Some weekends the course gives nothing back. This one gave plenty.

Mark Dowen walked off 18 with a number nobody else came within five strokes of. 94/61. Twenty-nine point nine handicap, gross 94, net sixty-one. The next-best score on the day was Jim Barton’s 66 from the gold tees. Five strokes clear. The PoW vote took about a second.

And that wasn’t even the wildest card of the day.

In Championship, Sean McGarvey shot a 66. Six under par, gross, full conditions, no asterisks. With his plus-handicap card his net rounded to 67 — second-lowest of the day — but the gross is what people will remember. It’s the lowest gross at HGC this season and quite possibly the round of the year. McGarvey doesn’t talk much. The card spoke plenty.

The match-of-cards stayed busy. Down in B Flight, Brian McGarvey (father of Champ-flight Sean, who carded the day’s 66) shot 79/68. So did James Ridge. Hole-by-hole on the cards, McGarvey had the edge. Solo 1st by the slimmest of margins.

Three-way tie at net 78 in B for the next bracket — Clochessy, Jacobs, and Maltbie split T-3 at 35 points each.

Joseph Sparta keeps writing the same story. C Flight, 82/67, wire-to-wire win, his second of the season. He’s now sitting on 172.5 season points in C — a 50-point lead over Joe Galvin in second. The C Flight race that was a three-way tie last week is no longer a race.

And in A Flight, Christopher Napolitano finally cashed in. After three top-5 finishes to start the year, he posted 78/68 for his first outright A win of the season. He now leads Lauder by 30 points.

The Gold pool was a tight 4-player field with a familiar storyline:
· Jim Barton — 92/66 (Gold winner; solo 2nd in D Flight)
· Jack Porette — 93/72 (5th in D)
· Matt Burgay — 103/79 (7th in D)
· Stephen Hittman (walk-up) — 110/91

Around the rest of the boards:
· A Flight T-7: Carr, Casey, and Lepic all at 87 (or 85) gross / 77 net — 15 points each.
· D Flight depth: Vincent Gamboli (89/68) finished 3rd; Doug Nguyen (94/70) 4th.
· C Flight: Robert Jones (91/74) and Jack Vasquez (91/75) rounded out the top three behind Sparta.

Four of twenty-four events complete. Spring is finished. On to June.

Some weeks you grind. This week, Mark Dowen flew.

94 gross. 33 strokes. Net 61. Eleven under par on his net card. The kind of round where you stop counting and start hoping the scorecard doesn’t evaporate before you turn it in.

How clean was it? The next-best net of the entire tournament was Jim Barton’s 66 in the Gold pool — five strokes back. After that, four players tied at net 67 (Joseph Sparta and Sean McGarvey leading them). Net 68 had another seven players. Dowen was on his own at 61, in a tier nobody else reached today.

D Flight win, going away. Player of the Week, going away. Sometimes the math just works.

PoW rule: best net across all flights for the tournament. Ties broken by going back to the #1 handicap hole and forward as needed.

Some weeks the wind talks. This one whispered.

Jarred Lauder shot the round of his life. Even par. Seventy-two. No asterisks, no give-me putts, no friendly bounces — just 72 honest strokes around Rotella. The man fixes pipes for a living, and on Sunday he drained every one of them — not a single putt leaked all afternoon. His best round ever at HGC and the kind of card you keep in a drawer. Net? 64. A Flight win and the lowest gross of the day all at once.

Plot twist: he had to share the net 64.

All the way down in D Flight, Steve Weiss walked in with a 99/64. Same net, four flights apart. Weiss took D, no argument. But Player of the Week only fits one trophy on the mantle. The tiebreaker rule: match-of-cards. Hole by hole, allocation in hand, the officials worked it out. Lauder's card had the edge. PoW is his. Weiss took D Flight and a story he'll tell for the rest of the season.

And Lauder's wasn't even the only tie of the day.

In Championship, four players all walked off the 18th green with the same number: net 74. Anthony Cannella (78/74), Steven Hegner (81/74), Anthony Pisciotta (80/74), and Darrin Sloan (77/74). No 3-hole playoff this time — back to the cards. Sloan had the better scorecard count, and the trophy is his.

The Jordan Covell train keeps rolling. Three events in 2026, three top finishes. 83/72 for the B Flight win, his second outright victory of the season. He now sits on 145 points — 60 points clear of second in B and the highest single-flight total in the entire club. He's not playing the same game as the rest of B Flight right now.

