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A Snover resident and member at Woodland Hills Golf Club in Sandusky, Blank battled his way through seven rounds of golf last week to claim the Michigan Publinx State Senior First Flight Championship.

Blank has competed in the Senior event the last 10 years and has qualified for the Championship Flight each time, once reaching the semifinals in the match play portion. This year, in a field of nearly 100 golfers, Blank missed qualifying in the top 32, Championship Flight status, but did earn a spot in the First Flight among the next 32 qualifiers during the two stroke-play rounds at Eagle Glen at Farwell and The Pines, near Lake Isabella.

He started match play on Sunday with a narrow victory in 19 holes over Paul Klungsinger at The Pines course. From, there, Blank caught fire and rolled to the title, sweeping the next four matches.

"I've played 10 years in the Championship Flight and made the semifinals four years ago. I've always won one or two matches and it takes five to win it," said Blank.

"(This title) was not the one I wanted. I wanted to be in the Championship Flight." He quickly added, though, "But, this is fairly prestigious. Everybody else thinks it's a bigger deal than I do, but it was a good win."

Blank ousted off Doug Hankey, 5-4, of Lansing in the championship match on Tuesday. Hankey was runner-up in the First Flight a year ago. In the semifinals earlier, he easily won his match, 6-5.

""I started out (the tournament) playing bad, but I got better," explained the 64-year-old Blank. "My last two matches I shot even par, although the matches didn't go that far -- one was 13 holes and the other 14."

His momentum swung in the second round of match play. Blank put together a strong round and held off Dave Beaupre, 1-up. Then in the quarterfinals and trailing by one, he went all-square on the 17th hole when he sank a five-foot putt to win the hole by a stroke. Blank, who fired a 73 for the round, won the match on the 18th when he finished with a par and his opponent, Ed Irvin of Stevensville, bogeyed.

The victory in the Michigan Publinx senior event netted Blank a $450 gift certificate and a memorable plaque.