Red Falters Late on Sunday to Give Back the Cup
October 9, 2005
Sunday Chronology
Results
The Blue team recovered from a huge early
deficit on Saturday and then came back in a couple of key
singles matches Sunday to win back the Concord Cup.
Sunday's back nine produced one of the most exciting sets of
matches in the history of the event, as the lead shifted
back and forth between the teams. In the end, Blue
dominated the last three holes and grabbed back the Cup,
ending Red's hope to establish a mini-streak.
Red would begin Saturday with optimism. Blue was
missing two perennial stalwarts, Brad Juday (undisclosed)
and David Best (back). And many Red
players entered the event playing well. In the Friday
practice round, Vince Olenik hit his second shot at 14 to 2
feet. But that was nothing compared to the eagle by
Dennis Hackett. He holed out at the 17th with a
gorgeous wedge, and celebrated the shot all night.
Red was flying high, and got off to a good start.
Four-Ball
The first four-ball
group off the tee got off to a fast start, as the group
drained five birdies in the first six holes. Todd Felkey of
Concord joined the group for the first time, paired with
Jeff Hackett. Hackett birdied the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, but Jon
DeAngelis birdied the 2nd as well, and all Blue could show
for the effort was all-square after five. So Red survived,
and then Steve Shoop birdied six, as Red gained a three hole
lead by the turn. A frustrated Hackett could not bring his
group back, and went 0 for 6 in trying to get up and down,
and Red finally closed the match at the 17th.
This evened the matches since Ron George outlasted Dennis
Hackett in an initial singles match -- for the second time
in three years the Concord Cup was forced to include singles
matches on Saturday due to late withdrawals by the Smith
brothers. Hackett and George were re-matching their previous
year's singles match, and re-matching a recent Michigan
Match Play rivalry. The match seesawed -- Hackett was hot
early and hit a 40-foot birdie putt on the first hole, won
the 2nd, and then held a one hole lead by hitting a 30-foot
bogey putt on the 4th. But he gave some back, and George was
up two holes after the 8th. On the back, neither player had
a lead of more than a hole on the back nine. Hackett led
after the 14th, but tripled the 15th. George then birdied 16
and held on through 18 to win 1 up for the 2nd straight time
over Hackett.
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Bob Walters and AC Shoop sunk clutch putts at 17 to extend their matches to the 18th. |
Even before that match ended, Red was ahead in the event,
because of a huge run by Jamie Grace and Ron George Sr. They
won the first six holes against Denny Sr. and Chris Wilker,
the dagger a birdie two on the 6th. In "pasting prevent mode,"
Blue held out for a while but could not recover, and Red won
5 & 3.
Captain Vince Olenik's team busted out well too, in the
premiere match of the morning. Low-handicapper Mike Walters
and Concord Cup rookie Brian Carter played the first seven holes in even
par, but Olenik and Mike Lamarra posted birdies at the 2nd
and 4th, and Mike's par at 8 was good enough to put Red up
by three holes. Red wobbled with bogeys from the 10th to the
13th, and Blue closed to within one. But at 14, Olenik hit
driver-nine iron to within four feet and made eagle,
building the momentum to a four and two win.
After 15, the last active match was all-square. Red had a
chance to go 4-1 in the morning. In a match that didn't see
a lot of pars, AC Shoop made his second of the back nine at
the 15th to even the score. But rookie Brandon Boudreau made
the only par at 16 and Red would not recover. So Captain
Olenik had to settle for a 3-2 lead after the morning
four-ball.
Foursomes
Red's lead was short-lived, as the early singles match
quickly went to Blue. Brandon Boudreau moved to an
rookie-day 2-0 by getting off to a good start against Tom
Bres. He got up three after the 3rd, four after the sixth,
and five after the twelfth. Art avoided the pasting by
squeaking out a double bogey (net five at the 13th), but the
match ended after 14.
Meanwhile Jamie Grace and Mike Lamarra were off to an
excellent start against Jeff Hackett and Ron George. The
Blue group dropped two back after the 7th when George
bounced his tee shot off the trees and into the 9th fairway,
on the clubhouse side of the creek, wasting the birdie
they'd made on the prior hole. Red gave one back when Jamie
hit his 11th hole tee shot into the woods that line the
right side of the 8th fairway, in one of the most rightward
shots in Cup history. But Grace recovered to drop a tough
12-foot downhill putt at the twelfth, and Red added a
net-birdie at the 13th to lead by four with five to play.
