Nash is cash at NS Invitational

The only thing hotter than the recent weather pattern has been the golf game of Kevin Nash.
Nash, who won the Old Capital Club Championship last month, made it two tournament wins in a row as he captured the New Salisbury Invitational title on Sunday afternoon.
It was his second Invitational victory, with the last coming in 1996.
‘I think it just started at the membership at Corydon, where I just started putting well. I putted pretty well at New Salisbury last week and this past weekend and stayed out of trouble.’
Nash shot an opening-round 67 on Saturday and followed the effort with a two-over par 72 on Sunday. His total of 139 was two shots better than 2005 North Harrison graduate Zack Davis, who marked 72 and 69. Third place went to 1998 Invitational champion Steve Beanblossom (70-72-142).
The victory march actually started early last week when Nash played a practice round alongside long-time friend Jon Mathes. During the trip, Nash aced the par-3, No. 2 hole and marked seven other birdies.
It was his third hole-in-one, and oddly, all have come on that same hole.
‘Jon told me I should have saved it for the weekend,’ Nash said with a laugh.
And in an extremely odd twist of fate, it was Mathes who was again Nash’s cart-mate during Sunday’s round. The duo was paired up in the same cart when Nash won at Old Capital in July.
On Saturday, Nash’s hot putting and solid drives helped him post the three-under 67.
Sunday’s round wasn’t quite as elegant, but with a three-stroke lead on the field to start the day, it was enough to give Nash some cushion.
‘Sunday got a little conservative once I had the lead,’ Nash said. ‘That’s not always good because someone can sneak up you. I just sort of prodded along and made my pars and forced everyone else to do something. I thought if I got a good round in on Saturday, which I did, then it was not real likely someone was going to go real low on Sunday and it would probably be enough.’
Nash started with a pair of pars before marking bogey on No. 3. He followed with two birdies and a string of three pars. A bogey on No. 9 didn’t seem to rattle the eventual champ as he birdied the first hole on the back side.
The closest Nash came to losing the lead came on the 16th hole (hole No. 7). His tee shot flared out to the right and fell into a small pond. After dropping, a chip shot landed eight feet below the hole. The bogey putt went in.
‘That could have been a big turning point,’ Nash said. ‘I had four shot lead on Beanblossom and he just missed a birdie putt would have made four down to two. Then, Steve almost made birdie putt on eight, so it was tight there for a minute.’
The winner of the First Flight was Tyler Griffith (77-71-148), with Charlie Pitman (77-72-149).
The Second Flight title went to Craig Smith (81-73-154) and Rob Higdon (81-75-156) was second.
Eric Dutchess (86-78-164) won the Third Flight, followed by Dennis Hill (85-80-165).
Larry Jones captured the Fourth Flight with scores of 90-85-175 and runner-up honors went to Bill Mills (91-89-180).
The High School Flight was won by Matthew Bruce (70-70-140), with Kyle Mattingly second (80-71-151).
New Salisbury Invitational
(par 70)
Championship Flight
Kevin Nash 67-72’139
Zack Davis 72-69’141
Steve Beanblossom 70-72’142
Jared Arledge 72-72’144
Shane Bosemer 70-75’145
Alan Reed 72-75’147
Jon Mathes 71-76’147
Brent Martin 72-77’149
Bob Morris 73-77’150
Tim Coffman 74-77’151
Mike Rhodes 71-82’153
Ross Schulz 72-83’155
First Flight
Tyler Griffith 77-71’148
Charlie Pitman 77-72’149
Jeff Shaffer 77-73’150
Alex Zimmerman 78-73’151
Jeff Schmidt 77-74’151
Dave Beanblossom 75-76’151
Mark Wright 79-74’153
Terry Prince 79-75’154
Mike Amy 78-76’154
Bob Tervee 78-76’154
Jon Schmidt 76-80’156
Tony Stinson 76-80’156
Gary Dorman 79-78’157
Joe Hinton 78-79’157
Jared Wolfe 76-85’161
Russell Alexander 77-86’163
Mike Jones 77-87’164
Greg Sarjeant 76-WD
Second Flight
Craig Smith 81-71’154
Rob Higdon 81-75’156
Nigel Islam 80-76’156
L.C. Nash 80-78’158
Andy Rideout 82-79’161
Les Long 84-79’163
Bill Schneider 83-80’163
Mike Dunn 83-82’165
Scott Hasty 84-87’171
Henry Shaffer 84-89’173
Steve Decker 82-92’174
Ronnie Tuell 84-91’175
Third Flight
Eric Dutchess 86-78’164
Dennis Hill 85-80’165
Curt Jones 86-81’167
Dwight Clunie 88-82’170
Virgil Biggs 85-86’171
Dan Alexander 86-85’171
Jim O’Bold 85-88’173
Red Rider 88-86’174
Alan Reed (Wash. Co.) 86-93’179
Fourth Flight
Larry Jones 90-85’175
Bill Mills 91-89’183
Al Beoemer 91-91’182
Jerry Thompson 94-89’183
Steve Taylor 91-92’183
Matt Dziadosz 93-94’187
Jim Tennaneour 119-117’236
High School Flight
Matthew Bruce 70-70’140
Kyle Mattingly 80-71’151
Chris Worrall 87-78’165
Joey Thompson 83-82’165
Dylan Spencer 85-81’166