Iron

HAGERSTOWN - Things could have gotten away from Nik Steiner on the 18th hole Thursday, but a clutch iron shot led to a bogey-saving putt. Steiner captured the WACO Junior Golf Championship at Beaver Creek Country Club with a 7-over-par 79, one shot better than Chad Shindle's 80. “I hit the cart path on 18, had to re-tee and then hit a nice iron to the pin,” said Steiner, winning a WACO event for the second time this season. His fourth shot from 120 yards came to rest about 12 feet from the pin on the dogleg 18th, and Steiner rolled in the putt for a bogey that saved him from falling into a tie with Shindle.

The diameter of a cup on a golf green is supposed to be 4.25 inches. Ashley Grier would have preferred them to be 4.35 on Saturday. For a second straight day, Grier posted an even-par 72 in the Symetra Tour's Challenge at Musket Ridge, leaving her at even-par 144 for the tournament - good enough to make the cut for Sunday's final round. Grier posted a 2-under 34 on the front nine Saturday, which could have been much lower. “I could have been 4 or 5 under just on the front nine,” said Grier.

Hagerstown resident Bob Verdeyen, a member at Beaver Creek Country Club, will be on the golf course today with the usual morning gang of players. The burning question: Can Verdeyen make it three weeks in a row with a hole-in-one? Some golfers make holes-in-one left and right, some go forever without one, as I have. Many articles list the chances at 12,000 to 1 of making one. In each of the last two Sundays, Verdeyen has posted a hole-in-one, giving him three in his golf career.

Bob Verdeyen has struck again. Getting a hole-in-one twice in a week this summer was a feat in itself, but the Hagerstown golfer went out and added to his list of accomplishments last Sunday with another ace at Beaver Creek Country Club. For the third time in 55 days, Verdeyen knocked down a hole-in-one. He used a 6-iron on the eighth hole, which was playing from 138 yards. He was playing with Jim and Julie Hart. He had aced No. 8 on July 24 with a 7-iron from 130. “The pin was back and there was a little breeze so I went with the 6-iron,” said Verdeyen.

koelble@herald-mail.com If he comes down off Cloud Nine in time to play in today's Tri-State Junior Golf Championship, Waynesboro's Kevin Reiber is the likely favorite after the 16-year-old captured the 20th WACO Open championship at Beaver Creek Sunday. Tied with golf buddy Kenny Smith, of Waynesboro, entering the final round following 4-under par 68s Saturday, Reiber put up a self-defense screen on the back nine to ward off several comers in the heat of battle. Not until the final putt of the tournament on the par-4, 370-yard 18th hole did Reiber clinch the title, letting out a sigh of relief as the gallery cheered the youngest champion in WACO history.

COLLEGE SOFTBALL Charleston 5-2, Shepherd 0-3 SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Stephanie Sims, Amy Edmondson and Mia Zappacosta had two hits each to lead Shepherd in the nightcap of a WVIAC doubleheader split. Andrea Lewis tossed a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts to lead the Golden Eagles (33-19, 20-6) over the Rams (26-17, 12-4) in the opener. GOLF Three aces recorded At Whitetail Golf Club, Dee Sanders, of Chambersburg, Pa., recorded her first hole-in-one on the 89-yard 14th hole with a 4-iron.

This is the 198th in a series of articles about the historical and architectural treasures of Washington County. Mills Road runs generally north/south between Burnside Bridge and Harpers Ferry roads, near land crossed during the Battle of Antietam. Well down the road, on the west, stands an elegant brick house opposite a weathered frame barn with brick granaries. Double chimneys rise from either gable wall of the house. A one-story, hip-roofed porch shelters the main entrance in the center of five bays.

Lemon juice is what makes L. Bruce Massey's sweet potato pie taste more like sweet potato. "It neutralizes the flavors," Massey explained to The Herald-Mail from his kitchen table, over a slice of pie. In Massey's recipe, the clove, nutmeg and cinnamon triumvirate is not required, though a tablespoon of cinnamon is optional. He specifies orange sweet potatoes - Georgia jets or red jewel. Never use canned. And yes, there's lemon juice. The effect is a light, creamy pie with a clean taste of sweet potato.

BALTIMORE - Cal Ripken Jr. will forever be known as the Iron Man, a fitting title for the most durable athlete in the rich history of the sport known as America's Pastime. The nickname captures the perseverance of the former Baltimore Orioles star, who played in 2,632 consecutive games from 1982-98. It would be an injustice, however, to summarize the spectacular 21-year career of Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. solely by The Streak. In assessing Ripken's affect on baseball, his peers and the fans who cheered for him, there are two words more appropriate than Iron & Man: Awe and respect.

If you ask Eric Forrester, he will say barbecue is an art form. And Forrester, owner of Mason-Dixon BBQ Services near Greencastle, Pa., promised there will be plenty of art at the Memorial Day Pignic on Saturday, May 25, and Sunday, May 26, at Fort Ritchie. The inaugural two-day event will feature its own arts festival, a music festival, and three barbecue competitions. “Barbecue is very American. That's why people enjoy it so much. There are very few American forms of culinary art,” Forrester said.