Margaret Linder captures competitive President's Cup

CRESCENT BAR - Margaret Linder won the 2011 Crescent Bar Golf Course women's club President's Cup on June 21 and learned why Mavis Bennett wins often in weekly women's events.

"She is tough, really tough," Linder said. "I had to concentrate hard on what I was doing. She's probably won every time."

The President's Cup is played with handicaps. There were eight contestants this year in a single-elimination format. It started with the lowest handicapper (Carol Prinzen) against the highest (Jean Wood) and was competed over three weeks.

Prinzen won that quarterfinal match. In other quarterfinal matches, Bennett (low) defeated Lyn Murray (high), Tress Kleyn (high) topped Eileen Hoene (low) and Linder (high) eliminated Wilma DeLeeuw (low) In the semifinals, Bennett (low) stopped Kleyn (high), and Linder (high) was victorious over Prinzen (low).

Those results set up the final between Bennett and Linder. Because of their handicap differences, Linder was deducted a stroke on 14 of the holes to equalize the competition, and she needed everyone of them for a 2-and-1 win.

At the start it seemed as if Bennett would walk off with the cup. She won the opening hole and halved the second. Then Linder came on. She won the third hole to tie and the fifth to take a 2-1 lead.

No matter what Bennett did, Linder maintained the lead through the 11th hole and even stretched it to two holes on the 10th.

Then Bennett got hot. She won the 12th and 13th holes to tie. But she picked up no momentum.

Linder won the 14th and 15th holes and halved the 16th and 17th to win. But she really didn't know she had the victory secured going to the 18th and continued to play for the win.

"I'm glad I didn't know," she said.

"She played very well," Bennett said

The President's Cup was Linder's first major win of any type. Bennett has won the cup once and the club championship three times, including last year.

"I figured I was going to lose," Linder said. "Mavis is so consistent. I wish I could golf like her. But it was match play, and you never know what's going to happen."

Carol Prinzen won the President's Cup last year.