Red Wins Third Straight in Victory for Captain Shoop

Wrong Ball Penalty Provides Clinching Point

October, 2010

Red started on fire. In the opening match, captain Shoop sent out a traditional team in Tom Bres and Jon DeAngelis, Bres returning from his mysterious injury in 2009. He chipped in for par on number 15 to help Red win 4&3. Rookie Mark Corbett was paired with fellow Birminghamian Chris Wilker, and brought in a low handicap against AC Shoop and Vince Olenik. Getting only one from Olenik, his team hung in, and the teams traded one hole leads for the first thirteen holes. Red won the 14^thhole with a par, and then hung on with four straight pars to win the dramatic match 1 up. The Walters brothers won early easy, never trailing. In a contrasting battle of brothers, Frank George and Jamie Grace battled back from two down with two to play to tie Ron George and Mark Williams. Grace’s putter was on fire, he hit a ten footer on the fourth for par, and a 15 footer on number six for par, although at the tough sixth, “Remmo” battled back with an eight footer. At the ninth, high-handicapper Grace hit a 60-yard flop shot over the left side maple to six inches to halve the hole. And in the final morning match, rookie Brad Schubert started off hot with a 36 on the front nine. In spite of Brad Juday’s 35-foot par putt on the 11^th, Schubert and Dennis Hackett pasted David Best and Juday 7&6. Red led after the morning matches 3 ½ to 1 1/2.

Foursomes

While in some years, very few matches go the full course, on this Saturday afternoon, four of the five matches went to the last hole, and the other finished at 17. Brad Schubert continued his hot start, pairing up with Jamie Grace. Red went up by four by birdying the tenth, but made sevens on three of the next four holes to let Mark Corbett and Bill Sedwick back in. With a par at 17, Blue closed to within one, but Red parred the last hole to win 2 up. Dennis Hackett and Lou Boudreau extended the Red lead to four points with a strong back nine, including a birdie at 17 to close out Wilker and Juday 3&1.

In the “Trouble Shots Highlight Match,” sponsored by AAA, Mark Williams and Bob Walters just missed a putt on the 9^th, or they’d have finished the front nine with the “jackpot” – 7-7-8. Yet that close was good enough to keep their two hole lead, as Jon Deangelis and Frank George went 8-5-8. (And people say the back nine is the harder half!). Ugly golf continued on the back as Blue extended their lead on the 12^thwhen Red made 8, but then gave it back on the next three holes with 7-7-6. Both teams made double at the last for a halved match.

Ron George continued the blue captain tradition of “Wally is my partner” in alternate shot, but Senior pair George and Shoop Sr. hung in until the end. Mike Walters six footer at 18 sealed the Blue point. In the last match, David Best and Charlie Shoop jumped out to a three hole lead with a bogey at 11, but struggled on the par fives to give back the lead. But Vince Olenik and Tom Bres doubled 18 and Blue won the match one up. So the teams were even in the afternoon, and Red took a two point lead into Sunday.

Here’s how the par fives played that afternoon: 7^th– 10 over, 9^th– 15 over, 12^th– 13 over, 14^th– 11 over.

Pairs

Ron George put his name out first, and Captain Shoop listened to Tom Bres, who asked for the match. Ron George and Tom Bres were playing in their 15^thmatch together at the Concord Cup, and going in, Bres held a 7-6-1 lead. Their match erupted in early controversy at the 2^nd. Having won the first hole, George then hit his tee shot in the water. Bres stepped up and did the same, except that his shot bounced on the bank and rolled back, past yellow stakes, into the water. Bres claimed that he could drop on the bank, and George claimed he had to drop on the other side of the pond, or re-tee. Eventually, after much review of the rule book, he decided to re-tee, and lost his next ball, and the hole. Bres would later claim that this was a big turning point. From there, George hit six greens in eight holes, and Bres hit one, and George won every hole but nine, concluding the shortest Concord Cup match ever at the tenth hole, 9 & 8. Blue closed to within one point.

