17th Annual Diamond Cup @ Diamante
The Blue Team, in a scintillating 14-14 tie over the Green Team, retained the Diamond Cup in the 17th annual playing of the 3-day Ryder Cup-style tournament over Labor Day weekend at the Diamante Country Club.
Down 9-7 entering the Day 3 singles matches, the Blue Team won 7 of the 12 singles matches to tie the match at 14-14 and retain the Cup after prevailing last year. The Diamond Cup features some of the top golfers at Diamante. The annual competition pits two 12-man teams playing from the blue tees, playing at 6,472 yards, in a gross match play event. It kicked off Saturday morning with four 18-hole two-man gross best-ball matches, followed by four 18-hole gross alternate-shot matches starting in the afternoon.Sunday featured the same match formats, followed Monday by 12 individual gross match play matches.
The match was all tied at 6 after the first three sessions, with each team winning 2 points in each of the three team sessions. Then the Green Team, captained by Jim Robinson and co-captain Andrew Grabhorn, won three of the four matches in the Sunday afternoon session to grab a 9-7 lead heading into the last day.
The Green Team, needing only 5 ½ points to win the Cup, put 4 ½ points on the board through the early and middle singles matches on Sunday and had a chance to close it out in Match 5, in which they were 1-up going to 18 and only needing to halve the hole to win the match and the Cup. But Blue Team member Brooks McMillan made difficult up and down from left of the par 5 18 th green, capped by a 30-foot par putt, to win the hole and halve the match, leaving the Green
Team a half-point short of the win. The Blue Team’s top four players then each won their matches by the 17 th hole to tie the match and retain the Cup. This year’s Blue Team was captained by current club champion Mark Hittner along with co-captains Scott Sowerbutts and Rusty Adams, captain of last year’s winning Blue Team.
The 24 playing members of the teams were chosen following a year-long Diamond Cup points race over about 70 qualifying rounds. The top 20 point-getters, led this year by Green Team member Steve Secora, automatically qualified to be drafted on to one of the two teams. Two captain’s picks and three alternates were then chosen by each team.
Left to right: Blue Team members Lee Sowerbutts, Rick Maxey, Co-Captain Rusty Adams, Dennis Smith, Dave Clark, Co-Captain Scott Sowerbutts, Captain Mark Hittner, Bryan Stout, Brooks McMillan, Joe Patrico, Brandon Kogut, Phil Tyree and Charles Veazey and Green Team members Zeke Chittum, Jon Hoffman, Co-Captain Andrew Grabhorn, Captain Jim Robinson, Nate Robinson, David Weatherly, Jeff Owen, Luke Chittum, Bud Caughman (behind Chittum), David Rich, Barry Jacobsen and Marc Owen (not pictured, Gerald Fairchild, Bruce Gasaway, Steve Secora, David Surguine and Al Short).