Blue wins 5th Straight 13-7
October 9, 2016
Blue retained the Concord Cup with its fifth straight victory, as Red continued to struggle to find winning formulas. Even closing the handicap gap to near equality didn't change Red's recent trend. No one could fault Captain AC Shoop. His preparation was meticulous, his pep talks epic, his enthusiasm unbounded, in spite of an injury that kept him from playing.
Captain AC Shoop made an interesting move by pairing late sub Rick Gordon with Frank George for both matches on Saturday. It worked. They started their Saturday 2-0 run by never trailing Williams and Sedwick, and winning 3 and 2. In the second match, Scott Elliott, playing as the best Red Player, started hot by playing the first five holes in even par, including a kick-in birdie on #2. Cates rode the horse on the front, but hit a 12-footer on 10 to keep Red up by one, then used his ball again for two holes. But Blue kept it close, and at the 14th Brad Juday made a 30-foot putt for birdie, giving a wave to Shoop as it dropped. The match was even going to 18, where Brad's 6 for 5 won the match for Blue.
The third match went to 18 too, where Dennis Hackett's four beat David Best's five, and Red was up 2-1. In the fourth match, Chris Wilker and Brad Schubert extended their strong run in four-ball, winning easily, helped by a nice up and down by Schubert from behind 12
And in the last morning match, Bob Walters and Dan Maletich jumped out to a five hole lead over Jamie Grace and Vince Olenik by ham-and-egging pars. Blue led after the morning 3 to 2.
The afternoon matches started with Peggs and Sedwick, who coasted when DeAngelis and Ron Sr. bested the jackpot by one -- they went 8-8-8 on holes seven through nine. In match #7, Gordon and George continued their fun in a match against Ron George and Chris Wilker. Both team led by two at some point, but in the end, Red won 2 up.
The match between Walters/Williams and Cates/Gurney started weird, with some argument over a lost ball in the range on the first. At the second, Cates' provisional went backward. The match was tight -- tied through eleven -- until Blue reeled off four straight holes with bogey golf to win 4 and 3.
Match 9 was extremely close, both teams lead but never by more than one. Red went to 18 up one, but made a seven to yield half a point.
Captain Shoop let it ride on the last hole, putting his two best players together (just as Hal Sutton did with Phil/Tiger in the Oakland Hills Ryder Cup, alas, with the same result). They jumped out to a three hole lead against Brad Juday and David Best, but lost seven through nine to give it away. Red led by one after fourteen, but lost three straight holes again, and Blue won 2 and 1.
Blue took 3 1/2 points in the afternoon, one of its best foursomes days ever, and led 6 1/2 to 3 1/2 going into Sunday.
Pairs
Captain Sedwick got rookie Jimmy Gurney against Bob Walters on Sunday, hoping for a Japanese "can't beat the boss" effect. But Gurney got to four up by the turn and never looked back, winning 4 and 2. In the next match, Williams jumped out to a 6 hole lead at the turn, bursting Frank George's hopes for a 3-0 weekend.
Dennis Hackett couldn't get started against Dan Maletich and trailed by three at the turn, losing 3 and 1. Maletich finished 2-0-1 for the weekend, one of the Blue star performers.
Glenn Peggs and Vince Olenik had a see-saw battle. Olenik took a two hole lead at the fourth when a confused Peggs conceded before Olenik's second shot. But Glenn parred the next five holes to reverse the score and turn up two. Peggs' back nine 44 was enough to hold off Olenik 2 up. Jamie Grace has never lost to Ron George, and he used his nine strokes to maintain the streak, winning four straight holes from seven to ten and hanging on 2 up.
David Best just let it happen against Matt Cates and pasted him 7 and 6. Meanwhile, Jon DeAngelis had little trouble with Chris Wilker and won 5 and 3.
Scott Elliott fell to 0-3 when Brad Schubert beat him 3 and 2. The match started with some great golf. Schubert played the first seven holes even par but had only a one hole, Elliott was one over. But Schubert maintained his strong play, and his five strokes brought him a win.
In a match of two 2-0 players, Brad Juday was assigned to cool off Rick Gordon. Gordon hit his tee shot in the water on the second, but got up and down for par. (Somewhere Art is declaring that he must have gotten a correct drop.) But he hit into the creek on the third, and was down two after the fourth. Juday hit a 30 foot miracle putt on the 8th hole to go up by four. Gordon hung on until the 15th, where Juday made a 12-foot birdie to win, clinching his 3-0 record.
In the final match, Captain Sedwick was battling to maintain his undefeated singles record. With the cup settled, he and Ron George were at sixteen, tied, and having tied the last four holes. They decided to concede half points to each other.
Captain Sedwick had led his Blue squad to a 13-7 victory.