By STEVE WILLIAMS

For the first time in the seven-year history of the Triad Golf Today Interclub Challenge, there is a repeat winner.

Forest Oaks Country Club of Greensboro defended its title April 6, edging Pennrose Park Country Club of Reidsville by a single shot. A year before, Forest Oaks beat Blair Park by five shots and became the sixth different winner of the event where foursomes count the best two scores on each hole. Previous winners were Colonial (1997), Grandview (1998), Brookwood (1999), Willow Creek (2000) and Cardinal (2001).

Forest Oaks followed the same script as it did the year before – use steady play and avoid bogeys with the second ball.

In 2002, the foursome of Steve Sharpe, Weston Way, Chris Brown and Trip Gentry shot 68-63 with its bestball and 71-70 with its second bestball. This year, Glenn Sexton teamed with Sharpe, Way and Brown to shoot 64-68 on the first ball and 71-71 with its second ball.

“We have a lot of depth on that team,” said Sexton, Forest Oaks’ club champ from 2002. “We don’t make a lot of birdies but I think we only made one bogey the whole weekend.”

The Greensboro team, indeed, counted only one bogey against 15 birdies in two days while shooting 274 while Pennrose had three bogeys and 16 birdies on a 275 tally.

If it had been a one-ball tournament, the Pennrose foursome of Mike Goodes, Patrick Brady, Craig Bennett and Donn Walker would have claimed a three-shot win with 63-66. But PPCC’s 73-73 second ball told the story.

Sexton led the Forest Oaks contingent with a pair of 73s that left him third in the Tournament of Champions, the event that is played in conjunction with the Interclub. He was only a shot off the pace of Garland Yates and Nathan Spoon, both at 145. (Yates won the title in a five-hole playoff).

Sharpe finished tied for fourth with 74-73.

Way was second and Brown tied for 15th in the interclub individual event (for team members not qualified for the T of C). Way shot 75-73 and Brown 79-77.

“Chris Brown had a bad day Saturday but he made four birdies and that was huge,” Sexton said.

Brown’s four birdies, in fact, led the team in that department as Forest Oaks owned a one-shot lead at the midway point.

In the second round, Forest Oaks got birdies from Sexton and Way on the first hole, a birdie from Sexton at No. 3, a birdie by Sharpe at No. 14 and a birdie by Way at No. 18.

Pennrose, meanwhile, had seven birdies in the second round, including two on No. 17 and one on No. 18 in a fast finish. But bogeys at Nos. 4 and 10 proved costly.

“We just didn’t make enough birdies he second day,” Brady said. “And we had to count a bogey or two.”

Annually, the club championship event at Forest Oaks features a strong field and is as competitive as any such event around.

“We generally have about 10 guys that could potentially win every year,” Sexton said. “There have been a lot of different winners the last few years.”

Sexton downplayed his own game.

“Last year was a fluke year for me,” he said. “I won the club championship and the member-member and got my handicap down. It’s since gone the other way, but I had two good rounds (in the T of C). I don’t know where they came from.”

The event included 24 teams. Blair Park was third at 277 and Greensboro National, Willow Creek and Bermuda Run tied for fourth at 280.