2015 Newport Cup Matches Thread

[GolfLug]

I am sitting here with @jamo at the Phoenix airport to catch our red eye to Philly so here's a few notes..

Special thanks to Erik and Mike for putting up the event, lining up the sponsors (we came away with some serious loot) and getting Moon Valley to host this. Fabulous course. This will stay in my memory for a long time!

Above all, really enjoyed meeting both east and west coast members I hadn't met before and catching up with the ones I had. It felt like meeting old friends. All 14 of us (including captains) staying in one house was as much fun as you can imagine. Now I have faces and voices to the names, posts, jabs and conversations.

The PURE Grips and PING factory visits were outstanding. Enjoyed learning how grips are made and clubs assembled was but I was especially impressed at the amount of R&D; that goes behind their construction.

The play in itself was fun. I had some very memorable holes (good and bad, of course, haha...). I struggled to find my grip which affected my swing all three days a bit but I can't complain as I had some really good stretch of holes in each match. I just could not sustain it. Certainly witnessed some stellar shot making and solid clutch play from lot of the guys on both teams.

I am very new to match play golf and I can say it is an absolute hoot and can be nerve wrecking in close matches. With the Nassau games for points it was even more unpredictable then the actual Ryder cup. It is truly a miracle that all the point traded back and forth ended up in a tie! Poetic and ironic at the same time that a single chip in by @Club Rat on the last hole of the last match of the entire tourney caused the tie. Really, it was that close!

I would do this again in a heartbeat...

[jbishop15]

This has been a wonderful, wonderful experience. Even though I didn't play my best, I still had a total blast. From Vince and I's domination of the alternate shot format to the sushi dinner Kyle, Vishal, Dave, Matt, and I went on, it was just an incredibly fun time. Special, special thanks to Mike and Erik, who really went all out to make this enjoyable; special thanks to Moon Valley, PING, and Pure grips for the golf, goodies, and tours; special thanks to True linkswear and KickX, and also to caddydaddy.com. 18/10, would do again, even if it meant flying all the way out here again :-P

[big stoke]

Congrats to all involved for an incredible experience. The fact it ended in a tie means the captains picked the absolute perfect combination of players for a fair match. It looks like you all had an amazing experience and I hope you all enjoyed yourself. Shout out to @Club Rat for his pressure packed chip to save the tie. A big thank you to the captains, @iacas and @mvmac for putting this event together. I had no dog in this fight (outside of a participant who plays a club 3 miles from my house, whom I've never met) yet found myself following in Twitter the entire time. Safe travels to all and looking forward to the recounts from all involved.

[kpaulhus]

I'm sitting in the airport at 3:45am ready to head back to Arkansas. What a kick ass week! Thank you to @mvmac and @iacas for everything this week. I was super pumped back in July when I was selected and would do it all again in a heartbeat. I didn't play as best as I should have, but finished T6 for points on the week. I had travel issues and ended up sleeping in Dallas on the way out, but once I got to PURE Grips in Mesa we got a pretty cool tour and watching those guys regrip 8-9 sets of clubs in 20 mins was incredible. @Club Rat and I played a tight match with @GolfLug and @DaveP043 on Thursday, then in the afternoon alternate shot @mchepp informed me that some of the spots we were hitting from were foreign to him lol. We prevailed, though. Alternate shot with @Golfingdad Friday morning was fun and another tough battle. Drew can read greens pretty quick and sunk a lot of key putts. In the afternoon I was a little worn down after being in the 100* heat all day. In the final round V and I had a great battle and I think we only halved one hole on the back 9 for the half and I won the overall 1 up. Kicking myself for falling apart on 18 tee, but I bet you any guy that played yesterday knows where they could've stolen a 1/2 point. I've been on TST for 8 years and this is a first class site, group of guys, and am a word of mouth ambassador for all the good that is here. Thank you again and hopefully I can make the 2017 team!

[RandallT]

For those who weren't there: John (@Club Rat) took the first hole after I hacked it around a few times, but I battled back quickly, taking the second and third holes and grinding out a halve on the fourth despite giving a stroke. I maintained that lead throughout the front, growing it to 3-up through 8 before dropping a hole on the 9th to finish the front 2-up. I quickly jumped back out to back-side lead, growing my match lead to 4-up overall, but some shaky drives and a few putts left short pulled the back-side even through 16.