But they couldn't close -- they bogeyed the next two holes,
doubled the two after that, and tripled the 18th. The match
halved.
In Match 8, the Walters brothers turned a two-over run
through six holes in to a three hole lead and poured in salt
when their double bogey at the 7th put them four up. Red was
on the comeback trail, three back at the 11th, when Ron
George Sr. hit his 130-yard second shot off the pin. The ball came to rest four feet above
the hole. With the Walters looking to make par, Shoop tried
to jam in the birdie but hit it too hard and the ball went
eight feet past the cup. George missed the come-backer and
Red felt the full impact of a two-hole swing. They would
recover only enough to squeeze out a five-net-four at the
13th to avoid a pasting, losing 6 & 4.
Many favored Dennis Hackett and Jon DeAngelis in their match
against Brian Carter and Todd Felkey. Blue's rookie pair was
giving up seven strokes, and since rookies traditionally
struggle most in alternate shot, some wondered whether
Captain Walters was sacrificing the point. Carter and Felkey
took a different view and played the best alternate shot
round of the day, a natural 3-over par through the 17th,
including birdies at the 9th and the 15th.
Suddenly the tone of the matches had turned strongly toward
Blue. Faced with possible 4-1 deficit, Blue had recovered
and now led 5 1/2 to 3 1/2. The last match featured another
rematch between Denny Sr. and AC Shoop, which historically
favored Blue. Hackett had won six times against only one
loss versus AC. At 13, he and Chris Wilker pulled out a
bogey to come back from a two hole deficit. Playing with AC,
Captain Olenik saw his Red team in real trouble. The 14th is
a good hole for Olenik, and he and AC used it to rebuild
their momentum. They went 6-4-4, all three scores good
enough to squeak out wins and Red recovered to win 3 & 2.
So after both teams had built up commanding positions, the
day ended with Blue up a point, 5 1/2 to 4 1/2.
Pairs
Brandon Boudreau went out first again, but this time he was
in for a battle with Jamie Grace, who has the best record of
any Red player. Grace was getting ten strokes, which is a
tough number for anyone to give him. It's a shame there was
no gallery, because the match saw four lead changes, and no
one ever led by more than a hole. Grace parred 13 to take a
one hole lead, but Boudreau won the 14th and the 16th and
had a chance to close the match. But the 18th got him like
so many others and Jamie made five-net-hour to halve the
match. Boudreau completed an undefeated Cup, his 2-0-1
record one of the best ever by a rookie.
AC Shoop won his singles match for the third straight year
by getting out quickly against Chris Wilker. Giving up two
strokes, he still managed to break out to a five hole lead
through seven, highlighted by his birdie at the 5th. Chris
turned the tide at the 11th with a par and by the 13th had
the match to within two holes. AC responded big with a
birdie at 14 and he closed the match out at the 15th.
When AC closed out his match, Red was in a commanding
position. With that point, Red had tied the Concord Cup at
seven a piece, and with a tie, Red would retain the Cup. And
at that time, Red led in four of the remaining seven
matches, with another tied.
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Steve Shoop made 6 at the
15th to lose 4&3 to Bob Walters. His 1-2
record was first sub-.500 record since 2001.
|
Captain Mike Walters needed to finish his match up quickly
so he could go out and root his Blue team to a comeback.
Dennis Hackett made that possible. He went downhill after
hitting his tee shot into the water at the 2nd and he never
recovered. Walters gave him a 20-foot putt at the 11th to
halve the hole, and the match finished at 8 & 6. Hackett's
loss extended a seven-year streak -- his last win in singles
came in 1998 against Brett Smith.
Mike Lamarra responded for Red with a one-sided victory, 6 &
4 over Brian Carter. Meanwhile Bob Walters was firmly in
control of his match against Steve Shoop. Bob had gotten in
early trouble. After Shoop won the first, he rolled in a 25
foot par putt at the 2nd. Walters responded by hitting an
eight-foot curler to have the hole, and tied the match on
the next hole. After Walters parred the 6th, Shoop got cold
for a four-hole stretch and Walters' consistent bogeys, plus
a 20-foot putt at the 14th, pushed him to a four and three
victory.
