Blue Wins 9-7 as Best Captains Third Win

October 6, 2013

David Best became the first captain to win three cups, as Blue survived close Sunday matches to claim its second straight cup, and twelfth overall in the now 20-year history of the Concord Cup.

While rain threatened all weekend, it did not come until late in the final round, when the cup was still in the reach of both teams. Comebacks were the story of the weekend, as three matches had comebacks from three or more holes behind.

Four-Ball

Blue started off quickly with the strong team of captain David Best and rookie Dan Maletich. Best had the day's first birdie at the 3rd hole, which was played from the 270 yard tee. The "par 3 1/2" was also birdied by Ron George Sr., Jon Deangelis, and Vince Olenik. (Mike Walters, who had criticized the location as too easy, made bogey.) Red Captain Jamie Grace and Frank George could not keep up. After Frank George hit a nice shot to the 6th green, he three-putted and said "I hit two putts, and both broke the opposite way that I read them." Maletich got up and down from the sand to keep a two-hole lead. With an even par best-ball, Blue led by 3 at the turn. Red didn't win a hole until Maletich three-putted the 11th, but he came back to chip in for birdie at the 15th, and Blue won 4&3.

The second match featured the first big comeback of the weekend. Deangelis and George Sr. looked very strong, as Mike Walters struggled early, and Bob Walters kept Blue alive. After winning the third with birdie, George won the fifth hole with a par (no stroke), and the teams stumbled through the last three holes of the front. A Deangelis par at ten put Red up by three. But Mike Walters birdied the eleventh, and both Red players made sevens on the next two holes. When Mike birdied 14, he brought the match to even. Bob Walters had been dreading 15, but his par there put Blue in the lead. The match extended to 18 with bogeys at 16 and pars at 17, and Blue finished Red off when Bob Walters parred the 18th. The Walters brothers had won five of the last eight holes to put Blue up 2-0. (See Best Comebacks)

Dennis Hackett and AC Shoop were slow to get their games going, and when they finally did at the fifth and sixth holes with nice pars, Chris Wilker matched them with an up-and-down at five and a solid two-putt par at the sixth. The Red team did not win a hole until AC made 6 for 5 at the 12th, but that wasn't enough to avoid the pasting. Blue won with a Schubert bogey at 13 to take the match 6 & 5.

Vince Olenik made three birdies in the first ten holes, while Brad Juday dusted off his clubs and played solid golf for Blue. In spite of Olenik's good play, the match was tied after nine. Olenik birdied ten, then casually knocked in a downhill putt on 11 with the pin in because the players thought Cates had won the hole with a five for four (he'd actually made a six). Red would hold on to the two hole lead until Ron George's birdie at the 14th, but only Olenik could make par at 15, and Red led by 2. At the 16th, George had hit to 15 feet while Olenik was out of the hole. Matt Cates had a difficult up and down attempt from the back right hump of the green to a front left pin. When his "Texas wedge" from 65 feet was about halfway to the hole, Olenik said "acceptable." But the ball kept rolling toward the hole and went in. Cates 65-footer won the match, putting "Acceptable" in the pantheon of named putts along with "Yes Sir!" and "Better Than Most."

Foursomes

Unlike the close foursomes matches that we've seen in the last few years, the afternoon matches were all laughers. But as in recent years, the matches moved quickly, and bogey was a good score (the average was two pars to win holes per match).

As has become the custom in recent years, the afternoon foursomes flew by.With five bogies, Vince Olenik and Jon DeAngelis won six of seven holes from the 5th to the 11th to take a six-hole lead on Chris Wilker and Brad Schubert, who avoided the pasting by ending their ride on the double bogey train with a four-for three at the 13th.

Dennis Hackett and Matt Cates kept it tight through the 8th, they started their own double-bogey run and were done by the 14th against Ron George and Dan Maletich, who broke the usual rookie curse with a 2-0 Saturday.

Mike Walters and Bob Walters really got their big run started when they made an eight at the fourth hole, to win against Ron George Sr. and Captain Grace's ten (net nine). By the seventh, the Wally brothers were up give, and held that lead with a run of bogeys on the back. The win gave them a 2-0 record as a team, and extended their overall team record to a Cup-best 8-2 (see Best Teams).

Frank George and AC Shoop made a run from eight to ten, partly because of a Best/Juday disaster at the ninth, when they picked up their ball at the creek, seven shots in. Frank made par with a 27-foot putt at the 15th and Red closed the match out at the 16th.

Splitting the afternoon matches, Blue kept their two match lead heading into Sunday. Red would need 5 1/2 of 8 matches to get the Cup.

