Golf: Titles for Mack and Moir in Coast Invitational
Aug. 1—A full week of golf at the "St. Andrews of the Pacific" was capped off Saturday with some thrilling, down-to-the-wire competition in match play on the final day of the 2022 Oregon Coast Invitational.
The annual tournament that began in 1910 (the first was played at Gearhart Golf Links) is the second-oldest golf tournament in Oregon, behind only the Oregon Amateur Championship.
Match play among six different divisions began July 25 and wrapped up Saturday at the Astoria Golf & Country Club, with five of the six championship flight matches ending with 1-up or 2&1 leads.
That included an exciting women's final between longtime Oregon Coast Invitational participants Cappy Mack and Charisse Spada.
Mack — the five-time women's champion who won titles in 2002 and 2012 — celebrated the 10th and 20th anniversaries of tournament wins with a 1-up victory over Spada.
Of the morning and afternoon rounds — 36 total holes — Mack did not officially lead until after the 36th and final hole.
A three-time tournament champion herself, Spada jumped out to a 3-up lead through just four holes of the morning round, and held a 4-up lead through the sixth hole in the afternoon round.
But Mack chipped away at the lead, closing to within one on the 33rd hole, then pulling even on the 34th. The two stayed even through 35, before Mack closed out the match on the 36th.
The three Mack sisters have now combined to win 17 Oregon Coast Invitational titles (Lara with 11, Cappy at five, and Renee won the first in 1986). And, along with George Mack and George Mack Jr., the immediate Mack family has won 27 OCI championships.
In this year's Grand Champions men's division, an inspired effort from Astoria's Jeff Canessa came up short, as Harrison Moir, of Waverley Country Club, in Portland took the lead on the fourth hole of the afternoon round, and held a slim edge through 30 holes before winning, 4&3.
It was the second OCI title for Moir, one of the few golfers from Waverley to win the invitational, including the very first Grand Champion, W.B. Mixter, in 1910. Golfers from Waverley won seven of the first nine Grand Champion titles.
Elsewhere, championship flight winners in other divisions included Brad Nantz, of Oswego Lake Country Club, a 1-up victory over Allan Laplante in Juniors/Seniors; Peter Jennings, also of Oswego Lake, defeated Paul Gulick 2&1 in the men's Seniors; Dotty Johnson, of Astoria Golf & Country Club, won her second title in the women's Seniors, topping Judy Westwood 2&1; and Waverley Golf's Patrick Terrell — after earning medalist honors in qualifying to start the week — defeated Michael Healy 2&1 in Super Seniors play.
