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By Stan Olenik
For Hometown News
Spartanburg County reclaimed the Powerade Cyder Cup with a four-point win in the annual Ryder Cup style matches held at River Falls Plantation. The Spartanburg golfers won nine of the sixteen final matches to win the championship 18-14.
The tournament included the top sixteen golfers from each counties amateur championship playing a series of three rounds of golf. “We had a great tournament and the competition was really tight,” said Brian Kennedy the Spartanburg County Captain. “It is a privilege to play in these matches and being the captain is an extra benefit,” he said.
The defending champions opened the defense of their title with wins in five of the first eight best ball matches. The second round was modified alternate shot competition dominated by Spartanburg. The Spartanburg golfers won six of the eight matches by convincing margins.
Spartanburg took a two-point lead into the final round of 16 singles matches on Sunday. Spartanburg took control of the final round of play with their first four players notching wins. Aaron Setro, Ronnie Funk, Austin Page and Richard Burgess each won close matches to help Spartanburg get within three points of winning the Cup.
Max Fain and Josh McMillan added wins to set the stage for the deciding match of the day. Kennedy, the team captain, won his match with Casey Owens to give the Spartanburg team their fourth win in the six-year history of the tournament.
“We could have thrown all the names in a bowl and drawn them out and had great matches. All the players were so close in ability this year you just knew it was going to be close,” said Kennedy.
Eleven of the sixteen singles matches were decided on the final hole of match play. While the tournament was decided with Kennedy’s win the players on the course finished out their matches.
Greenville team captain Tommy Ashworth won his match against Gene Wetmore, 1 up. “It is hard to play in these matches if you are the captain because you are out there worrying about your team,” said Ashworth. “We had a good group and when you see how close the matches ended up you see both teams played well,” he said.
The feature match of the Sunday singles was a rematch between the two golfers who battled for the South Carolina Golf Association Mid-Am championship last week at the Greenville Country Club.
Greenville’s Marcus Grumbles won the SCGA state title by a shot over Spartanburg’s Kyle Milner but on Sunday the tables were turned and Milner won the match by a shot.
“This is more laid back than last weekend,” said Milner. “We thought it would be fun to play each other on Sunday. Marcus is a great guy, we had a good match and I was fortunate that it ended up my way,” said Milner.
While the competition on the course can be intense, the sportsmanship of both teams showed in the amount of money raised by the players for the First Tee programs in Greenville and Spartanburg. The event will contribute $33,000 to the two junior golf programs to help more young golfers get on the course.
“This money helps us run the programs,” said Laura Parris, the director of the Spartanburg First Tee program. “We can give scholarships to kids and expand the number of young golfers who get an opportunity to learn to play golf and also learn the lessons that come from the game,” she said.
The tournament began as an event to find out which county had the better golfers but in the last two years, the fund raising portion of the tournament has become just as important.
“Nobody likes to lose, we all want to win but we all know what this is about. It is to raise awareness and money for the First Tee program,” said Kennedy. “The support we receive from Coca-Cola and Powerade has really made the success of this tournament possible,” noted Ashworth.
Members of the winning Spartanburg team included Aaron Setro, Ronnie Funk, Austin Page, Richard Burgess, Paul Spradlin, Max Fain, Landon Hames, Chip Ridley, Josh McMillan, Benjy Miller, Kevin Roberts, Andrew Hewitt, Kyle Milner, Bobby Newman, Gene Wetmore and captain Brian Kennedy.
Greenville team members included Mark Ingalls, Danny Brock, Michael Cloer, Marty Henson, Shane Grumbles, Brent Watson, Michael Gault, Thomas Barker, Jeff Ware, Casey Owens, Chris Wilkins, Chris Eassy, Whit Suber, Marcus Grumbles, Ric Cobb and captain Tommy Ashworth.
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