Pairs

The traditional opening match of captains was a topsy-turvy affair. In the first Sunday match ever between the long-time players, Jamie Grace jumped out to an early three-hole lead over Daivd Best, keyed by a reported 45 foot par putt at the first hole (though the green is so small, it's possible the measurer took small steps.) Best fought back, with a big win at the 7th. Both players reached the green in two, and Grace was getting a stroke. But he four-putted, and Best two-putted to pull within one. Grace made a nice par at the 8th, and won with bogey at the 9th, and with double at the 11th to take a four hole lead. (Anyone reviewing the scorecards would be really surprised at how often a double wins).

But Best started playing better, with pars at 14, 15, 16 and 17, he worked the match back to even. Grace, who nearly always gets a stroke at 18, didn't get one in this match, which meant that Best's double-bogey won him the hole, and tied the match. Grace had his 9th halved match, which leads all players.

Match 10 featured another great comeback. The first ten holes belonged to Dan Maletich, as Frank George could not make his strokes work, and Maletich opened the first eight holes four-over. But George started playing better, winning five holes of six, including pars at 13 and 14, and bogeys at the other holes, to pull even after sixteen. Maletich made a deuce at the 17th to take the lead back and guarantee a half point, but George's bogey for par at the 18th gave Red half a point as well.

The third Sunday match between Matt Cates and Brad Juday had no big comebacks, as no player ever lead by more than two holes. Juday made consecutive pars at four and five to take a 2 up lead, but gave it back with a triple at the 6th (the Juday hole) and an eight at the par-five 7th hole. With spotty play from both sides, Cates made bogey for par to win the 13th and take a one-up lead. After trading bogies at 14, Cates closed X-8-5-7, to give Juday a 2-up win, which brought Blue to 7 1/2 points.

In match 12, Ron George Sr. jumped out to a quick lead over Mike Walters, helped by his approach at the fourth, which spun back to only 2 1/2 feet. When Walters hit a 2-inch stub from 100 yards at ninth, George had a five hole lead. Walters held off the pasting with some bogey golf, but George made a three-foot par putt at the 15th to close out the match. Still, with his Saturday performance, Walters became the all-time leader in wins at the Cup with 32.

As the remaining matches reached the middle of the back nine, rainstorms came pouring down, making play interesting. Bob Walters would decide the cup, as captain, by taking control of his match against AC Shoop on the back nine. The players were very close through the first ten holes, and when Walters doubled the tenth, the match was even. The match was being played with no strokes, a testament to the competitiveness of the elder Shoop. But the conditions were difficult on the back. Walters managed to grow a 3-hole lead in spite of three doubles in the first six holees. But his par at the 16th gave him a 3 up lead and the match win.

Alongside, Brad Schubert and Jon DeAngelis played a very close match, with the lead trading back and forth twice. The match certainly had the best playing of any group. Schubert started two over through seven to take a two-hole lead, but even though he finished bogey-par on the side, DeAngelis evened the match with two pars (and strokes). He then parred the tenth to take his first lead. Schubert made pars at 13, 14, and 15 and grabbed the lead back, hanging on with a par at the 17th to win the match.

Scott Elliott made his Concord Cup debut, being the rare player to give strokes to Vince Olenik. Many players with low handicaps are challenged in their first outing at Concord, perhaps its the pressure, or some of the unusual holes, or perhaps experience means something. In the past, we've seen near-scratch players like Olenik and Paul Morgan struggle in their openers. For Elliott, he opened with 43 on the front, well above his normal standard. But the, to prove another Concord adage ("Score doesn't matter"), he had managed to stay within one hole of Olenik, even giving two strokes on the side. The match was all-square after eleven, and a win with bogey at the 12th inspired Olenik, who birdied 13 and 14 to take control of the matching. His bogey at the 15th closed the match 4&3.

For Olenik, he finished the week 3-0, his first 3-0 finish in his twelfth year. These players have gone more years without a 3-0: Hackett, Frank George, Steve Shoop, and Brad Juday, the group that form a special division in the rotisserie baseball league. Olenik has made quite an improvement to his Concord Cup record over the past few years; he is 12-4-2 during the last six years, bringing his overall win total to 18. (Really, his good run started the year of this article -- "You Can't Blame Vinnie". )

Dennis Hackett and Ron George closed the event, and though Hackett trailed by two early, he controlled the match on the back nine with decent play (bogey golf) that George wasn't up to. He closed with a bogey win at the 16th as George lost his second match at 16 in two days.

Blue had hung on to win its 12th cup, with an overall record of 12-7-1, but only its second cup in the last six years.