AN EASTERN BOUT FOR BARROOM GLORY

The Pub Championship has emerged as the Regional Championship's biggest success story of the year.  A contest touted for "Every Player" since day one, the Pub Championships have seen players from bars throughout every corner of the nation getting a chance to bask in the Golden Tee spotlight on an even playing field with the game’s greats.

The Eastern Pub Championship was no exception, more than fifty players throughout the north east region of the country were in attendance hoping to be the one to take a swig out of the silver Pub Champion tankard.  Blind-draw was used to seed the 50-players on a 64-man bracket, leaving some lucky players with byes in round one.  Two Golden Tee LIVE 2007 machines were used and spectators could cheer on the action as they watched on the big screen.

After an hour of intense closest-to-the-pin action, the field was whittled down to four players hoping for a $1,000 payday.  Again, Ohio and Michigan were well represented in the final four as Ohioans Sonu Khatri and Darren Patterson squared-off against Michigan’s Paul Kovacs and Ryan VanManen.

Khatri and Kovacs advanced to the finals leaving Patterson and VanManen to battle for third place.  The dreaded 17^th hole of Moose Landing - a 200-yard par 3 complete with pot bunkers, water and a hard-sloping green - was selected for the final match.  After setting a mark of 7 ft. 6 inches on his second shot, Kovacs watched as Khatri worked the trackball and hoped to beat the Michigan player’s distance to the pin.  With his best efforts, Khatri sticks the green on his final shot and leaves the ball 7 ft. 8 inches from the pin - a mere 2 inches from a big $1,000 payday! 

Paul Kovacs chalked one up for the Michigan contingent winning the Eastern Pub Championship!  In a post-event interview Kovacs said, "I didn't really expect to win the Pub Championship, but I love par 3's.  I always go for the hole-in-one on par 3's," he said.  “This was really exciting and I had a good time.”