Joseph Sparta ran away with C at 83/68, the best net of the tournament across all flights below Champ. He, Joe Galvin, and Floyd Abrams are now in a three-way tie at the top of C-Flight standings — Sparta and Galvin at 122.5, Abrams at 120. Closest battle in the club.

Around the rest of the day:
· D Flight: Weiss's 64 led; Jack Porette took the Gold pool prize (93/72) and finished 2nd in D. Thomas Bohlander, Anton Voltchok, and a host of others packed the top.
· Gold pool: 9 entries. Porette took the prize.
· A Flight depth: Richard Stpierre (78/69) and John J Calcaterra (77/70) right behind Lauder.
· B Flight runner-up: Seamus Garrity at 87/74, 2nd in B.

The weather held, the greens were honest, and a few unlikely names slipped onto the scorecards. On to the next one.

Two players. Four flights apart. The same number at the bottom of the card.

Jarred Lauder in A Flight: 72/64. Even par. The lowest gross of the day, and his best round ever at HGC. The kind of card members frame.

Steve Weiss in D Flight: 99/64. Different game, same net. The kind of high-handicap heater that wins tournaments.

Both took their respective flight wins. PoW only goes to one. Tiebreaker rule for PoW skips the hardest hole and goes straight to match-of-cards — comparing hole-by-hole scores under handicap allocation. Lauder's card had the edge.

Lauder is your PoW. Weiss took D Flight and a story.

PoW rule: best net across all flights for the tournament. Ties broken by match-of-cards (hole-by-hole comparison under handicap allocation).

Some weekends the course gives nothing back. This was not one of those weekends.

Kristian O'Grady and John Casey did the thing every two-man partner dreams about: low score every hole, team net 61. $75 each in pro shop credit and the kind of result that holds up at the bar all summer.

Two teams tied behind them at 62. The Cannella tandem — Rocco and Anthony Cannella JR — won 2nd via match-of-cards over Mike Negri & Anthony Pisciotta. The card said Cannellas.

Three players carded the tournament's lowest individual net of 66:
· Kristian O'Grady — 69/66
· Jared Lauder — 74/66 (A Flight)
· Mike Negri — 75/66 (A Flight)

Three-way tie, Player of the Week tiebreaker triggered, back to the #1 handicap hole. Negri birdied it. PoW is his.

And Kristian O'Grady's 69/66 deserves its own line. We checked: it's his first sub-70 round in HGC history. The man shot 69 and then won a team event. Some weeks you should just buy lottery tickets.

Two stories worth their own paragraph:

Jordan Covell is having a moment. Two events, two top-2 finishes, sitting on 95 season points — the highest single-flight total in the entire club. Through seven weeks of golf, he's been the most consistent player in the building regardless of flight. B Flight has a Player of the Season frontrunner already.

Mary Corretjer's C Flight debut. First event in her new flight assignment, opens with 86/72 to win it outright. Her net 72 was 3 strokes clear of the rest of the flight. Some debuts speak for themselves.

Around the rest of the flights:
· Champ: O'Grady's 66 won it. Anthony Cannella JR and Anthony Pisciotta tied for 2nd at 71.
· A: T-1st Lauder & Negri (66). A five-way logjam at net 73 — Aiello, Napolitano, Facciola, Fox, Griffin.
· D: Doug Nguyen 96/72, no drama. Phil Quinn & Jack Porette tied for third at 81.

130 golfers on the boards. Standings are tight. On to the next one.

Three players walked in with the same number at the bottom of the card: net 66.

Kristian O'Grady (Champ, 69/66 — his first sub-70 ever at HGC). Jared Lauder (A, 74/66 — a clean low round). Mike Negri (A, 75/66 — the loud one).

Tiebreaker rule sends it back to the #1 handicap hole. The #1 handicap at Rotella is Hole 6 — the one most members bogey and move on. Negri made birdie. Cleanest possible answer to a three-way tie.

Three excellent scores. One trophy. Take that, #6.

PoW rule: best net across all flights for the weekend. Ties broken by going back to the #1 handicap hole and forward as needed.

First event of the season is in the books. Anthony Cannella led wire-to-wire in Championship at 78/74. James Monte matched the 78 gross in A Flight and netted 71 for the win — also picking up Golfer of the Week. Tim Rotundo took B Flight at 82/71. C Flight produced co-champions: Joe Galvin and Floyd Abrams both at net 73, sharing the place-1 points. Galvin took the regular C-flight prize while Abrams (G) collected the Gold pool prize. Sean McLaughlin closed it out in D Flight with another 73 net. 76 members posted scores on a soft course.