The 17th, which was played up today, proved an important hole. I fatted a 5 iron, leaving myself with a daunting wedge over the water and bunker to a sucker pin, but I knew I had to make something happen. I stuck it to about 7 feet, and drained the curling birdie putt to best John's par, giving me a back-nine lead of 1-up and a 3-up lead overall.

I ripped a drive on 18 down the middle, a ways in front of John's. Getting a stroke for the hole, John hit his approach just long and right, letting me know I'd have to make something happen if I wanted to win the back.

I hit my 8 iron to about 20 feet, feeling in pretty decent shape to tie the hole as I watched John's tough pitch.

It came off well from a fluffy lie, and rolled, and rolled, and rolled.

Right. Into. The. Cup.

Match over.

Incredible story, @jamo . I'm interested in hearing more.  Take a look at this:

I guess this question is for everyone, not just you, @saevel25 , @Bechambo , and @Club Rat in your foursome.

As you were teeing off on 17, West was up by 0.5 as shown (if nobody wins any holes from that point on).  The 18-hole score was likely going to get split, making it 26-26. So only the back 9 tallies would determine the Newport Cup.

If the match finished as shown above, West wins 27.5-26.5

If Matt or Jamo claw back for one of the remaining 4 holes (2x2), it's 27-27

If Matt and Jamo claw back for one each (or if Matt wins both 17/18), then East wins 27.5-26.5

As it turned out, Matt won one of the two (not sure which). You won 17. Giving East the advantage.. then John chips in to tie it back up.  So we went from West win, to tie, to East win, back to tie.

Sooooooo, were you guys aware of how close it was????  Was there chatter about it all being on the line?  I don't play competitions, so I'm curious how aware players can be.

It was thrilling to watch it all play out "by the numbers," but I look forward to hearing any and all details about specific shots and momentum shifts along the way. Again, great play, all. I look forward to reading more after everyone's travels.

[jamo]

Incredible story, @jamo . I'm interested in hearing more.  Take a look at this: [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/131909/] [/URL] I guess this question is for everyone, not just you, @saevel25 , @Bechambo , and @Club Rat in your foursome. As you were teeing off on 17, West was up by 0.5 as shown (if nobody wins any holes from that point on).  The 18-hole score was likely going to get split, making it 26-26. So only the back 9 tallies would determine the Newport Cup.   If the match finished as shown above, West wins 27.5-26.5 If Matt or Jamo claw back for one of the remaining 4 holes (2x2), it's 27-27 If Matt and Jamo claw back for one each (or if Matt wins both 17/18), then East wins 27.5-26.5 As it turned out, Matt won one of the two (not sure which). You won 17. Giving East the advantage.. then John chips in to tie it back up.  So we went from West win, to tie, to East win, back to tie. Sooooooo, were you guys aware of how close it was????  Was there chatter about it all being on the line?  I don't play competitions, so I'm curious how aware players can be. It was thrilling to watch it all play out "by the numbers," but I look forward to hearing any and all details about specific shots and momentum shifts along the way. Again, great play, all. I look forward to reading more after everyone's travels.

Erik mentioned to us throughout the round that it was close, and we needed all the points we could get. I didn't know exactly how close it was - I was just trying to get all the points I could. I think with there only being three groups, there wasn't really enough time for the anticipation to build. There wasn't a lot of cross chatter.

[Big C]

It appears that after 4 days of 5am wake up calls, my body can't turn off the internal alarm. So here I am at 6am on a Sunday - my wife and son still sleeping - and it seems like a great time to offer my reflections on the Newport Cup.

As others have commented, Wednesday was a real treat. Both Pure and Ping were extremely generous with their time and treated us like VIP guests from the moment we arrived. Pure regripped our sets while we chipped whiffle balls in their parking lot. We watched the Ping-man machine bomb 300 yard drives down the range and had a fantastic Q&A; sesion with the Ping Engineers. The owner John Solheim then greeted us and thanked us for coming out. That was unexpected and a really nice touch, I thought. All the free swag (gloves, bag etc.) wasn't too bad either! Alright on to the golf......

