Bufalini advances to semifinals in Watertown golf championship

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - The first quarterfinal match in the 2022 Watertown Men’s City Golf championship took place Thursday at the Watertown Golf club.

It was a match that would turn into an instant classic.

Marcus Emerson and John Bufalini squared off for a spot in the semifinals on Saturday.

First hole, Bufalini drains the birdie putt to win the hole and go 1-up.

Emerson would win the second hole to even the match, but on hole three Bufalini finds the bottom of the cup on a long birdie try to win the hole and go 1-up again.

With the match square on the sixth hole Bufalini comes up with the shot of the day, sinking the chip for eagle to win the hole and go 1-up.

The players would skip hole nine. On the 10th hole Bufalini was 2-up. He drained the birdie putt to win the hole and go 3-up.

After halving the 11th hole Emerson catches fire. A par putt on 12 cuts Bufalini’s lead to 2-up.

On 13, it’s Emerson with the long birdie putt to cut Bufalini’s lead to 1-up.

Bufalini would win 14 to go 2-up, but on 15 it’s Emerson with another birdie, cutting Bufalini’s lead to 1-up.

On the 16th hole Emerson evens the match with another long birdie putt to win the hole...

On 17, Emerson would hit his tee shot out of bounds. Bufalini would chip on and birdie the hole to go back on top 1 up.

On 18, Emerson needs a long par putt to keep the match alive and he sinks it, remaining 1 down.

Back to the first hole, where Bufalini would par the hole to win the match, beating Emerson 1-up.

“Yeah, that was probably one of the best matches I’ve ever been involved in,” Bufalini said. “I tip my hat to Marcus. He was 3 down at one point and then he just threw a barrage of birdies at me. I threw a barrage of birdies at him early, I think an eagle there on six, but it was just a great match. I’ll tell you, I tip my hat to him. He played outstanding golf today and I had to be on my game to win.”

“Definitely proud of the way I played,” Emerson said. “I handled myself well, put myself in a couple positions that I would say are uncharacteristic of my game but definitely hung in there. It was definitely a gutsy performance. You know what you get when you play Buf. He’s a local legend here and he played well down the stretch and kudos to him.”

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