out winners.

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Moore sank a three-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a “very satisfying” sudden-death playoff against former Jacksonville State teammates Max Basler and Layton Bussey to give the new partnership the Calhoun County Team Championship title at Silver Lakes.

The two playoff teams shot 9-under-par 63s in Sunday’s scamble format on the Backbreaker/Heartbreaker 9s to post 21-under 123 in regulation and chase down the two overnight co-leaders they trailed by three going into the round.

“I’ve always wanted to play with him and I think he has me, but we just could never find a spot and it worked out,” Lipscomb said. “I told him now you’re on the hook next year to play with me.”

Defending champions and first-round co-leader Brandon Hammond and John Harman shot a final-round 67 and finished one shot out of the playoff. They played a seven-hole stretch midway through the round in 7-under and held as much as a three-shot lead on the back nine, but were derailed by a double bogey on the par-4 Heartbreaker sixth.

The double allowed Basler-Bussey and Lipscomb-Moore to pull into a tie for the lead when they birdied the par-5 Heartbreaker 7 and they passed the Georgians with matching birdies at 8.

The neighbors had a strategy and stuck with it. Lipscomb is the longer hitter of the two, so it was Moore’s goal to get them in play to free his partner to do his thing. When they got on the green, Lipscomb let his partner putt first no matter who had the longer attempt.

“All I had to do was hit good shots and free Randy up and I feel like we did that this week,” Moore said. “I really didn’t miss many tee shots today where he was just able to rip it.”

That’s what made their playoff so satisfying. With Moore safely in the fairway off the tee, Lipscomb roasted one to within 80 yards of the green for an approach shot Moore hits between his neighbors’ houses. Lipscomb hit his approach to eight feet, while Moore stuck his wedge to three.

Basler and Bussey were about 120 yards out off the tee, but both were outside 20 feet on their approaches and missed their birdie putts. When it was their turn, Lipscomb let Moore putt first and he buried it for the win.

“The thing about me and Dane,” Lipscomb said. “He’s not in his 40s yet (he’s 36) and I’ll be 43 next week. I have a lot of respect for the Calhoun County guys and I think there’s a lot of talent there. For me and Dane, two guys who work for a living and don’t play a whole lot, to beat two JSU guys, that means a lot.

“What other sport can that happen in besides golf? I don’t think I can go out there and beat too many basketball players who play for JSU.”  [*** read more]

Calhoun County Team Championship