@Golfingdad rtnered in the first round of fourball, and drew a touch match against @saevel25 @jamo . Nerves were a factor early and we were down 2 immediately. But we battled back and managed to square match and looked to take a lead on hole 8 with Matt OB and Jamieson in trouble. But Matt managed a second ball eagle to salvage par and halve the hole. They say you can never take anything for granted in match play and that hole was a perfect illustration of that. We lost the next hole and boom, we lose the front one down. Again, we played pretty good golf on the back, and were two up (one up on the total) heading into 15 - a 230 yard par 3. We all miss the green, but Drew and I have fairly simple pitches. Jamieson has a tough shot from the bunker but he made a terrific up and down and neither Drew nor I could do the same. We followed that up by making a mess of the 16th hole and were both "BIP" (ball in pocket) before even reaching the green. All of a sudden, we were back to all square on the back. We halved 17 and with everyone but Jamieson getting a stroke on 18, it was a good chance for us to halve the overall match. Drew & I both make the GIR and Matt takes three to reach the green. Drew has a tricky 25 foot side hill putt for birdie, Matt a delicate 20 foot downhiller for par and I have the simplest of all, a 15 footer straight uphill for my birdie. Drew puts a great stroke on his, but the ball falls under the cup at the last second. Matt then drains his 20 footer for par and let's out a Patrick Reed like roar of satisfaction. At that point, I really wanted to pour mine in on top of him. Sadly, I got a touch too aggressive and my birdie burned the right edge. The back was halved and a critical point felt like it had slipped away. It was a disappointing outcome, but an extremely tense and compmetitive match.  Side note for anyone who plays @saevel25 , he WILL make you putt 18 inchers .

The afternoon foursomes had me playing with John - @Club Rat against Matt & Vishal ( @GolfLug ). John has a nice steadying influence about him, so even when I started out a bit shaky, he never got down on me for some of the bad spots I put him in. On hole 4 -  a long par 5 - I was preparing to play my second shot from between the palm trees. The "smart" play would have been to punch out diagonally, but it probably would have left us too far away to make a GIR. There was a tight window through which I could have shot a 4 iron punch up the fairway. I looked at John and asked for his thoughts - he smiled and said "pedal to the metal, baby!" Say no more - I executed my shot, leaving John a wedge into green and we made an easy par. From there, we just sort of hung on. We halved the front and then Matt & Vishal struggled a bit on the back. By the 15th hole, we had accumlated a 4 hole lead to clinch the back and the overall.

The next morning, I had a chance to play with our MVP, @mchepp in foursomes. Our opponents were @DaveP043 and Vishal. Dave is about the steadiest player you can imagine (I may have seen 2 or 3 missed fairways total in our 2 matches) and a real bear to play against in match play. He and Vishal made a great team, but with Michael putting me in great spots in the fairway all morning long, we quickly built a 3 up lead on the front nine. On the back 9, Vishal's unorthodox swing fell into place and he started striping the ball down the fairway. In conjunction with Dave's solid play, Michael I needed our A-game to win the back and we didn't have it. Trailing by 1 going into the last hole, we were fortunate to win 18 to halve the back and win a critical 2.5 points for our team.

And with that, my son has woken up and my family obligations call. I'll post a mini recap of my Friday fourball and Saturday singles matches later!

[saevel25]

Incredible story, @jamo . I'm interested in hearing more.   As it turned out, Matt won one of the two (not sure which). You won 17. Giving East the advantage.. then John chips in to tie it back up.  So we went from West win, to tie, to East win, back to tie. Sooooooo, were you guys aware of how close it was????  Was there chatter about it all being on the line?  I don't play competitions, so I'm curious how aware players can be. It was thrilling to watch it all play out "by the numbers," but I look forward to hearing any and all details about specific shots and momentum shifts along the way. Again, great play, all. I look forward to reading more after everyone's travels.

I believe Jamieson won hole 17 with an brilliant iron shot to a tough pin placement over water, and sunk a 10 foot or so birdie putt. I walked out with a halve on that hole after draining a 15 foot par putt and Barrett missing a 4 foot birdie putt.

[GolfLug]

It appears that after 4 days of 5am wake up calls, my body can't turn off the internal alarm. So here I am at 6am on a Sunday - my wife and son still sleeping - and it seems like a great time to offer my reflections on the Newport Cup.

