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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, October 28, 2005

Feldmann, Stubblefield best in best-ball

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

About the time when Andrew Feldmann and Larry Stubblefield looked as if they would never give any team another chance at winning the Aloha Section PGA's Golf Concepts/E-Z-Go 4-Ball Match Play Championship yesterday, they got generous.

The team had one putt to win their fourth consecutive title on the 15th hole, and three more on the 16th. None went in on Oahu Country Club's treacherously slick and sloping greens.

Feldmann, OCC's head pro, finally chipped a ball so close on the 17th that Kevin Carll and Kirk Nelson had to concede par and the championship, 2 and 1.

Feldmann and Stubblefield's title tied them with David Ishii and David Chin for most championships in the best-ball event.

The winning strategy yesterday was, as usual, refuse to lose a hole. The champions lost two in a row with bogeys Wednesday. They dropped another to a "bomb" of a birdie putt in yesterday morning's windy semifinal against Joey and Ron Castillo Jr.

Then there was that strange par-3 16th in the afternoon. Nelson, head pro at Makena Golf Club, drove pin-high left. His chip barely reached the green. Disgusted, he grabbed his putter and rammed the 40-foot putt in.

It was memorable for two reasons: First, it was the only putt of any consequence he and Carll — the Ko Olina head pro whose clubs were stolen Tuesday — made all afternoon. Second, Nelson's putt forced Feldmann and Stubblefield to par for the win. They could not.

It wouldn't matter. Stubblefield's birdie at No. 2 put his team up for good. Feldmann's par on No. 8 made it 2-up. Stubblefield blasted in a downhill 12-footer for birdie to go 3-up on the 14th.

The two play so consistently well together that when they went 33 holes in 7-under yesterday they considered it par for a tough course they call home. Stubblefield, an insurance executive who is in the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame, explains their success in terms of talent and karma.

"We get along well," he said "There is nothing either one of us does that bothers the other guy."

Both semifinals ended 3 and 2, with Carll and Nelson taking out Ishii and Chin.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.