from BJ Richardson, Regular Inter-club Co-Captain
Tanglewood played their last interclub match of the regular season on Saturday, July 8 th away at Oak Valley. The Women’s US Open is going on at Pebble Beach, the PGA tour is at the John Deere, but that’s not where the real golf was happening Saturday afternoon. The Oak Valley match had it all, disgruntled Oak Valley opponents, a fight with our interclub captain, and a hole out eagle!!!! Wow, hold on for this one!!
Match number one of the day had Todd Brown and Stephen Dunn teaming up again against some Oak Valley Sr’s who have some game. This was a great match and was all square after 6 holes with neither
team blinking. Oak Valley went one up after getting a stroke on 7 and the front 9 finished that way. Oak Valley then birdied 10, and after a Tanglewood stumble on 13, Oak Valley was up 3. Our guys didn’t give up however and won the last hole for a 2 down loss. These teams finished best ball within 2 strokes of each other. Great match!!
Match number two had Mark Harper Jr. and interclub first timer, Jonathan Kiser, a previous Oak Valley Club Championship winner, now playing for team Tanglewood. Mark came into the match struggling a little with his irons, but we knew he would figure it out in time for the team. Oak Valley got one up early and our guys tied it back up to finish the front nine. Jonathan then birdies 10 and we take a one up lead. This match went back and forth on the back nine, and going to hole 18, was all square with Oak Valley getting a stroke. Thanks to a birdie by Jr. to match their par net birdie, the match finished in a halve. Wow!! Another great match. Way to play through some adversity!!
For our number three match, we had Brian Sainz and Stevie Blankenship. Brian had requested Stevie as his partner, to help keep himself calm through the round. Ok, not really. This match was going to be a tough one for our guys. Brian and Stevie were giving 6 strokes to one opponent and 3 to the other on their home course. The front 9 went back and forth with Oak Valley’s strokes keeping them in it, and the match was all square after 9. Our guys then got 2 up, and bounced back and forth from 1 up to 2 up. The match finished with Tanglewood winning 1 up. Man, another close one!! This win had Tanglewood now only being one down in the overall match. We needed something big in the last match.
Well, we saved the best for last. Drama, intrigue, violence, they were all present in the last match. For our anchor match, we had Josh Dalton and Glenn Makitka taking on an Oak Valley pair that were getting so many strokes, that Josh had to ask for a calculator mid round. One opponent was getting 14 and the other one 9. Our guys had their work cut out for them, and quickly found themselves 4 down after 6. It didn’t help that OV was chipping in and making ridiculous putts. Our fearless captain, Mark Sr. shows up to support our anchor match, and things started to turn around. Glenn makes birdie net eagle on 7 and Josh birdies 8 to get it back to 2 down. Then came the “altercation”. One of Oak Valleys guys said that Sr. was not allowed to cheer for our guys, and continued to make comments to Josh and Glenn about it and went as far as to call the pro shop to complain. Meanwhile his golf game was starting to fall apart. Are you kidding me? At the turn, the pro came out to speak with Sr. and swung at him, big mistake. Sr gets him in a head lock and takes him to the ground!! Ok, ok, maybe it didn’t go down quite like that but makes for a more exciting story. Got to keep some of you guys interested. The Oak Valley pro just asked Sr. some questions and that was all he really could do. We were well within the rules here. Ok back to the golf. A par net birdie by OV on hole 10 put us back to 3 down. Our guys didn’t panic and kept playing solidly and won holes 13,15, and 17 to get it to all square headed to 18. Both Oak Valley’s guys were getting strokes and our guys needed to win the hole in order for Tanglewood to get an over all win. No pressure… Oak Valley dumped both their tee shots in the water, and our guys played conservative second shots, possibly only needing par to win. Glenn had laid up to 145 yards on this par 5, and it was time for him to hit his approach. “Glenn, just play to the middle of the green” , no need for heroics here. Glenn had other plans and decided to hit his approach shot in the hole for a walk off eagle!!!! Are you kidding me!!! Have you ever in your life!!! That was better than most!!!! Tanglewood wins!!! Tanglewood wins!!! Congratulations Glenn, what a way to end it.
Whew!! Ok, everybody take a breath…. This was a fantastic win for Tanglewood. Not only to win in such dramatic fashion, but for all our guys to continue to grind out points even when things were looking bad on the leaderboard. I know you guys get tired of hearing that every point matters, but this was a perfect example of how important it really is. A half a point here or there, and this story ends in a very different way. Sr. has been reviewing the points for the other clubs and there is a good chance we are going to be tied for first place with Twilight League (Holly Ridge). The playoffs should start late August. Let’s keep practicing and playing hard and be ready to make a run in the playoffs. Also, congratulate the guys if you see them on a great win.
Let’s Go Tanglewood!!!!