As others have commented, Wednesday was a real treat. Both Pure and Ping were extremely generous with their time and treated us like VIP guests from the moment we arrived. Pure regripped our sets while we chipped whiffle balls in their parking lot. We watched the Ping-man machine bomb 300 yard drives down the range and had a fantastic Q&A; sesion with the Ping Engineers. The owner John Solheim then greeted us and thanked us for coming out. That was unexpected and a really nice touch, I thought. All the free swag (gloves, bag etc.) wasn't too bad either! Alright on to the golf......

@Golfingdad, and I were partnered in the first round of fourball, and drew a touch match against @saevel25 and @jamo. Nerves were a factor early and we were down 2 immediately. But we battled back and managed to square match and looked to take a lead on hole 8 with Matt OB and Jamieson in trouble. But Matt managed a second ball eagle to salvage par and halve the hole. They say you can never take anything for granted in match play and that hole was a perfect illustration of that. We lost the next hole and boom, we lose the front one down. Again, we played pretty good golf on the back, and were two up (one up on the total) heading into 15 - a 230 yard par 3. We all miss the green, but Drew and I have fairly simple pitches. Jamieson has a tough shot from the bunker but he made a terrific up and down and neither Drew nor I could do the same. We followed that up by making a mess of the 16th hole and were both "BIP" (ball in pocket) before even reaching the green. All of a sudden, we were back to all square on the back. We halved 17 and with everyone but Jamieson getting a stroke on 18, it was a good chance for us to halve the overall match. Drew & I both make the GIR and Matt takes three to reach the green. Drew has a tricky 25 foot side hill putt for birdie, Matt a delicate 20 foot downhiller for par and I have the simplest of all, a 15 footer straight uphill for my birdie. Drew puts a great stroke on his, but the ball falls under the cup at the last second. Matt then drains his 20 footer for par and let's out a Patrick Reed like roar of satisfaction. At that point, I really wanted to pour mine in on top of him. Sadly, I got a touch too aggressive and my birdie burned the right edge. The back was halved and a critical point felt like it had slipped away. It was a disappointing outcome, but an extremely tense and compmetitive match.  Side note for anyone who plays @saevel25, he WILL make you putt 18 inchers .

The afternoon foursomes had me playing with John - @Club Rat against Matt & Vishal (@GolfLug). John has a nice steadying influence about him, so even when I started out a bit shaky, he never got down on me for some of the bad spots I put him in. On hole 4 -  a long par 5 - I was preparing to play my second shot from between the palm trees. The "smart" play would have been to punch out diagonally, but it probably would have left us too far away to make a GIR. There was a tight window through which I could have shot a 4 iron punch up the fairway. I looked at John and asked for his thoughts - he smiled and said "pedal to the metal, baby!" Say no more - I executed my shot, leaving John a wedge into green and we made an easy par. From there, we just sort of hung on. We halved the front and then Matt & Vishal struggled a bit on the back. By the 15th hole, we had accumlated a 4 hole lead to clinch the back and the overall.

The next morning, I had a chance to play with our MVP, @mchepp in foursomes. Our opponents were @DaveP043 and Vishal. Dave is about the steadiest player you can imagine (I may have seen 2 or 3 missed fairways total in our 2 matches) and a real bear to play against in match play. He and Vishal made a great team, but with Michael putting me in great spots in the fairway all morning long, we quickly built a 3 up lead on the front nine. On the back 9, Vishal's unorthodox swing fell into place and he started striping the ball down the fairway. In conjunction with Dave's solid play, Michael I needed our A-game to win the back and we didn't have it. Trailing by 1 going into the last hole, we were fortunate to win 18 to halve the back and win a critical 2.5 points for our team.

And with that, my son has woken up and my family obligations call. I'll post a mini recap of my Friday fourball and Saturday singles matches later!

That match was critical I thought. Colin won't say it but I will - he has easily one of the most clutch short games I've had to deal with. Really wore us down getting up and down from 'trash cans' on Friday afternoon. He and Mike just would not let us catch our breaths enough to get ahead on the back 9. Dave being Dave dug deep from all his experience to half the 18th and the back nine. Solid all around.

[Hardspoon]

I'm curious if anyone had any comments on the course itself.  Not necessarily a full review, but did you find that it placed a premium on any portion of your game (ie, lag putting, bunker play, etc.)?  Were there any players who found that the course selection helped/hurt them more than others?

