Calef, Souliotis to meet in Mass. Amateur Championship finals

Special for the Item / The Daily ItemMARBLEHEAD – Following two rounds of stroke play and two days of grueling match play, the finals have been set at the 104th Massachusetts Amateur Championship.Beginning this morning at 8 a.m., Mike Calef (Brockton CC) and Mark Souliotis (Haverhill CC) will face off in a 36-hole final match at Tedesco Country Club to determine the 2012 champion.The two warriors battled through the quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Thursday to earn the right to compete for The Massachusetts Cup.For Calef, this week has been a fitting end to what has been a triumphant return to the Bay State after he moved to Texas last fall with his wife Alicia.”My real reason for coming was to see a bunch of old friends and play in one of my most favorite tournaments of the year,” said Calef, who has maintained close ties with his home course of Brockton Country Club where he worked for two years. “Although I have been playing really well and I always try to expect to do well, I really didn’t see myself making it this far.”Calef, whose best prior finish at this event was a quarterfinal appearance back in 1998, took an early lead in his quarterfinal match against Josh Salah (Bass Rocks GC) and managed to hold on to secure a spot in the semifinals. With the wind picking up, Calef still found a way to deliver quality shots during his 5 and 4 win over Jack Whelan (Myopia Hunt).Helping Calef along the way has been his good friend Doug Clapp (Old Sandwich), who Calef beat in the round of 16 the day before. Clapp returned to Tedesco Country Club on Thursday to caddy for Calef all day long and was no doubt a huge asset for Calef as he tried to maneuver on these challenging greens.”When we played our morning match Doug said to me that if we could get it to 3 or 4 under in the morning that might be good enough,” said Calef. “In the morning match you have some energy and you can go at it, but in the afternoon you look at each other and say we just played 36 holes a couple of days in a row and you just want to survive. But I felt good and I played well.”Against Whelan, Calef took his first advantage on the third hole where he drained a 39-foot par putt to best Whelan’s bogey. He then – on the 5th hole – stuck a 60-yard approach to four feet for birdie and placed his second shot on the 6th hole to three feet to go 3 up through six holes. He capped off his victory by sending his second shot on the 14th hole to three feet.”I started to hit more solid yesterday afternoon and today,” said Calef. “I have made a heck of a lot of putts on these greens where they are fast and have crazy and subtle breaks that you don’t see. I have made a lot of really good saves and four-, five-, six-, eight-footers for pars that you have to make to keep the momentum and keep going and going.”As good as he has been playing, Calef will have his hands full with Souliotis. A 46-year-old self-proclaimed “weekend golfer,” Souliotis is enjoying the week of his life. After all, the software engineer for Raytheon was wondering whether or not he could even play this week as he is scheduled to fly off to Hong Kong any day now to help install an air traffic control system.”The game is always a hill on a rise, and I am swinging up the hill,” said Souliotis, who just a few weeks ago won the club championship at Haverhill Country Club. “I am right up there and I am swinging good and so happy with my irons. I didn’t hit them that well today, but I am hitting them right on the face? and right where I want to.”During his morning match against Mark Purrington (Allendale CC), it appeared that Souliotis would make a quick exit on Thursday morning. After all, Purrington drained a 35-foot birdie putt on the 8th hole to go 3 up. The tide would change quickly as Purrington made an error on the 9th hole and then Souliotis went on to win four out of the next five holes to turn the tables and take a 2-up lead through 14 holes. He sealed the quarterfinal victory on the 18th hole by a s