Red Wilts in Blue-Hot Weather

90-degree Heat

October 7, 2007

The first match on Saturday set the tone. Red jumped to an early lead, and Captain Bob Walters and last year's captain Dave Best trailed by two holes standing on the 16th tee. AC Shoop and Mike Lamarra had victory in hand, but Blue parred out to win. Once again Best backed up words with strong play, Walters continued his hot streak, and Blue won the back nine. Red, for its part, flirted with victory in a close match but couldn't close.

In the lead up to this year's 14th Concord Cup matches, captain Dennis Hackett noted that while Red lost big last year, it was actually very close in most of the Sunday matches. Indeed, with a few different turns in the back stretch of holes, the event might have been much closer. This continued a pattern that's developed in recent years, most notably in the classic 2005 matches, where Red held the late very late Sunday afternoon, only to lose it to strong Blue closes.

Four Ball

The matches started out super tight. Captain Hackett tried to put out teams that had been successful before, but worried that he didn't have much to work with. Captain Walters decided to keep his senior players apart all day Saturday, believing that he had a strong advantage and trying to leverage it (and, perhaps consistent with his industry background, might have leveraged it a little too much).

Prior to this year, the closest Saturday morning in terms of holes played was 2001, when all but six of the required holes were played. But this year, four of the five matches went to 18, and the other went to 17, far surpassing any previous year in the 18-hole era. And after the matches were done, the score was tied 2 1/2 to 2 1/2, the first morning tie since 1996 (the last year that nine hole matches were played).

In the opening match, Mike Lamarra and AC Shoop jumped out to a three hole lead when AC parred for net birdie at the 7th. When Bob Walters hit two in the trees at 12, partner Dave Best bogeyed, and AC's bogey for five held up, putting the Red lead at 2 holes. That held until the 16th tee, then Walters made 4 for 3 at 16, Best won with par at 17, and Walters made 4 for 3 at 18 to steal the match for Blue.

The second match had a lot of thrills. Steve Shoop and Frank George were one of the recently successful teams for Captain Hackett, with their strong foursomes showing in 2006. But Brandon Boudreau started very hot in the second match, getting up and down from left of the pines at the 2nd, and playing the first seven holes two over par. His partner Chris Wilker, contributed by winning the 3rd hole even though he whiffed his second shot. He hit his third on the green and made the putt. By the eighth hole, Blue had opened up a four hole lead. At the 11th, George hit a 40 foot putt for a natural birdie, and followed up with a four for three at the 13th, and Red was within two. Shoop birdied the 14th, and two disastrous triples by Blue at the 15th allowed Shoop's bogey to even the match (his partner made seven at 15). Chris Wilker followed up with a huge birdie at the 16th, defeating George's net birdie. The other back nine par 3 hurt the group as bogeys halved it, and Brandon Boudreau's par staved off George's five for four at the 18th.

Rookie Bill Avery was paired with Ron George against Jon DeAngelis and Ron George Sr. in a rivalry match. The younger George and DeAngelis have had a long-time Concord Cup rivalry and Avery and George Sr. have a golf rivalry of grudge matches that goes back thirty years. DeAngelis started hot by hitting his 2nd shot to 12 inches at the first, but it would take a while for Red to develop a big lead. Meanwhile, George would lean on the new guy all day. Avery made four for three at the 4th to even the match. When DeAngelis, one over at the time, went to his pocket on the 5th, Ron George Sr. made a five for four to halve the hole. Hitting from the white tees for the first time made a big difference at five and a few other holes, but the chute still gobbled Avery's ball on this hole. Red made a run at seven and eight with pars, and made the turn two up. When Ron George Sr. made a net birdie at the 11th, Red led by three. But Blue hung on, and at the 15th, Bill Avery hit his tee shot to three feet, made the bending putt, and Blue trailed by one. His three at the 17th pulled the match to even. At the 18th, Ron George made a 15 foot putt for five, which put the pressure on Red, but Jon DeAngelis made a difficult eight foot putt to make par to win the match (and take the pressure off George Sr., who had a short putt for 5/4). Red led 2-1.