[iacas]

I'm curious if anyone had any comments on the course itself.  Not necessarily a full review, but did you find that it placed a premium on any portion of your game (ie, lag putting, bunker play, etc.)?  Were there any players who found that the course selection helped/hurt them more than others?

We will have threads for reviews and commentary on all the stuff the guys experienced this week. Later tonight hopefully. From our perspective Mike and I think it aligned pretty perfectly with what is taught in LSW.

[jbishop15]

I'm curious if anyone had any comments on the course itself.  Not necessarily a full review, but did you find that it placed a premium on any portion of your game (ie, lag putting, bunker play, etc.)?  Were there any players who found that the course selection helped/hurt them more than others?

17 can die a painful death, as far as I'm concerned. Someone else can go more in depth, as I'm on a plane and the wifi is terrible, but 17 sucks. Otherwise, course is beautiful.

[Golfingdad]

Kids are up but watching shows at the moment so let's see how much I can write before they get crazy again ...

We got in late Tuesday night when everyone was asleep so we woke up Wednesday morning to a few familiar faces and a few new ones.  It's weird meeting somebody is person for the first time that you feel like you kind of really already know so much about.  After some quick introductions we headed over to Pure Grips.  You've read a few recaps already, so I won't delve too deep into the day, but would just say that it was amazing of both Pure and Ping to treat us so well with the tours and the swag.  (I regrouped with red Pure Pros for team pride, and also went midsize for the first time and I really like it).  At Ping, I fell in love with the G30 driver and am already trying to swing some deals to acquire one soon.  Also to my surprise, I really, really liked the G30 irons (over the new "i" irons) even though they are in the "shovel" category according to many.

On to the matches:

Thursday morning fourball against @saevel25 and @jamo was already detailed pretty well by Colin.  I have only one thing to add:  The tone of the match was set on the first hole, when Jamieson coolly rolled in a 25 footer from off the green for the par and the win.  We played decent but they were clutch all morning.

Thursday afternoon foursomes saw me and @Bechambo facing @jbishop15 and @SavvySwede in the first match of the afternoon.  IIRC, we halved the first two holes and were doing fine until the wheels fell off.  Barrett hooked our tee shot OB on 3, and I returned the favor on 4, and just like that, without even putting up a fight, we were down 2 and the rout was on.  Neither of us played well, and neither Hunter nor Vince could do anything wrong.  I believe they shot a (gross) 79 that round ... so I guess the consolation was it may not have mattered even if we played well.  We ran into a juggernaut.

Friday morning alternate shot I was paired with @kpaulhus against the team of Matt and Jamieson again, and we held with them until Matt's favorite hole ... #8.  (In fact, we may have been 1up at that point but it's all getting fuzzy now)  I do remember though that each nine was close until the end and, once again, they were clutch on the last couple of holes and we were not, and ultimately we could only manage 1/2 of a point on the afternoon.

It's at this point where I'm really getting down on myself because I've played two mediocre rounds and one horrendous one, and was no doubt bringing up the rear as far as total points earned for either team, with 1.  But the light at the end of the tunnel arrived when I learned that I would be paired with the red teams own "King Midas" for the afternoon best ball matches, in @mchepp .  His aura of confidence rubbed off on me and the only thing that kept us from getting an easy 3 points was some fantastic play once again from Matt and Jamieson.  The front nine scores for Matt, Jamieson, Michael and myself were, respectively ... 37,38,37 and 38.  The highlight of the match was the last 3 holes.  We had lost the front 9 one down and came to 16 one up for the back nine.  After a perfect drive (which was 36 yards behind Matts, BTW) and a solid approach, I was sitting pretty with about 20 feet for birdie, and after Matt chunked his approach shot about 15 yards short, I couldn't help but start to think that we could be on our way to a back nine point.  Much to my dismay, however, Matt devastated us by holing that chip!  "Here we go again," I thought.

On 17, I made my best effort to slice a drive around the tree, but double-crossed it straight into the water.  Michael also went into the water and it was looking like the end.  I hit a good 7 iron over the pond onto the middle of the back of the green about 50-60 feet away from the hole.  I don't remember exactly how they got there, but Matt and Jamieson both had 6-10 foot par putts and Michael was in his pocket after hitting a second ball into the water.  Any hope of winning the match pretty much meant that I had to find a way to make that putt.  I hit it just like I wanted to, and as that ball starting hooking over the last few feet it was pretty apparent from my angle that it was finding the bottom of the cup ... and it did.  We were now 1up on the back and a halve on the last hole would mean my first non-loss of the tournament.  After making a par and Matt failing to equal ... we won the back by 2 to take the overall as well and put 2 points on the board.

