By Jim Horvath
Special to the Cape Cod Times
USA Today Network
Brewster – The Pro’s dominated the back nine to break open a tight match and beat the Amateurs 12 1/2 to 8 1/2 in the 36th annual Cape Cod Cup Golf golf match Thursday at the beautiful Cape Cod National Golf Club.
The Cape Cod Cup matches a team of 14 of the best amateur golfers in the area against a team of 14 club professionals from the Cape Cod Chapter of the New England PGA. Each of the seven matches has three points at stake – one for the front nine, one for the back nine and one for the 18 hole total.
The Cup match was tied after nine holes, each team with 3 1/2 points. The pro’s stepped their play on the back nine, winning 5 of the 7 available points en route to their victory.
Frank Leja and Andrew Stolze led the way for the pro’s. They combined to shoot 6-under par and swept all three points from Kevin Carey and Joe Walker. Walker said “I’ve never seen two players combine to drive the ball so far and so well as Frank and Andrew did today. They were impressive.”
Darren Falk and Matt Baran were also strong for the pro’s, as they won 2 1/2 points against John Shields and Mike McCarthy. Shields and McCarthy had forged a 1 up lead through eight holes. However, Baran and Falk birdied holes 9, 10, 12 and 15 to turn the match around.
Professionals Tom Tobey and Peter Ruyman also won their match by holding off a strong back nine comeback from Mike Reghitto and Ben Jenkins, and winning 2 – 1.
The amateurs did win two matches by 2 – 1 margins. Michael Walker and Chad Crocker teamed up to shot 6-under par and beat Tim Watroba and Shayne Sakson. Parish Pina and Matt Cornuet were 4-under par in defeating Peter Ruymann and Zach Girourad. “Zach’s birdies on 12, 14 and 15 were the difference in their back nine rally. It was a great match and a lot of fun”, stated Cornuet.
The other two matches ended in ties, 1 1/2 – 1 1/2. Amateurs Rich Monaghan and Jack Bohman deadlocked Mark Heartfield and Bob Guisti, and professionals Zack Sweet and Gregg Richbourg tied Ryan Brown and Sam Russell.
This was the second consecutive Cup victory for the pro’s, although the amateurs still lead the overall series, 18 to 15. There have been three ties.