Maddox grabs senior win at Rose Park

Ben Maddox has won a few golf tournaments in his life, but it had been a few years.

Friday at Rose Park Golf Course, Maddox capped off a solid week of golf by winning the UGA Senior Match Play Tournament with a 5 and 3 victory over Bill Pizza.

"It's been a long time since I've won," said the 53-year-old restaurant owner from Layton. "I played well all week and didn't make many bogeys."

Maddox got off to a quick start against Pizza, a member at Willow Creek Country Club, by making birdies on the first two holes from eight and six feet, respectively.

After making bogey at No. 7, Maddox was still 2 up, but he ran off three birdies at Nos. 9, 10 and 11 and won with a par at No. 12 to go 6 up and coasted in from there.

Maddox had qualified with a 70 and defeated Ken Sowby, Steve Poulson and Rick Lloyd to reach the finals. He has been a regular at the State Amateur and was happy to learn his win gets him an exemption to next month's tourney.

In the Super Senior division for golfers ages 62 and older, 75-year-old Dick Peacock defeated Mel Roberts 4 and 3.

Even though he was one of the oldest players in the whole tournament, Peacock dominated play all week.

Peacock shot a 70 in the qualifying and got a first-round bye. After edging Sterling Larson in the first round 2 and 1, he defeated Dave Edmonds 6 and 4 in the semifinals.

"I drove it extremely well and putted extremely well," said Peacock, who lives in St. George and was headed home shortly after his victory. "That's my game."

Peacock said he's hitting the ball as long as he ever has in his life at 260 to 270 yards. He has an 0.6 handicap and says his friends ask when he's ever going to shoot his age, because he always shoots lower.

In Friday's round, he got ahead early and finished with three birdies and two bogeys.

Keith Cook, who lives in Draper and plays out of Schneiter's Bluff, won the Senior Net Match Play with a 5 and 4 victory over Sandy's Bryan Taylor. He said he was "hitting my drives great all week" and that was the key to his victory.

Cook said he hadn't played much in about five years and came into the tournament with a 15 handicap, only to shoot a 74 in the qualifying. He said his game got better with each victory during the week.

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