Garry Siddons removed his red cap, shook hands with Tom Baird and just smiled – a wry purse of the lips – at the sky.
Baird, from Signal Mountain, had just beat the stroke-play medalist Thursday afternoon in the semifinals of the Tennessee Senior Match Play Championship at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. And Baird won handily, 4 and 3, to earn a spot in this morning’s final match against Tony Green of Kingsport.
“Now that I’m in the finals, I can really think about being on my home course, and I’m really playing well and there’s definitely a comfort factor out here,” Baird said. “In both of my matches today, they weren’t making birdies, and once I got ahead I was able to hit fairways and greens and make enough putts to get ahead.”
In the morning’s senior quarterfinals, Baird won 3 and 2 over Gary Simpson of Germantown, while Green dispatched Chattanooga’s Mike Jenkins, 4 and 3.
Baird’s afternoon victory came a few minutes before Green claimed his second Chattanooga victim of the day, Dr. Neil Spitalny, also 4 and 3.
“Mike was off and I was off in the morning, and then I made a couple and he didn’t,” Green said. “If he would have made a couple, I would have been out of it.
“The doctor seemed out of sync, and then I made birdies on the last couple of holes.”
The open division had eight morning matches and four in the afternoon.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Steven Fox of Hendersonville routed Chattanooga resident Ryan Thornton 7 and 5 and will face medalist Jonathan Fly of Memphis one semifinal this morning. The other has McMinnville’s Brett Patterson against defending champion Todd Burgan of Knoxville. Patterson won 1 up over Jackson’s Danny Green, who is in the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame.
The Fox-Thornton match had its moments when both golfers proved they’re worthy of their college scholarships. Then there was No. 6, a 408-yard par-4, where both played like weekend duffers. Fox won with an 8 and Thornton lost with a 9 on the hole.
“We had a fun hole,” Fox joked. “He hit it in the hazard and I hit it out of bounds.
“Yet I like the course and feel comfortable here, so Friday should go all right.”
Fly beat Knoxville’s Casey Flenniken 2 and 1 even though Flenniken shot 4 under for the day. Against Patterson, Green just missed a birdie putt to the left on 17 that would have squared the match.
Blakely fell to Burgan when the 2009 champ rolled in a 25-foot putt on No. 17 for birdie. But that’s OK with Blakely, who had more important things on his mind Thursday afternoon.
“This has been the best week of my entire summer, not only because I accomplished my goal of making match play here, but I got my acceptance letter to grad school at Lipscomb on Wednesday,” Blakely said. “So I’ve got the next two and a half years planned out. It was tough to focus on golf. I’m pretty excited.”