Around the time that Bob won his match, Red stayed in
commanding position. Red needed 9 1/2 points to win, and it
had locked up seven with four matches to play, and Blue was
tied or behind in all four. Jon DeAngelis had opened up a
three hole lead through six in his match against Ron George,
after George went double-quad-double on the 4th through
sixth. These players had met in singles three times already
since 2000 and DeAngelis led the rivalry 2-1, so this match
looked good for Red. But George righted the ship and the
players made the turn all square. The back nine would see a
much tighter match with alot of halved holes. DeAngelis
parred 15 to take a lead but George got it back to even with
a par at 16. At the 17th, George was forced to hit an
eight-foot bogey putt to keep the whole point alive.
Meanwhile, Vince Olenik had put Jeff Hackett's unbeaten
singles record in jeopardy, taking a one hole lead at the
15th. And Ron George Sr. had a three hole lead against
first-day rookie Rob Lahaie. The Hackett-Olenik match-up had
fallen well below expectations of quality play, with the two
low-handicappers posting 47 and 49 on the front. Olenik
opened up a four hole lead after seven, and it really looked
like the Captain was going to inspire Red by beating Hackett
for the first time. Hackett then pulled off a solid run from
eleven through 14, while Olenik went double-double-double.
Olenik's pars at 14 and 15 had pulled him ahead of Hackett.
If Red's captain could finish out the match and George Sr.
could hold on, Red would only need to find a half point out
of either DeAngelis or Tom Bres.
Bres was working at the 14th hole to tie his match with
Dennis Hackett Sr. Hackett Sr., like his second son, has
been a stalwart in singles play. He brought an 8-1 record
into the matches. One wonders if at Thanksgiving the
Hacketts send Dennis Jr. to carve the turkey and then
exchange ancient family secrets of how to win a singles
match. Tom Bres had probably spent a lot of time reviewing
Hackett's record prior to the match, because he came out
ready to lose. Hackett stormed to a five hole lead after six
holes while Art played in the unfamiliar position of giving
strokes. As he went to eight, down five and giving up a
stroke, Art assuredly was beginning to think about avoiding
the pasting.
He went further and made an amazing turnaround. He parred
the tough 8th, parred the 9th, and threw Hackett Sr. off his
game. Hackett's streak of good play ended at the sixth, and
he started the back nine triple-triple-double. As the
players left the 12th, Art had come all the way back to tie
the match.
Red was in fantastic position. DeAngelis standing even on
the 18th, Bres getting to even at 14, Olenik leading, and
George Sr. well up. But Red would only win one more hole,
and that not until well after the cup was decided.
With the match even at the 17th tee, Hackett made a par to
Vinnie's bogey to gain a one hole advantage. At 18, George's
54th hole of the event, DeAngelis hooked two balls out of
bounds and with George in the fairway, conceded on the tee,
giving Blue 9 1/2 points. Olenik battled at 18 as both
players intentionally played well right of the fairway off
the tee. Olenik played his second just short, and chipped to
three feet. Hackett could not get up and down.
If Olenik could make his putt, the match would halve and
Red could win with points from Bres and George Sr. If he
missed, Blue would get its 10 points and reclaim the Cup. He
missed, pushing it right, and Blue celebrated, although the
tone was a little muted, since two good matches had ended
with tough mistakes at the 18th.
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Blue clinched the 2005 Concord Cup when Captain Vince Olenik pushed this putt at 18 |
With the young Hackett singles record intact, the elder
Hackett regained his bearings and extended his great record
as well. Or better put, Art joined the Red fall with a
triple at the 15th and a double at the 16th. Hackett won 2 &
1. Rob Lahaie battled back in his match. Down three after
the 14th, he forced the match to 18 but fell there as Ron
George Sr. hit a key ten-footer to win 2 up.
Red had certainly had its chances in one of the closest
Concord Cup matches ever. But Blue was able to extend its
domination, winning the Cup for the 8th time in the twelve
year history.