2006 Newport Cup Wrapup

The 2006 edition of the Newport Cup was played last week, October 13-15, near Greensboro, North Carolina. The Blue team, this year consisting of Sand Trap staff members, took on a red-clad team of former staff members and special guests.

The result? A whole lot of laughs, less than expected amounts of booze, more than a few comments about the cold weather, and, in the end, a defeat for the heavily favored Blue Team, who jokingly took to referring to the event as “Sand Trappers versus Sand Baggers.”

What follows is a quick recap of the scoring. We’d go into more depth, but believe me, recounting the tale of our loss is hard enough without all the gory details!

Friday Morning Best Ball

Through One Round of Play
1½	2½

Friday morning dawned bright and early and was, surprisingly, one of the warmer days we would face. The Salem Glen golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and Glen Day, was not in the best shape due to some recent problems with overly dry and wet greens, but we pushed on.

In the first match, Dave Koster and Rafi Lenartowicz played for the blue team against Charles Campbell and Ray Rojas for the red team. The Blue team came out triumphant, winning 5&4, putting the first point on the board.

The second match pitted Jack Waddell and Matt Rudy (for Blue) against Jason Mischel and Jay Rasmusson (for Red), and ended in a halve. Things were looking good for blue… until the final two matches came in.

Cody Thrasher and Alan Olson (Blue) held a 3-up lead with four to play, but lost the final four holes to birdies by Everardo Keeme and Eric Ringer (Red) to lose 1 down. The matches were tied.

So, too, was the final match going into the last hole, where Erik J. Barzeski and Donald MacKenzie (Blue) couldn’t match or beat the Josh and Dan Premuda’s final-hole birdie to win 1 up.

Friday Afternoon Southern Point

Through Two Rounds of Play
3½	4½

Already in a deep hole, the blue team needed a solid afternoon to keep the matches close. A modified Southern Point format was used, which kept each match relatively close: 1 point for a net bogey, 2 points for par, three for birdie, four for eagle, and so on. A score of 72 would result from two players playing to their handicaps, while anything in the mid-60s is usually enough to win head-to-head.

Things did not start very well for the blue team, with Jack and Donald losing 50 to 64 against a staunch pairing of Josh and Jay. Matt and Alan then lost 44-60 against Jason and Dan. The Premudas were 2-0 at this point! In the leadoff spot, Dave and Cody managed to win 57 to 47 against Ray and Eric, and Erik and Rafi held off Charles and Everardo, 66-50, thanks particularly to Rafi’s 74 on the par-71 course.

Saturday Morning Best Ball

Through Three Rounds of Play
4½	7½

Saturday’s morning round was contested at the Tanglewood Championship Course, host of the 1974 PGA Championship and the Vantage Championship on the Senior/Champions Tour for a number of years.

The Blue Team sent scratch golfer Dave out with bogey golfer Alan in an attempt to mix things up. It didn’t work, as the blue team suffered a 5&4 defeat at the hands of Jason and Everardo. Next, red-hot Rafi cooled off, and playing with Donald, lost 4&3 to Charles and Dan. That kept Dan’s perfect record alive and gave Charles his first win.

Jack and Cody went off third, and the trend continued: a 6&4 defeat at the hands of Ray and Josh (who tied his dad at 3-0). In the final pairing, the tightest match of the day, neither team led by more than one hole the entire day. On the 17th, Erik birdied to put the blue team ahead one. On the final hole, Golf Digest senior writer Matt Rudy held off a hard-charging team of Eric and Jay with a spectacular, clutch net par on the last hole.

Matt’s par (and Jay’s short miss) at 18 preserved a single point for the blue team. Still, a sizeable lead had been opened.

Saturday Afternoon Best Ball

Through Four Rounds of Play
6	10

Originally intended to be played at Vegas, the afternoon round at the quirky Tanglewood Reynolds Course was changed to best ball in an attempt to speed up play. We didn’t tee off until 2:30, and the unusual course had plenty in store for contestants. Drivers can only be safely used off of two tees, and a lot of double-dogleg 460-yard par fives and similarly weird par fours can quickly lead to dramatic changes of fortune.