All added up, I carded a 76 for that match and the feeling was night and day versus how I felt coming off the previous couple of matches.

When I found out I would be paired up against Hunter (again) for singles, it was a mixture of nerves after having been so thoroughly beaten by him and Vince on Thursday and excitement at the possibility of getting some revenge.  The adrenaline had me awake for much of the night imagining the possible scenarios of the day.  I thought if I could carry over my play from Friday afternoon that I'd be in good shape.  And after a perfect drive and approach, I found myself in that reality while while Hunter was in the bunker.  The adrenaline got the better of me, however, when I hit my 20' birdie putt 12' past the hole and couldn't make the comeback for par - hole halved.  But I didn't make another bogey until the ninth hole and found myself winning the front 3up.  The back started with a very poor drive, but two solid 5 irons later, I was sitting 15' away from the hole for birdie.  Another perfect 5 iron on 11 led to a win and I started to rebuild my momentum.  I made a big par saving putt on 12 for another win, and big bending putt to save bogey on 13 for a halve, and then 3 solid shots to tap in range for a par and win on 14, putting me 3up for the back and 6up total with 4 holes to play.  Again, my magic 5 iron put me to about 20' for birdie on a 210 yard par 3, and two putts later I was 4up and the match was over.  We called "good-good" on the tee of the next three holes to keep play moving and to get out of the way the tense @SavvySwede v @Big C match.  (3 "par + handicaps" for those last holes had me nearly repeating my performance of Friday by shooting a 77)

It was a struggle in the beginning but I found my form at the end and overall it was a great and satisfying experience.

Mostly, though, it was just fun golf and hanging out with some old, and many new friends.  Eating burgers, drinking beer (or water - I'm not much of a drinker ;)), hanging out in the pool soothing the muscles after 36 holes each day, etc, etc.

I cannot say enough thanks to all of the sponsors - Ping, Pure, Moon Valley CC, KickX, Linksoul - and certainly not enough to our organizers and coaches, @iacas and @mvmac , but I cannot wait until the next one!!

[Big C]

I'm curious if anyone had any comments on the course itself.  Not necessarily a full review, but did you find that it placed a premium on any portion of your game (ie, lag putting, bunker play, etc.)?  Were there any players who found that the course selection helped/hurt them more than others?

The course had a nice diversity of holes. #1, #3, #11, #16 all favored fades. The vaunted/hated #17 essentially required to you aim at the water hazard and play a big slice (well, unless you are @kpaulhus ). #10, #12, #13 & number 18 all were big draw holes. And the other holes could pretty much be played with any shot shape as long as they weren't too far off line. Bunker conditions were more firm than fluffy, so you had to clip the ball precisely. But the greens were great, and rolled true, despite being on the slower side.

The only real quirk about the course was that the areas between the rough and the homes which bordered the course were mostly hardpan. So any offline tee shots had a good chance of ending up on firm, hardpacked dirt. If you were comfortable playing off that type of lie, you could recover fairly easily, even from some poor tee shots.

[Big C]

And onto my recap of the last two rounds. Friday afternoon saw me pair up with @kpaulhus in a rematch against Vishal and Dave, this time in a fourball event. It wasn't the prettiest round you will ever see, but it was every bit as close as any match I played during the week. As I told Drew and Barrett in the car ride home that evening, "You've gotta love Kyle." I know he didn't have his best game Friday afternoon, but he never lost his confidence or his positive mindset, and that helped as the match wore on. After any shot - good or bad - Kyle would hop back in the cart and say to me, "well, I'm just gonna have to get up and down from there." And on a couple of early holes, he did just that - hitting some great chips and holing some crucial early par putts. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, Dave was doing his thing - birdieing the 6th hole and 8th holes and shooting a 38 on the front.  We ended the front down one and appeared to be wilting in the desert heat.

