“Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is” said originally by Shoeless Joe Jackson and repeated thereafter by each of Sandy Tierney’s opponents in the main division of the 2012 Putnam Pro-Am Doubles. For the umpteenth time in the 21 year history of the Pro-Am, Sandy and his professional partner, this year, Hamed Anvari (New York), marched through the East Draw. Oh, there were a few bumps along the way, one game lost in the quarters, and a five game final against Malcolm Davidson & Preston Quick (New York), but few doubted that he would be anything other than #1 at the finish. Sandy’s a great player with numerous national titles to his name and seems only to lose in athletic excellence to his son Chris, a member of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.
The Putnam Pro-Am Doubles, with a Pro and Pro-Am division, was staged over Martin Luther King week-end. For the second year Putnam Investments was the title sponsor, using their marketing department to take full advantage of the opportunity with signage, publicity and very attractive purple shirts included in packages for amateurs and patrons. Associate sponsorship was provided by Joe Cortes’ Tatleaux Management Group, a company specializing in environmental products. The University Club again shone as the host of dinner on Friday, a Sunday brunch and all the creature comforts fitting for professional athletes at the top of their field.
The Pro Doubles Championship and its sister tournament, the Pro-Am Doubles Championship, is a mid-January fixture on the ISDA Professional Doubles Tour. With Putnam, Tatleaux, 63 patrons and 16 amateur players providing financial support for the event, the professionals competed in both divisions for $34,000 in prize money. A chance to see the top professionals in the world brought out sizeable galleries throughout the weekend. The professionals’ power, speed afoot and stunning shots were the stuff of wishful thinking for the rest of us. The finals of both tournaments were played on Sunday with four Pro-Am finals followed by the Professional final. The latter was another dominating performance by Damien Mudge & Ben Gould (both New York) who added to their remarkable 49-1 record with a three game shutout of Manek Mathur (Rye, New York) & Clive Leach (New York), completing the tournament without losing a game.
The Pro-Am draws were considerably tighter. The quarter-finals of the East Draw featured two five game struggles, the closest being Jamie Fagan & Paul Price’s (Toronto) 15-14 final game score over Tom Poor & Clive Leach. Also close was the Davidson-Quick victory over John Hailer & Ben Gould, the #1 professional. Only slightly easier was a four game victory by tournament chairman Lenny Bernheimer & Damien Mudge over Tom’s son Morgan & Greg Park (Philadelphia). Lenny just turned 70 and is at the top of his age group in national doubles circles. Under siege, he more than held his own on the right wall, hitting some unexpected winners and then stepping aside for Damien to finish the point. Jim Bildner is the only amateur to play in every Pro-Am. He has been carried off the court with a ruptured Achilles, missed business meetings and has been hit several times by refusing to yield position on the forehand rail. Seniority, however, did not help as he & Greg McArthur (Greenwich) lost in four to Tierney-Anvari.
The losers above headed for the North Draw where every match went the full five games. After a five game Saturday morning loss, Hailer & Gould in the afternoon started strongly in taking the first two games from Bildner & McArthur. Then, the handicapping system took hold, providing insurmountable leads and the next two games to the latter team. The fifth started at even with John digging in even more on the right side and a final win at 10. The second pairing was the Poor father-son virtual standoff. Morgan moved to Boston a year ago, leaving the vagabond life of Montana ski patrol in the winter and Vermont park ranger in the summer, and is teaching soccer, squash and tennis at Milton Academy, assisting the Tufts varsity and helping at the Club with junior clinics. His doubles is in the formative stage, all the more frustrating to his father as the teams traded identical scores in the first four games. Sanity returned in the fifth as Clive took over, restoring some sense of order in the family.
This year’s tournament welcomed four rookie amateurs, three of whom (Morgan was the fourth) moved into the West Draw as losers of first round matches (call it baptism under fire!). Perhaps the most emotional and exhausted of the class was Mark Baranski who teamed with home pro Dan Roberts to eke out a 15-14 fifth game win over Philip Bullen & Matt Jenson (Charleston, SC), then another 15-13 fifth game win over Steve Quigley and Mathur in the semis before the roof caved in in a finals’ loss to Joe Cortes & John Russell (New York). Quigley & Mathur had advanced in five over another rookie, Mark Wolpow, & Will Mariani (Toronto) despite Mark’s steady training sessions beforehand. In the lower half, Malcolm Salter and Mark Chaloner (Grand Cayman) took another five gamer over Marty Stocklan & Chris Walker (Greenwich) as Marty was not able to hit just one more reverse corner. In the last match, newcomer Mauro Stuparich had his wife and daughter as enthusiastic spectators but they could not add quite enough as he & Jonny Smith (New York) dropped yet another five game struggle to Cortes & Russell. Five of the seven matches in this draw went the distance.
The South Draw featured the West Draw quarter-final losers. Mark Wolpow viewed the loss in the West as a stepping stone and came back in the semis from two games down to even the match against Bullen & Jenson. The last game saw almost every ball up and down the right wall as the two amateurs tried to keep the ball away from the pros and play for a winner or a mistake. Philip has had a bit more experience at this sort of thing and won at 11. Meanwhile, the Walker-Stocklan vs Smith-Stuparich pairing had the same overtones, another right wall concentration and an even closer fifth game finish at 13 in favor of the former. That effort, however, took its toll as Bullen & Jenson cruised in the final to a four game victory.
This year’s event was especially successful with Putnam’s presence, the addition of rookie amateurs, spirited play and full galleries supplemented by a delicious dinner Friday evening and brunch Sunday. The Pro-Am has increased the interest in doubles in general and in particular, afforded all the chance to see great athletes (the professionals!) in action. The first doubles league began this season which along with events such as this has spurred doubles at the University Club and Boston in general. The new court at the YMCA in Marblehead and with any luck a new court at the Union Boat Club may some day bring another host of new players.