Mark Corbett had already played 18 twice, and in his match he earned the right again with a beautiful birdie at the 17^th. But Ron George Sr. held on with a par at the 18^th, to give Red back its two point lead.

Jon Deangelis jumped out to an early lead against David Best, and lead by four holes after winning the ninth with a bogey. Best fought back with a strong stretch, playing the next tough five holes in only one over. But Deangelis recovered with a par at 15 and closed out the match 4&2 with a bogey at 16.

Bob Walters went on a tear in his match against AC Shoop. After Saturday afternoon’s 7-7-8 finish on the front nine, he went 8-6-8 on the same holes. But then he righted the ship, winning four straight holes by playing 10 through 13 three over, including a net birdie at 13 (yes, he was getting three from AC). After mutual sevens at the 14^th, Bob parred 15 to bring Blue closer.

WRONG BALL!

At this point, Red led 8 to 6, and Jamie Grace was beating Brad Juday handily. But Blue was winning the other matches, and the outcome was still very much in doubt, when one of the strangest events in the Cup’s history occurred.

Charlie Shoop and Lou Boudreau were playing a very even match, which had gone back and forth all day. Charlie had led by two at the turn as Boudreau doubled eight and nine, but Charlie gave it back with doubles at ten and eleven. Charlie regained the lead again but Boudreau evened things up at 17. As they moved down the hill to the 18^thtees, Red led the Concord Cup 9 to 6, but was losing three of the matches on the course. When Lou Boudreau hit his tee shot out of bounds, it looked like Charlie would have a good chance to grab a point for Blue.

Charlie was returning for his first Concord Cup in ten years, but he had a strong history as a clutch player in the Concord Cup. His brilliant play around the green in 2000 won the Cup for Blue. But he would not get the chance to play the green this year. He dribbled his tee shot down the hill, and then made a fairly long shot from the rough just behind the white tee. His next shot was under a tree, and he really had to contend with a difficult stance just to move the ball forward. He considered taking an unplayable lie, which may have helped him avoid his fate, but it’s not clear that two club lengths would have gotten him clear. He made a great shot to hit the ball forward ten yards, and then hit a shot to 50 yards short of the green. Meanwhile, Boudreau was forced to hit his fourth shot sideways from behind a tree on the left, and stood 150 yards from the green. At that point, Charlie realized that he was playing the wrong ball. He was playing a Titleist Red “1” but his had a faded Red dot, and the ball he was now playing had a blue dot. He immediately announced it, and then the players speculated about where he had put the new ball in play. Initially, everyone thought that he’d played the ball under the tree incorrectly. But no balls could be found around the tree.

Then the bizarre fact became known. In the rough right behind the White tee, just two yards to the left of the divot he’d left on his second shot, lay his original ball. Under the pressure of 18, seeing a ball buried in the rough that was a Titleist Red “1”, certainly everyone could understand the mistake Charlie made. Match play rules prevailed – hitting the wrong ball meant a loss of hole, and a win for Boudreau on the hole and match, and the tenth and clinching point for Red. Boudreau applauded Charlie’s impeccable sportsmanship, and Red retained the Cup.

Meanwhile, as news filtered back about Red’s victory, Mike Walters was battling to come back against Vince Olenik. His tee shot on the 15^thhit a tree half way up, and he had to chip to the back of the green, but he made a 35-footer for par. He leveraged his stroke on sixteen to pull within one, but Olenik parred the 17^thto close out the match.

Bill Sedwick and Dennis Hackett battled to a tie at 18. Sedwick accomplished a legendary “double jackpot” on holes seven through twelve (7-7-7 7-7-7), but managed to use his strokes to avoid a loss, and then came back with a 4-6-4-5 close to tie. Mark Williams handed Brad Schubert his first loss of the weekend.

These matches made everyone feel better that the wrong ball really hadn’t affected the outcome, and Captain Shoop had his first victory as captain.