GREENFIELD — After the tee shots on the par-3 Hole No. 15 at Country Club of Greenfield, partners Andy Lesenski and Chris Austin, as well as Sam Wolanske, were on the green during the Championship Flight finals of the 79th Invitational Four Ball at on Sunday. 

That left David Donoghue — leading 1-up with Wolanske — as the lone player not to reach, with his tee shot falling at the top of the bunker short of the green. 

“I was joking walking up there saying ‘who would miss this green,’” Donoghue said. “They were all close and I’m sitting there short,”

Donoghue, taking the opening second shot, chipped it up to the green and the ball rolled into the hole for a birdie. After neither Lesenski and Austin were able to make their putt, Donoghue and Wolanske held a 2-up lead going into 16. 

“I just wanted to hit it close to get the three so [Wolanske] could give it a good, aggressive stroke,” “I hit a good chip, you get a good bounce and it goes in. I hit a good shot and got lucky it went in. It was awesome.” 

Donoghue’s clutch play wasn’t done there. 

On No. 16, a par 4, Donoghue found himself on the green with the opportunity for a deep birdie putt to potential seal the match. Calmly, he sank that to put all the pressure on Lesenski and Austin. Neither were able  to make their birdie putts, sealing the championship for Donoghue and Wolanske as they were 3-up with two holes to go. 

“I grew up playing a lot of golf here,” Donoghue said. “I know around this cup there’s more break than you think. I knew if I got it out there to the right side with good speed I’d have a good chance of making it. If not, I’d give Sam a chance with a four and it went in. It feels amazing to win this.” 

It’s the second championship for the pair, as they hoisted the trophy in 2019. 

“This feels great,” Wolanske said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. You have two great competitors in [Andy Lesenski and Chris Austin] over there. We knew it was going to be a grind and we were going back-and-forth for some time.”

Wolanske got the day going with a birdie on No. 3 that gave the pair the early advantage. A big putt save on No. 5 gave them momentum to keep pushing forward before the strong finish on the back nine sealed them their second championship. 

“Started pretty early which was good to see,” Wolanske said. “Putts were rolling. We lagged for a little on 12 and 13 but some huge shots from Dave here down the stretch to finish it off.

“We stayed patient,” Wolanske added. “You can’t win it on one hole. We just kept grinding.” 

As is the case each year, a large contingent followed around the championship match which created a great atmosphere and one the golfers enjoyed. 

“Half the fun is the golf but the people out here make it even better,” Wolanske said. “Having the support from everyone out here who was following the whole time, it doesn’t get any better than that.” 

Without a lot of Four Ball events left, Donoghue says it’s special getting to play in this one each year. 

“It’s a great event,” Donoghue said. “There’s not a lot of four ball events left. They’ve gone by the wayside. You have all these carts, everyone following you, it’s pretty special. We had a great time.” 

Wolanske and Donoghue reached the finals as the No. 5 seed, knocking off David Kennedy and Nate Burdick in the quarterfinals before defeating Connor Piecuch and Michael Bechard, the defending champions, in the semfinals to reach Sunday’s championship round. 

“We had a good tournament this year,” Wolanske said. “There was a lot of teamwork. We picked each other up well. There were a lot of holes I wasn’t playing and Dave was holding us over.” 

Lesenski and Austin, the No. 2 seed, beat Chris Bourbeau and Cody Booska in the quarterfinals before knocking off Matt Grayson and Paul DeNofrio in the semifinals on Saturday. 

Bourbeau and Booska went on to win the Championship Consolation Flight. 

Chris Cervini and Ryan Cote won the First Division finals over Matt Matroni and Tom Herzig while Dan LaPierre and Joe Groth won the Second Division Finals over Brady Booska and Gabe Mota. 

Kevin Bagge and Mike Lavalle were the champions in the Third Division, beating Jeff Robidoux and Robbie Haigh in the finals. Joe Wilson and Ryan Ferriter knocked off David Koritkoski and Lee Craig in the Fourth Division finals while Keegan Downie and Ryan Sullivan defeated Andrew Wroblewski and Michael Ventura in the Fifth Division finals. 

Brodie Conant and Drew Conant won the Sixth Division finals over Ian Herzig and Ryan Martin, Dave Perlmutter and Mark Kennedy defeated Rodney Herzig and Bob Bourbeau in the Seventh Division finals while John Stacy and Dennis Rabtor won against Carl Hoynoski and Josh Waldron in the Eighth Division finals. 

Paul Barnard and Jim Lafleur beat Bill Conant and Roberto Capra in the Ninth Division finals, Matthew Woodard and Brian Mendes won the 10th Division title against Joey Niedbala and Nick Worthley, Steve Procko and Mike Barbagallo won against Marc Labbe and Brian Martin in the 11th Division finals while Terry Sinclair and Tom Smith knocked off Matthew Pitoniak and Kevin O’Connell to win the 12th Division title. 

The Consolation title winners were as follows: Jarrod Goss and KC Finley in the First Division, Alec Meikle and Derek Hoy in the Second Division, Chris Shover and Cliff Osborne in the Third Division, Doug Riel and Tim McKenna in the Fourth Division, Alex Towne and Matt Llewelyn in the Fifth Division, Kyle Norwood and Patrick Merrigan in the Sixth Division, Anthony Wonseski and Roy Emerson in the Seventh Division, Bill Luippold and Dan Gavin in the Eighth Division, Dan Finn and Rich Young in the Ninth Division, Michael Hall and Dale Parda in the 10th Division, Dave Collette and Jim McHugh in the 11th Division and Keith Schempp and Doug Muehlberg in the 12th Division.