In the fourth match, the Blue captain went Mike Walters and Brad Juday. After the 2000 matches, the team had a 4-0 record, but they had lost their last three tries. They were pitted against captain Hackett and Jamie Grace, who has the best record of any Red player, and whose 21 strokes were especially scary in better ball where he could lean on his partner for the blow-up holes. While this was the only match that didn't reach the 18th, it was one of the closest matches for the first sixteen holes. The teams halved five of the first eight holes. Juday's 6/5 halved the third hole. Hackett's 5/4 evened the match at the 4th. Walters didn't have his best year, but played well enough to keep Blue even through ten. Then Juday made big pars at the 11th and 12th -- net birdies -- and Blue had a two hole lead. Red came back as Hackett made 4/3 at the 13th, and his five won the 14th. They continued the streak with par at 15 and a huge birdie by Hackett at the 17th to win the match for Red.

Vince Olenik called the last match the best he's ever played in. Neither team ever led by more than a hole. Bill Sedwick opened with a net birdie for Blue. The other three players, Bob Ligon, Tom Bres, and Olenik, all made pars at the 2nd. Bres won the third with a par, net birdie. Red took the lead with an Olenik par at the 5th. This short hole, perhaps because of the chute, continues to baffle almost all the players. Sedwick evened the match with a par at the 6th and when everyone made a mess of the 7th, his 6/5 put Blue up by one. Bres and Sedwick both parred the difficult 8th. Ligon and Olenik both parred 10. Bres made 4 for 3 at the 11th to even the match. Olenik's best hole is 14 (or at least it would be until Sunday), and he made birdie there to put Red up by one. But Ligon's 4/3 stood up at the 16th. After Olenik and Ligon both made par at 17, Olenik made a great par at 18 to stave off the 5/4 made by Ligon, and the match ended in a halve.

In all, after much drama, the matches were tied after the morning.

Foursomes

The "pasting" at Concord is defined as any match that doesn't reach 14. Over the years, it's been an appropriate cutoff point for a close match and a blowout -- and it carries the particular pain of being at the farthest point from the clubhouse when your round ends, out there, having to drive in past the rest of the players. A pasting is a relatively rare, the last six years have seen only eight pastings, and never more than three in a single year.

Ron George Sr. and AC Shoop won their first two foursomes matches as partners, back in 1999 and 2000. But they had lost their last four times as foursomes partners, so Captain Hackett could be questioned for putting them together. Bob Walters certainly felt good when he put Ron George and Bill Sedwick against them -- he knew Ron George had handed the last two foursomes defeats to the senior pair, and Walters really liked the strong play of Sedwick, especially with the new white tee rule. But Sedwick and George never knew what hit them. AC and Ron Sr. played bogey golf throughout, and with seven strokes, that was more than enough to dominate the match. In fact, Sedwick and George made only one par, and never even won a single hole. The match ended as the first pasting of the day at the 13th hole.

Jon DeAngelis and Steve Shoop have played together often, and their 4-4 record coming in was good enough to count for a "strong team." Though Mark Williams and Bob Ligon struggled at the first, they came back with a 4/3 at the fourth hole, and trailed by only one after five. But Red played one over for the next four holes, and Blue fell apart after the turn. Even with a stroke at 13, the Blue pair couldn't win the hole, and suffered Red's second pasting, 6 & 5.

And for the first time, a team achieved three pastings in the same session. Red's third blowout came from Mike Lamarra and Tom Bres in their match against Chris Wilker and Brad Juday. The match was never close, but managed two bits of controversy. Bres accused Brad Juday of cheating at the tenth tee. Up four at the turn after a strong front nine, Lamarra and Bres went inside for a drink. Juday hit his tee shot just a few feet. (Remarkably, this was the second time he'd done this.

His morning tee shot at the first hole hit the second spruce tree on the right, the second of three spruces that line the tee box). According to Bres, Juday looked at the building, and made a move to go pick up his ball. Wilker said Brad was only joking, and repeated the assertion when he told the story later. Bres believes differently. Juday was unavailable for comment.

The match ended at 12 amid more controversy (see video). The back of the 12th green had small circle of firm mud, and the Red ball had landed there. Lamarra asked for relief and Juday refused it. Lamarra stepped up and made the 30 foot downhill putt to conclude the pasting 7 & 6.

Bill Avery drew a better partner -- Brandon Boudreau -- in the afternoon, and met the team of Dennis Hackett and Frank George, in an even strokes match. Hackett and George were a little puzzled after nine -- they shot 46 including an 8, which is a pretty good score in this format. But Avery and Boudreau made four pars on the front, and led by three after eight holes. They struggled at the ninth and tenth with doubles, but a par at 11 and a big struggle for George and Hackett at the 12th gave Blue back a three hole lead, and they held despite a poor 16th to win at the 17th.

Bob Walters employed the Brad Juday "I'll play with Wally" strategy. The Walters brothers

have been a formidable team, proving the adage that it makes sense to put similar people together -- while Bob's 18 isn't exactly similar to Mike's 6, they do share 99.6% of the same DNA. When Vince Olenik joined the event in 2000, Red thought that by now he'd easily have their best record, but that distinction continues to be held by his partner, Jamie Grace. The no strokes match was close through six, but Red struggled on the par fives -- an amazing fact given the huge length of the two Red players. Grace struggled with a broken rib, though, and Red was down by three at the turn. They recovered with pars at 10, 11 and 12 and evened the match. But they struggled at the 14th with double bogey, and a Blue birdie at the 16th put them ahead by two, which they held 2&1.

Pairs

After a shootout lasted into the pitch-black and a fantastic ribs dinner prepared by Chef Olenik, the teams gathered on the patio outside the pro-shop for the Sunday pairings. Bob Walters said "I placed a big premium on pairing guys that wanted a piece of a Red player. And that would work out well for me."

Walters threw his own name out first, and Hackett did not bite for the captain vs. captain tradition, instead choosing to pit another 2-0 player against Walters (who had won 11 straight at this point). Walters started out in trouble. At the 2nd, a new tee location was added as a small area of tee box was carved out, making the hole at least a club longer. Walters put two in the water and conceded the hole on the tee. Walters conceded a birdie to DeAngelis at three and trailed by three. It was the second time on the weekend that Walters was behind by three. He again fought back, this time taking advantage of DeAngelis's problem with the chute at the 5th (and narrowly avoiding Lou Boudreau's provisional ball from the 4th tee), and further struggles at the 6th. Three up, three down. At the 8th, DeAngelis hit a drive to 120 yards, punched to the back of the green, and made a great two-putt at the difficult green to finally stop the bleeding and even the match. Walters won the 9th as DeAngelis couldn't make double, but lost his lead when DeAngelis parred the 10th and 11th to take the lead back. At the twelfth, both players recorded triple bogeys. They both parred 13, but Walters stroked, and he then parred the 14th to swing the lead back for the fourth lead change. DeAngelis simply gave it away from 15 to 17, with doubles on the last two, and Walters won 2&1.

Hackett put out Steve Shoop for match #12, and when Bob Walters responded with Mike Walters, some speculated that he did it to ensure he'd have alignment help on Sunday. Shoop responded with a great round. Getting four strokes, he opened with 40. Walters was up to the task, and played his best golf of the weekend, shooting 38 on the front to hold even. At the 9th, Shoop made a great sand save from a fried egg lie, hitting a 20-foot putt to save par and halve the hole. A pair of doubles on the 11th and 13th hurt him, and Shoop played one over for the first four holes of the back to take a 2 hole lead. But Walters made a great birdie at the 14th to pull within one. After shared bogeys at 15, which played tough all around this weekend, Walters parred 16 and 17, tying the match at 17. Both players bogeyed the 18th, and the match finished all square.

The matches were even at 6-6, and the first group had opened a two hole gap on the second group. For the 3rd match, Walters put out Mark Williams and Hackett responded with Jamie Grace. Both players had hoped to get more strokes, Williams was the first to suffer the 20% penalty for not submitting a complete handicap. Grace had argued for extra strokes because of a broken rib. As it stood, Grace got eight from Williams, and the match was ugly enough to justify their pleas. Williams won the first four holes as Grace played eight over par. But Williams returned the favor by doubling the next three, and led by only one at the turn. Williams then played ten through fifteen at 13 over and lost four and three.

When Captain Hackett threw his one name out for the 14th match, Walters quickly responded with Bill Sedwick. Hackett was up against two trends: he had not won a singles match since 1998, and the Red captain's Sunday singles match record was 1-12, the only Red victory coming in the first captain's match between Frank George and Brett Smith in 1999. And Hackett struggled on the front nine, watching Sedwick play with five strokes and nice advantages from the white tees. Perhaps pressing because of the twin advantages, Hackett made seven double bogeys on the first eleven holes. He got his game in order beginning on the 12th, but it was too late and Sedwick won 4 & 2.

For Match 15, Hackett matched Frank George against Chris Wilker in a no strokes match up. George won the third hole with a double bogey, and the players halved the 4th hole with matching snowmen. Wilker took a one hole lead with a bogey at six and the players seemed to be smoothing out their games when they matched pars at the 7th. But on the eight tee, the pair hit ten tee balls. They found only three of them. When Wilker found one of his first balls 25 yards past the Red tees, George conceded the hole to him. That proved to be the beginning of the end for George, who struggled the rest of the way, halving only the 12th with another eight. Wilker won 5 & 4, and Blue held an 8-7 lead.

