An Interesting Distinction

 QUECHEE – When it comes to the Tommy Keane Invitational, Charlie Carr has hit for the cycle.

Carr, who has played in the annual golf tournament since 1990, noted in an offhand manner – long before Craig Steckowych and Brett Wilson came in with a tournament-record 61 to lead Friday’s qualifying round at the Quechee Club – that he’s one of just two people believed to have won all four flights of the venerable event. Scott Peters is the other.

With more than 30 TKIs on his resumé and by his estimation 10 or more different partners over the years, Carr’s memories from the annual tournament have understandably blurred. But the retired orthopedic surgeon clearly remembers winning the Championship Flight in 1996.

“I managed to find someone good to play with,” he said with a laugh. “I played with Sam Brackett, who turned pro the following year.

“The thing I remember most is we didn’t have a single bogey the entire time. We played somewhere between 70 and 80 holes over the three days and there were probably only six-to-10 holes where I helped Sam.”

Although the highlight of Carr’s Tommy Keane career was 26 years ago the event holds a sweet spot for him. So sweet that when the closure of Hanover Country Club and the eventual move to Quechee last fall meant shifting the tournament from its traditional end-of-July date to late September, the former Director of Sports Medicine at Dartmouth who spent many a Saturday afternoon on the Big Green sidelines, had to make a choice.

“It was football or this,” he said. “I ended up having one of my partners cover the game for me.”

That ended a streak of more than 20 years without missing a Dartmouth football game – but kept a Keane streak alive.

“I came back to the area in 1989 and Cam Brown, who was one of the early chairs of the TKI, asked me to play with him the next year,” Carr said. “I’m not sure if I’ve missed one since. I wouldn’t have missed one because of football, because it was always in July until last  year.

“I don’t know if I missed one because of the birth of a child,” he added with a laugh. “There may have been one there, but I can’t recall.”

For Peters, who has been instrumental in keeping a tournament his father, Seaver, helped get going, that kind of dedication to the Keane is music to his ears.

“I take great pride in hearing those kind of things and what they say about the passion for the event,” he said. “I can tell you I hear from people many months in advance talking about how they can’t wait. Every year when we get together it feels like we just saw each other, and yet it’s been a year.”

Carr, whose game had improved with retirement before “falling back into my bad habits,” hopes to keep his continuous Keane streak, however long it actually is, going for years to come.

“As you get older you see the young guys taking over,” he said. “There’s a time when you realize you can no longer keep up with them. That day is coming.

“But,” he added with still another laugh, “if you keep getting a good enough partner you can hang in there.”

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Here's the Craig Steckowych/Brett Wilson scorecard from their 61: