Fierce Battle for “Horsefly Roundup” Title
GREENSBORO – On a night when every stroke mattered, a slick green with a tough pin placement took down a good portion of the Tuesday crowd as they fiercely battled for the Horsefly Roundup title last week.
Always dressing for the occasion, Tuesday night’s Matt Kiley always responds well to the dress code each week. He wore the ugliest thing in his closet for the recently completed June Bug Open and came out firing in blaze orange for the Wild Turkey Open on May 31.
The toughest hole on the Mountain View Country Club course, a 383-yard par 4, got even nastier for the 42 golfers playing Tuesday under ideal temperatures. The cup on the sixth hole was placed right on the crest of a dangerous downhill portion of the green. Any putt attempt that was short of the cup would end up rolling right back down the green. The average score on that hole Tuesday was a 6.6. One player putted nine times and posted a 12.
Only two players parred the sixth hole Tuesday, Ryan Hall and Rowdy Doyon. They both one-putted the green. Four other players, Shayne Carr, Mike Clark, John Stone and Doug Allen, bogeyed. The rest of the field carded between six and eight strokes on the hole.
The scores were so high that every player had their scores readjusted to a bogey. Those who bogeyed or parred also had a stroke removed from their overall scores.
The goal for the golfers Tuesday was to try and shoot lower than their individual seasonal scoring averages. The foursome with the best shot improvement would be crowned champions. Because there were threesomes, foursomes and fivesomes all over the course, it was decided afterwards to randomly draw groups.
The field was divided into four groups, those who had the best improvement, the second best, third best and those who had little to no improvement. Those names were then thrown into four different hats. To make an even 11 groups, two players who did not play, Dan Gauthier and Jefferson Tolman, were randomly chosen to join the field, leaving 44 golfers.
Then one name at a time was drawn from each hat and they were paired together. Out of that random draw came the foursome of Dave Campbell, Ivan Menard, Mike Nixon and John Stone. They won the Horsefly Roundup title with a combined total of eight strokes under their averages.
Campbell had the team’s best improvement, beating his yearly average by six strokes.
Menard was under his average by three strokes while Nixon was even as Stone ended up one stroke over his average.
Mike Clark led his randomly chosen team of Dan Mencucci, Jefferson Tolman and Patrick Hussey to a second place finish at seven strokes under their averages. Clark had it going on last week, posting his round on Monday morning as he shot the week’s low round of two-over par 37, which got adjusted to a 36.
That was a full nine strokes better than his average. Mencucci also posted a strong round and ended up four strokes better than his average. Tolman didn’t even play, but was picked to join this group. He was set at even par to his average. Hussey ballooned to six strokes over his average, but the group held onto second place.
Clark came out of last week’s Horsefly Roundup a richer man. His team won second place, he shot the low and the low net rounds (26), led the field by beating his yearly average by nine strokes and he won closest to the pin on five, driving to within five feet, eight inches of the pin. His winnings left Clark in first place on money list, moving ahead of Joe Mulligan and John Sperry.
In third place at six under was the foursome of Jeremy Kaufman, Mike Cloutier, Dennis Pudvah and Brian Niemi. Kaufman paced this group by cutting five strokes off his average, aided by a clutch par on three. Cloutier was two strokes better, Pudvah was even and Niemi ended up plus one stroke.
Fourth place at minus five went to Tim Bellavance , who was six under his average, Roger Boone, at one under, Dan Gauthier, at even, and Josh Ludweith at two over.
Just behind Clark in strokes improved was Wyatt Bellavance, who shaved eight strokes off his normal average. Three players, Tim Bellavance, Adam Whitney and Campbell, all knocked six strokes off their averages.
John Sperry was pin hunting on Tuesday. He won closest to the hole on three by leaving his drive 14 feet, nine inches from the pin. Then on eight, he put his approach to five feet, seven inches to win closest in two shots. Andy Hunt won closest in two on nine, getting to within 13 feet, eight inches of the pin.
On Tuesday evening, June 28, the league will honor longtime league hero, Richard Brochu, who passed on June 1. A new league plaque has been purchased in his honor. Also, a rotating cup will soon be purchased in his name for the end-of-year tournament winners.
