Charity golf: Charity wins, and so do the Firemen

JOLIET – Charity always wins when in the Ryder Cup-style golf matches between the Joliet Police and the Joliet Firemen.

That was especially true in this year’s two-day competition that concluded Thursday at Inwood as each team had 26 golfers competing, up from 16 the previous year.

As for the scoreboard, it followed the familiar path as the Fire dominated the 26 singles matches Thursday, 17-9, to come out on top in the overall count, 29-18.

“We were down at the end of the first round, I believe it was 51/2-21/2, and we came back and won,” said Dave Chizmark, co-captain of the Fire team along with Chris Stein. “It was fun. Guys came out of the woodwork this year. We could have put even more out here, but we tried to get as many involved as we could.

“We came close to shutting down the park district course for a day. They were great to us as they always are. They do all they can to help us.”

Chizmark said the goal in this 14th annual event was to reach $200,000 total raised for charities. “We might be coming up a little short of that, but we tried, and it should be good in the future. We have golfers waiting in the wings.”

The Police played for Big Brothers Big Sisters while the Fire played for the Illinois Youth Burn Camp.

As always, the camaraderie was evident. “It was great,” Chizmark said. “Everybody looks forward to getting all the guys together.”

In Thursday’s singles matches, winning for the Fire were Al Petro, 7-and-6 over Mike Botzum; Ted Parks, 10-and-8 over Rick Scallate; George Bode, 6-and-5 over Mike Matutis; Leon Trimmer, 2-and-1 over Jeremy Harrison; Brad North, 2-and-1 over Doug Palmer; Stein, 1-up over Brent Pocewicz; Mick Hayes, 2-and-1 over Brad Price; Mat Vilcek, 4-and-3 over Ryan Shaw; Ryan Lincoln, 5-and-4 over Al Vertin; Tom Moretti, 1-up over Joe Egizio; Jim Murphy, 3-and-2 over Bob Mau; Bill Tatro, 4-and-3 over Pat Schumacher; John Zagar, 2-and-1 over Al Ayala; Rich Parks, 3-and-2 over Bobby Klancher; Charlie Skeldon, 5-and-4 over Dave Mueller; John Stachelski, 2-and-1 over John Ross, and Corey Brenczewski, 2-and-1 over Rick Raasch.

The Police winners were Kevin LaBolle, 4-and-3 over Dave Chizmark; Francis Ruettiger, 4-and-2 over Ed Kolenc; Mark Soustek, 4-and-3 over Matt McGuire; Mike O’Neill, 3-and-2 over JP Ryan; Eric Moyes, 2-and-1 over Doug Frederick; Dwayne Killian, 4-and-3 over Joe Krupa; Mark Murphy, 5-and-4 over Mike Bessette, and Al Roechner, 5-and-4 over Paul Purcell.

“Even though we handicap the matches, their lineup is so much better top to bottom,” said Pocewicz, captain of the Police team. “They played great. We lost, but the big thing is, we added guys this year, and that’s nice for charity. Next year we hope to expand and get some outside sponsors.”

The Fire had four players – Bode, Hayes, Vilcek and Zagar – who won the matches in Wednesday scramble and two-man events, and won in singles to finish 3-0. Bode, who is retired from the fire department, was selected the MVP.

“This was my first time playing in this, and I certainly did not do this alone,” Bode said. “I had a lot of guys helping me. Nobody wins by himself.”