On the back 9, our swings started to desert the red team. I am pretty sure that between the two of us, Kyle and I only hit one fairway on the back and Erik later joked that every time he drove by our match, he saw the red team hacking out from the trees somewhere. Fortunately, as Vishal noted above, the short game bailed us out on a couple of occasions - saving par from some tricky spots and keeping the match close. By hole 15, we were 1 up on the back when Vishal hit one of the best shots of the tournament, a 230 yard hybrid that settled 10 feet from the hole. His birdie effort slid just under the cup though, and we managed par to keep the lead. On 18 we were still one up, with Vishal and Kyle in trouble and Dave and I near the green in two. Dave jokingly offered a "good/good?" concession and I laughed and declined.   Anyone who saw our respective shots would have understood why. I had a fairly straightforward uphill pitch to the flag. Dave had an impossible downhill pitch off a sidehill lie. I hit a good shot and settled 4 feet from the cup. As Dave prepared to hit his shot, I would have clapped for anything within 15 feet. He impressed us all with an awesome effort that hit the fringe perfectly, checked and rolled forward slowly towards the cup, eventually setlling right next to my mark. Fantastic shot. We both made our putts for a fitting and hard fought 1.5 points each.

Friday night, the captains gathered us all to announce the singles pairings for Saturday. I drew Vince, who was coming off of 3 really good rounds. Even getting 2 strokes a side, I knew I would have to play my best to beat the " @SavvySwede . " On the range the next morning, @mvmac , came up to me and said he put Drew and I out first because he thought we were playing well and wanted to put some early points on the board. Whether it was true or not, I appreciated the vote of confidence.

The match started out as well as I could have hoped - after 2 pars and a conceded birdie putt on hole 3, I was 2 up early in the match. But Vince fought back, parring the 190 yard 5th hole and birdieing the 6th to pull back to all square. Vince and I both parred the 7th, but since it was the #1 handicap, I got a "pop" and took the lead back. I followed that up with a gross birdie on 8 to regain my 2 hole lead, where it remained on the front.

But Vince caught fire on the back and followed up 3 pars on holes 10-12 with back to back birdies on 13 & 14. All of sudden, despite being 1 over par through 5 holes (and playing pretty well) I found myself 3 down on the back and trailing the overall match by 1. I made a mess of the 15th hole and watched Vince hit a great pitch from a tricky lie, and suddenly the back was over and I was 2 down on the overall. All hope was not lost, however, as the 16th and 18th holes were the numbers 2 & 4 handicaps respectively, and hence they were my crucial "stroke" holes. Vince teed off on the 16th and hit a slight push cut into the tree line. Not one of his better drives and I knew he would likely have an obstructed shot into the green. With my stroke "pop", all I needed to do was put a good drive out there and I would have a huge advantage on this important hole. I took a deep breath, visualized my ball flight and took a mighty cut at my ball - only to watch in horror as it sliced further and further right. Past the tree line, past the hard pan, past the first row of homes that lined the hole. F%^*ing OB.......

It's a good thing that there were no microphones attached to me after that shot, because it might have given those Tiger haters a taste of what really salty language sounds like. I made the walk of shame back to the cart to pull out another ball, meekly declared the tee ball a provisional (knowing there was no way in hell that my horrible shot stayed in the course) and actually hit a fairly decent drive up the right side of the fairway - the same drive I was hoping to make on my first ball. But golf is a funny game sometimes and as we drove up the fairway, it became apparent that Vince was having difficulty finding his tee shot. A few minutes went by. Then a few more. All four of us, plus Erik and Mike were walking the grounds, but Vince's ball never appeared. Maybe it stayed in the trees. Maybe it clipped a branch and shot right into someone's backyard. Who knows? In any event, he had to re-tee, which gave me new and unexpected life. I parred my second ball and Vince could not birdie his, so I ended up winning the hole with a 6, net 5.

We both parred the 17th, with Vince holing a downhill 6 footer for his par and me following it up with a sidehill four 4 footer. On 18, I knew a par would likely give me the hole and an extra half point for my team. I hit a solid 3 wood, and a slightly thin 9 iron that left me on the green, but with about 60 feet to the hole. When Vince's birdie chip just slid past the hole, I had two putts for a hard earned 1.5 for the Red Team. I managed to convert.

All in all it was a great match and well played on both ends. In reviewing the final scores, Vince shot a 77 to my 79. We shook hands and sat down near the 18th green to watch the final 4 matches come in. When John holed the chip on 18, the Red team erupted in cheers, knowing it was a meaningful shot. And as it turned out - with a 27/27 tie - EVERY shot was meaningful. An awesome finish all around.

