Mobile Murzinski takes aim at STC golf swan song

Ed Murzinski knows something about flights, and that has nothing to do with his 17 moves from 1964 to 1987.

Golf provided a constant throughout Murzinski’s career as a corporate industrial sales executive. In the past several years, however, his scores haven’t necessarily followed.

“My game has steadily gone down,” Murzinski said, “but it’s got a resurgence now.”

Murzinski faces Shawn Furrie in a B-flight semifinal in the St. Charles Men’s Tournament this morning at Pottawatomie Golf Course. What he calls his final tourney appearance – Murzinski and wife Joyce plan to relocate full-time to North Carolina soon – comes after about a quarter century of dabbling at each flighted level.

He’s won some and been blown out in some, but relished in playing his home course throughout.

Murzinski won the F-flight title in 2010, the year of his retirement. The tournament had a few more participants then.

Murzinski leaves the regular field still in awe of Pottawatomie, which he has played three to four times a week for the past three years.

“The wind, the fairways, the greens, where they put the pin placement – it can be challenging every single day in a different manner,” Murzinski said.

Walking the course each time keeps Murzinski, 67, spry, while adding to his energy. He has needed it while interviewing realtors this week.

He and his wife have two grown daughters and already spend about half the year in North Carolina, where one daughter lives. The family landed in St. Charles in 1987 and took root there when Murzinski went to work for a private company.

The Daly show: Defending champion Matt Daly would seem due for a middle-ground match. Last weekend's victories were about as polar as it gets – 9 and 7 against Eliot Kaufman and 1-up against Jon Woods in a 20-hole epic.

Never short on swagger, Daly keeps grinning and relying on consistency to pull him through, no matter the circumstances.

“Just trying to play solid golf. Just trying to hit it in the center of the club face every time and roll the rock,” he said of his success driving and putting. “You’ve got to roll the rock in match play, and confidence is everything. And when you get up, you’ve got to stay up, and you can’t compound mistakes. You hit it out, you’ve got to take your medicine.”

Caddy counsel: First-time tournament participant Sean Lenchner used the past few weeks as a tune-up for his upcoming season at Elm-hurst College, which opens its fall schedule Sept. 3.

The St. Charles East alumnus happily reached out to some old pals in the process.

Lenchner recruited reigning Chronicle Boys Golfer of the Year Dan Shepherd – a recent St. Charles North graduate – to caddy his qualifying round two weekends ago. Last weekend, Lenchner’s former high school teammate, East junior Keone Derain, manned the bag for two rounds in the championship flight when the Indiana-bound Shepherd had to arrive early to campus.

“Dan helped me with a bunch of putts, … so I was kind of mad I lost him, but Keone helped me out, so it was fun,” Lenchner said.

“He’s going to be a good golfer … so I called him on out.”