The “Sand Trapper” needed a dramatic change of fortune, but instead managed to sink only further behind the “Sand Bagger” team. Erik and Dave led off and secured the first point, winning 2&1 against Charles and Mike Bendig, playing for Eric Ringer. Jack and Alan went down 4&3 to Everardo and Dan, while Rafi and Cody managed a halve with Jason and Josh. The final match of the day went to the red team’s duo of Ray and Jay, who knocked off Matt and Donald 2&1.

Sunday Singles

Final Score
10½	13½

Sunday morning, after several “I have a good feeling about this… and that’s all I’m going to say” jokes, the blue team went off hoping to win 6½ of the available eight points.

Leading off Cody demolished Ray, firing an 81 with a 13-handicap, winning 7&5. In the same group, Alan knocked off Eric, 5&3, thanks to a tip he received on the driving range prior to the final round. Half of the blue team’s four-point deficit had been cleared!

In the second group, Rafi and Josh played a grudge match, with Rafi coming out on top 4&2. Jack knocked off Dan, 1up, dealing the Premudas each their first loss of the week. This blue victory closed the gap entirely, and at this point, the matches were tied!

In the third foursome, Donald finished out his match against Jason all square, thanks to a slippery 25-foot putt holed by Jason moments after Don lipped out from 30 feet for the win. Matt suffered a 3&2 loss to Jay, giving the red team a one-point lead, 10½ to 11½. The red team would need one full point to capture the Newport Cup while the blue team would need to win both of their final matches.

Unfortunately, they’d gain it without issue. Everardo played spectacularly to knock off Erik, 6&5. Dave’s match came down to the last hole, but a brilliant chip by Charles clinched a par. When Dave’s birdie putt slid by, Charles won 1 up and the red team won by the final score of 13½ to 10½.

Individual Points Totals

Blue Team	Red Team
Name Matches Points Rafi Lenartowicz 3-1-1 3½ Dave Koster 3-2-0 3 Erik Barzeski 3-2-0 3 Cody Thrasher 2-2-1 2½ Jack Waddell 1-3-1 1½ Matt Rudy 1-3-1 1½ Alan Olson 1-4-0 1 Donald MacKenzie 0-4-1 ½	Name Matches Points Jason Mischel 3-0-2 4 Everardo Keeme 4-1-0 4 Dan Premuda 4-1-0 4 Josh Premuda 3-1-1 3½ Jay Rasmusson 3-1-1 3½ Charles Campbell 2-3-0 2 Ray Rojas 2-3-0 2 Eric Ringer 1-4-0 1

In addition to the match play component, we had an individual competition going as well. Each player was given the same number of points as their handicap, then their gross scores added to or subtracted from the totals to the tune of -1 for double bogey, +1 for par, +3 for birdie, and +5 for eagle.

Player Name	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
Rafi Lenartowicz	20	23	4	17	21	85
Josh Premuda	16	21	12	14	17	80
Dan Premuda	12	16	15	17	15	75
Dave Koster	19	16	6	16	16	73
Donald MacKenzie	15	9	15	12	20	71
Ray Rojas	14	11	15	14	10	64
Cody Thrasher	6	12	4	14	23	59
Erik J. Barzeski	14	11	12	11	10	58
Jay Rasmusson	13	8	7	20	10	58
Everardo Keeme	10	10	13	9	16	58
Charles Campbell	13	9	11	10	15	58
Alan Olson	8	12	6	10	20	56
Jason Mischel	4	14	10	9	15	52
Eric Ringer	9	7	9	9	13	47
Jack Waddell	12	8	2	10	12	44
Matt Rudy	6	3	5	12	6	32

The intelligent observer will note that the blue team, despite having three of the top five individually performing golfers, lost the matches. This includes Donald MacKenzie, who finished fifth individually, but went 0-4 in his team matches and managed a halve in his singles play.

Final Word
Fun was had by all. The Red Team snuck out a win, though it was closer than it appeared. We look forward to avenging our defeat next year.