[SavvySwede]

Just returned home after a thrilling weekend competing for the Newport Cup at the beautiful facility at Moon Valley CC. I had such a great time and I can't thank Erik ( @iacas ) and Mike ( @mvmac ) enough for giving me the opportunity to take part in such an amazing event. I got to take an eye opening tour of the facilities over at Pure and Ping, pick up some cool swag, and most importantly I got to play some good golf with a tremendous group of people. Below I've compiled some recaps/thoughts about the matches I played throughout the cup will soon be posting some reviews of the gear we got to test out during the event.

The first Fourball match pitted myself and Hunter( @jbishop15 ) against Barrett( @Bechambo ) and Michael( @mchepp ). Despite playing very well and shooting a net 34 as a team on the front nine Hunter and I found ourselves way behind with Barrett and Mike rolling in 100+ feet worth of putts from all over the place and shooting a net 30 on the front. We tried to hold on but the barrage of birdies from our opponents never ebbed enough for us to make any ground. Lost the match 3-0

Afternoon match was alternate shot. I was once again paired with Hunter as we took on Barrett and Drew( @Golfingdad ). This was the first time I had ever played alternate shot but Hunter and I had bonded over our early morning trouncing and gelled as partnership which would continue throughout the entire competition. A couple of OB balls from our opponents gave us an early lead which we cemented with some very steady golf. We fed off each others good shots for 10 GIR and a gross 80, a pretty solid score for alternate shot. Won the match 3-0

The next morning saw the order of the matches changes with alternate shot as the first match. This time Hunter and faced off against Barrett and John( @Club Rat ). Hunter made a few clutch putts early in the match to keep the us square after I had gotten too aggressive on the first rolls. We hit our stride and battled hard to get ahead on the front nine. A gross 38 on the back for a 78 secured the match and a 3.0 win.

Afternoon Fourball was a rematch from the morning's alternate shot and this time Barrett/John were out for blood. We traded holes back and forth halving the front nine. The back nine was equally tight with difference maker being the pars big I made on the two 200+ yard par 3's and we took the match 2.5-0.5 but it was a lot closer than the score would indicate because of the nature of the Nassau format.

My singles match against Colin( @Big C ) was a real nail biter. I three putted the second hole and then Colin made a textbook birdie on the third to put me 2 down early on. I tried to battle back on the front and we traded a few holes but Colin came out on top winning 2up on the front. Seeing how well Colin was playing and knowing he had strokes coming on sixteen and eighteen I knew I had to do something special starting the back nine to have a chance. Dug deep with three pars and then back to back birdies to take the lead in the overall match. Extended my lead to two after Colin's tee ball on the par 3 clipped a branch and dropped down into the rough. 2up with three to go I hit a slightly pushed fade along the tree line on 16. I thought I had a great chance to close out the match after Colin's tee shot sailed OB but my tee ball to seemed to have mysteriously disappeared and I forced forced to do the drive of shame back to the tee box and play another ball. I needed to birdie the second ball to match Colin's six because he had a stroke on that hole but it wasn't in the cards and the lead was down to 1. We halved seventeen with some tough two putts and Colin made a clutch par net birdie on the last and we halved the match 1.5-1.5.

[isukgolf]

Was on vacation last week in Myrtle Beach, but followed along as best I could. Congrats to all that played, and hope you enjoyed Phx as well.

[Club Rat]

Congrats to all involved for an incredible experience. The fact it ended in a tie means the captains picked the absolute perfect combination of players for a fair match. It looks like you all had an amazing experience and I hope you all enjoyed yourself.

Shout out to @Club Rat for his pressure packed chip to save the tie.

A big thank you to the captains, @iacas and @mvmac for putting this event together. I had no dog in this fight (outside of a participant who plays a club 3 miles from my house, whom I've never met) yet found myself following in Twitter the entire time. Safe travels to all and looking forward to the recounts from all involved.

I was wondering who was cheering for me.

Thanks for the support and sorry I didn't win the Ping driver for you.

I'll make it up to you and treat you to a round of golf @ my club.

I'm sure you are familiar with Winghaven CC.

Send me a PM if you would like to join me.

John