Bob Ligon asked for Lou Boudreau and Walters delivered the match to him. Boudreau was playing in his first match since 2001, while Ligon was playing in his first since 2003. Boudreau immediately worried about giving eight strokes, and would bring it up again late Sunday. A 5/4 put Ligon two up after the 4th, and Ligon's strong front-side 43 helped him to a three-hole lead at the turn. But a Boudreau birdie at 10 followed by two Ligon double-bogeys evened the match after 12. Thirteen is a tough hole to give a stroke away, and Boudreau couldn't get a par putt to fall. Ligon then played tough, parring 14, 15 and 17 to win 2 & 1.

A Late Lead for Red

The last two groups of the day actually finished before the fourth group. Hackett held back Vince Olenik, who has never won a singles match, and put him against one of Blue's best players, David Best. And Tom "Art" Bres played Ron George for the 14th time in the 14 years of the event. At the first, after a night of imitating Lou Holtz, pulled some of the wind that long ago pushed the Gillette field goal try to the right. He hit a ball 40 yards right of the first green into the swamp, but the ball somehow kicked inbounds. He still lost the hole, and when George parred the sixth, he extended his lead to two holes. But Bres felt good on his stroke holes, and he won the next three. Meanwhile, Dave Best was playing Olenik very closely, down one through the 8th. At the 9th hole, with Best and George both about 8 feet for par, Bres chipped in from about 40 feet. Olenik immediately followed up with a chip-in of his own. Red made the turn with Olenik up two and Bres up one. With the matches at 9-7.

Just ahead, Lamarra was up by two over Brandon Boudreau after Boudreau closed the front side with two doubles. In the other match, AC Shoop led Brad Juday by two. The players matched nines at the 7th hole, and eights at the ninth. If Red could close these four as they stood, it would win the cup 11-9. Would Red ride the momentum of the two chip-ins to its second Cup victory in the last four years?

Olenik kept his momentum going with nice pars at 10 and 11, and he led by three holes on the 12th tee. Meanwhile, George evened his match with Bres with par at 10, and then Bres started to lose his swing, missing into the woods on the right of the 11th green, and in the chute at the 12th. Olenik also hit into the chute at the 12th, and when the last group left 12, he was only up two. Juday was fighting his way back into his match with AC, so that only Mike Lamarra was hanging onto his lead.

Down two at the 13th, Best made a nice birdie putt (for a net two), even though Olenik's bogey made it unnecessary. On the green in net one, with Olenik in for five, Best expected a concession, and when he didn't get it, he angrily sunk the putt. At the 14th tee, Olenik's lead was reduced to one, and he promptly snap hooked his drive into out of bounds. Meanwhile, at the 13th, Bres nearly hit his tee shot out of bounds to the right, saved only when his ball bounced off a tree in bounds. He hit his third shot into the spruce tree to the right of the green and it never came out. Bres rallied with a nice par at 14.

With some confusion over the scorecard, the Juday match had evened out. Lamarra continued to hold his lead with pars at the 15th and 16th hole, and he went to the 17th tee with a two hole lead.

Back at 15, down two, Bres hit his tee shot just short, while George pulled his well left. Bres felt he was back in it, but George hit a chip to two feet and made the putt, while Bres could not get up and down. He left 15 dormie. At sixteen, George hit his second shot to about eight feet, left his approach putt three feet short, and then barely made the par putt by rolling around the back of the cup. The match was clinched for Blue 3&2.

Olenik's problems continued, as he lost his fourth straight hole with bogey at the 15th. He then bogeyed the 16th to go two down. The combination of the two matches at 16 gave Blue its 10th point, clinching the cup. Olenik then went to the 17th tee and hit well left, down the hill, into the woods, into the same place he hit last year on Sunday, and he lost the match 3&1.

Meanwhile, Brandon Boudreau won the 17th with par forcing Mike Lamarra to 18. But Lamarra made a fifteen foot putt at the 18th to clinch his match 2 up. Brad Juday and AC Shoop went to 18 as well, where Brad conceded a sizable putt to AC, and remarked "I wouldn't have made my putt either."

On the whole, Red had its chances again, leading Captain Hackett to say "Red continued to give it all we have, just can't close the deal on the back 9 on Sunday. Give Blue all the credit as they continue to put the pressure on Red and we can't over come. We will be back next year to give it our best again as we are down but far from out in this long standing tradition."