Veteran golfers make perfect pair
By: Justin Feil
It’s a good thing the Metropolitan Golf Association doesn’t present a trophy for its Partners Better Ball Tournament.
If it did, it might be difficult for Dave Alampi and Alan Graham to decide who gets it after they won their third Met title in seven years with a 1-up victory over Jerry Baldachino and Tom Franta on Sunday.
It might be difficult, but one thing’s for sure: it wouldn’t cause a fight between the Bedens Brook members.
"We get along well," said Graham, a Princeton resident. "We never get upset with each other. You see other guys cursing at each other, throwing clubs. We never have done that."
"It’s just that we’ve played enough that we don’t worry about what the other guy is doing," added Alampi, a Hopewell resident. "If he’s hitting a bad shot, I don’t get upset, and he doesn’t for me. It’s kind of grown into that. It took a couple years, but we’ve done it enough times that we don’t worry about it."
The two golfers, who met after Graham moved his membership from Cherry Valley Country Club to Bedens Brook, consider their mutual respect to be a key to their success. They’ve won three times, and none of the victories has come easily.
"They’re all tough," said Alampi, who also won the tournament championship with Graham in 1997 and 2000. "The first one, we played seven extra holes. The last one we won, we were 1-up going into 18, and they made birdie and I had to make birdie to win."
This year, it was Graham’s turn to play final-hole hero. After he and Franta both landed shots on the green in position for birdies, Graham put his in while Franta’s putt was short.
"I never got nervous," Graham said. "I just concentrated harder. Dave and I have played so many times. You get to the point where you concentrate harder, and if you knock it in, you knock it in.
"If you put nerves aside, golf gets a little easier," he added. "You never get nervous if you have a chance to win. I think you get more focused."
Alampi and Graham also plan on playing in the Wolcott partners tournament, as well as the Trenton District Senior-Senior tournament, now that both are at least 50 years old. They are two of the better golfers in the area at using the team game to their advantage.
"That’s how we play," Graham said. "The other one will help the other out if they’re down. I didn’t think we’d lose with the way we were playing."
Yet the two veterans almost didn’t make it out of the first round after falling behind against Sean Willard and Andrew Williams, underclassmen and the top two West Windsor-Plainsboro North golfers.
"The two men we played in the first round basically should have beaten us," Alampi said. "Nerves got a little to them. I wouldn’t want to play them in three years. For young guys, they were absolute gentlemen on the golf course. Whoever taught them should be commended. We didn’t play spectacularly, but they just had some trouble on the greens and that was the difference."
"We always say there’s one match you have to get through," Graham said. "That was it. They were 2-up with five to go, and we were in trouble. You could tell they were a little nervous."
And that’s where experience helped Graham and Alampi. But experience alone isn’t enough. Experience winning is a major factor. What separates the two is their skill level, which has given them several titles.
"We’re both not bad players," Alampi said. "There are some teams who have one pretty strong player and one weak player. Neither guy is weak for us. We both know each other’s game so well."
"Either one of us has to depend on the other person," said Graham, who also teamed with Alampi for the Bedens Brook member-member championship. "I think that’s why we beat a lot of teams. They always have one really good player. We’ve become pretty similar."
It’s developed over the past seven years. Now, the two are instant contenders at any tournament.
"By and large, when we play together," Graham said, "unless we play poorly, we have a good chance of winning."
In the case of their third Met Partners Better Ball championship, they had to play well to keep just ahead of Baldachino and Franta. In all, there were 11 birdies in the match. Alampi and Graham had birdies on three of the first four holes, and were just 1-up.
"We never played them before," Alampi said. "After watching them play, it was shocking to read that they never got past the first round before. In qualifying, they shot 68 also. It’s not one you’d say was a walk-over match. It’s almost better that we didn’t know them. You just say we have to play golf."
Once again, Alampi and Graham did it better than any other partnership Sunday. They beat John Boscarelli and Mike Minter 3-and-2 in the semifinal Sunday morning before winning the championship that afternoon. They did it in familiar fashion by working together.
"The last seven holes, we only hit one bad golf shot," Graham said. "Those guys were pretty good. They shot 4- or 5-under par and didn’t win. I just never say that Dave won’t do it. We made two bogeys the entire tournament. That’s five rounds of golf. We don’t give the other guys many chances. It’s easier to play that way. You don’t wait for mistakes."
It certainly helps that neither berates the other for mistakes, either. Instead they’re constantly supportive, regardless of who’s having the better day. It may have been Graham’s tournament this year.
"He was probably the more solid player. I had more sloppy shots than usual," Alampi said. "Alan was especially good in qualifying and the first and third rounds, he played really strong. He putted really well all week."
And he putted extremely well in the end, when Alampi and he needed it most. Alampi will have the chance to return the favor at an upcoming tournament.
It’s that mutual dependence combined with top-notch skill that has made the pair unbeaten in three Met Partners Better Ball Tournament championships. And that makes it easy to get along on the course regardless of how pressure-packed the situation is.
"There’s never been a horrible word between us," Graham said. "It’s reassuring when you can count on your partner."