Craig Thomas closed out Meadow Brook’s Bill Van Orman 5 and 5 Thursday to claim the Met PGA MasterCard Senior Match Play Championship for the second year in a row, making him the first back-to-back champion in 10 years. The tournament was staged this year at Woodmere Club.
Thomas, the head pro at Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, took the lead on the sixth hole and never lost it, carding three birdies and no bogies in the match.
Thomas faced down some of the Met Section’s major senior competitors in the first four rounds of the tournament, beginning with Knollwood’s Bob Miller in the first round, and followed by Pelham’s Mike Diffley (the 2013 champion), Winged Foot’s Mike Gilmore, and Sleepy Hollow’s Dave Young in the semifinals. None of his matches went the full eighteen holes.
