Story written by Jim Horvath
SANDWICH, Mass. – Cape Cod Cup professionals team captain Ben Egan reached into his pool of young and talented area golf pro’s for a new look this year and it paid off. Egan’s Cup rookies accounted for 7 points as the professionals edged the amateurs, 11 – 10 in the 35th annual Cape Cod Cup match.
The Cape Cod Cup matches a team of 14 of the best local amateurs against a team of 14 club professionals from the Cape Cod Chapter of the NEPGA in a four-ball, match play format. Each of the seven matches has three points at stake – one point for the front nine, one for the back and one for the 18 hole match.
The Ridge Club in Sandwich presented excellent scoring conditions and several teams took full advantage. Egan and his partner Jake Leach led the way. They played 4-under par golf and swept all three points from Tyler Kett and Sean Harbour. This was the last match on the course and those three points proved to be decisive in the professionals’ one point win.
Another key performance for the professionals was turned in by Pat Hurrie and Jacob Morchinski. They played the second nine holes in three-under par to break open a tie match and beat Parish Pina and Whitney Trimble, 2 1/2 to 1/2.
The amateurs did have one 3-point sweep on their side. The amateur father-son duo of John and Brendan Shields were four-under par in besting Tom Tobey and Eric Steindel. “Brendan was our horse with three birdies on the back nine” said John.
Amateurs Mike Walker and Billy Van Stratum birdied two of the last four holes to come from behind and take two points from Chris Gagnon and Peter Ruymann.
Three matches ended in 1 1/2 – 1 1/2 ties. Amateurs Alex Stimpson and Matt Cornuet split with Jim Clay and Wyatt Frazier; professionals Bob Miller and Bob Guisti tied Bryan Eger and Rob Mangelson; and Ben Jenkins and Mike Reghitto halved their match with professionals Frank Leja and Andrew Stolze.
The amateurs still lead the overall series, 18 to 14. There have been three ties.