2023 Decade #2 | cidercup

2023 – Decade #2

The 11th Annual Cider Cup was held on October 21st & 22nd at the Cynthiana Country Club. The weather was cool in the mornings but sunny and overall perfect for 2 days of Fall golf.

There were 44 golfers (including alternates/subs) competing this year. It tied the last 2 years as the largest groups ever assembled. There were 6 rookies, four on the Blue Team (Josh Renaker/Patrick Oakley/Brandon Peters and Sunday Singles addition - Reese Asher) and two (Steve Hill/Ronnie Brown) for the Red Team. Overall for the Rookies, they contributed 9.5 points while going 9-9-1.

We once again were treated to a great breakfast coordinated by the wives of the Blue Team.

While both teams sported lower HDCP’s last year, the numbers were in favor of the Blue Team. Taking all 44 players into account, the Red Team had a Total HDCP of 228.3 which was 4.0 points better that 2022’s squad. The Blue Team came in at 215.3 which was a significant 18.0 points better than last year’s 233.3. Both Teams had variations due to subs and the Team HDCP’s varied by format as seen below.

The Red Team was looking to 3-Peat for their first time in the event’s history and the Blue Team was looking to rebound after last year’s record-setting embarrassing 12-point loss. Everyone was eager to “tee it up”.

The 9 Hole Scramble session was first up.

Coming into 2023 both Teams were tied in the overall format wins with identical 4-4-2 records.

The Blue Team prevailed and took a 2-point lead into the afternoon.

A change in the order this year had us playing 18 Holes of Chapman rather than Alternate Shot.

The Red Team held a slim 2-1-1 advantage all-time, but the Blue Team fought to a tie to end the day with 2-point advantage.

Some callouts from Day 1:

Scramble
- Trusting the Squabbit App, it looks as if 4 of the 10 Matches were decided on the 9th Hole.
Chapman
- Again, trusting the Squabbit App, only 2 of the 4 Matches were decided on the 18th Hole.
- Chase Wachter/Nate Sowder defeated Steve Slade/Shain Stephens 6 & 5. Chase was served a warrant to appear in court for beating up on the Sheriff and the Jailer and the stress evidently was too much for Chase as he was spotted on all fours Saturday Night in the parking lot throwing up violently and never to be seen from again during the tournament. On a side note, his playing partner Nate Sowder was able to make it thru Sunday, only to suffer the same fate on Monday.
- Rob Ogden became “El Diablo” again as I don’t know when I’ve seen him play better golf than I did Saturday afternoon against Monty and I. The quote of the day was “There’s a lot going on”.

So, as we end Saturday’s play, the Blue Team was up 11 to 9 compared to last year when they were down 10.5 to 9.5. As we’ve said before, the only thing better than a lead on Saturday night is a win on Sunday.

The Saturday night event was held upstairs of the CCC for the 1st time and it was awesome. A big thank you to Tiffani, Rebecca, Jennie and Amanda for their hard work. We enjoyed great food from Joe Joe Hinton and the musical stylings of John Daniel Herrington. We also raised some money during our silent/live auction, player donations, etc.

Eric Sanders, Monty Moore and Nolan Yates won the “Ray Sparks Award” for going 4-0 and being the highest point producers last year. We were once again treated to Monty belting out his Irish Pub Song entitled “The Drunk Scotsman”.

Sunday Morning saw much cooler temps, but still an incredibly beautiful day for golf.

As Sunday’s competition began, I was confident that we could pull this off. We held a 6-3-1 sessions record in Alternate Shot and made it win number 7 as the Red Team prevailed 5.5 to 4.5.

Three of these matches went the 9th Hole, but none was more exciting (as least to me) as the one that pitted Monty and I against Austin & Joseph. We started on #1 and after an eventful 2nd Hole, Monty and I stood 1 up and held a 2 up lead going into #5. After Austin drained a 35-footer for birdie, I thought we’d lost the hole as I faced a 30-footer to halve. I was able to answer and go to #6 still 2 up. Austin and Joe got hot, and we went to #9 all square. Long story/short, Monty drains a 10-foot slider and we win the match.

Those of you that have adult golfing sons will understand me when I say that while I hate seeing my son lose, I love being the one that beats him.

Headed into the Singles trailing by only 1 point, I was confident because of our past overall success in Singles but we knew it would be a dogfight. We were playing 18 Holes of Singles for the 2nd year in a row and knew anything could happen.

I purposely didn’t have my phone on me, so I could only keep myself updated by watching the body language of my team and a few updates from time to time, but my sense was that things were dire for the Red Team. Much to my pleasant surprise, my team was rallying. With the new shotgun start being implemented, there were still matches being played that mattered all over the golf course and it all came down to 2 points which is incredible when you remember that we play 50 matches.

The final tally was the closest we’ve had since 2014 when we had only 24 players, not the 40 we do now. The overall series now stands Blue Team 6 and the Red Team 5.

Some stats from the event:

Conor Taylor and Bob Ammerman each went 3-0-1 to lead the Blue Team with 3.5 points each.
- Bob’s success in the past few Cider Cups (6-0-2) has jump started a new side hustle as he is now working with Tiger Woods to eliminate Tiger’s rigid takeaway and adopt Bob’s more natural “gumby” form as seen below.

Some interesting stats from the Squabbit App:

More stats:

Scoring 3 points each for their respective teams were:
- Kelvin Winkle, Monty Moore, Nate Sowder, Ray Sparks, Rees Feeback, Ronnie Brown and Ryan Howard.
With the addition of the 6 Rookies this year, we’ve now had 77 players participate in the Cider Cup.
In the 11 years of existence, 465 points have been scored in the Cider Cup and only (6) points separate the two teams.

Financial Impact:

The days leading up to the event, the CCC was extremely busy with most participants being “Cuppers” fine-tuning their games.
On Friday, the day before the event, we generated $388 in revenue (carts, food & beverage) to those trying to get in one last practice session on a miserable day that wouldn’t have generated any money had it not been for the Cider Cup.
The Station at Biancke’s had over 20 Cider Cuppers show up to eat, drink and be merry on Cider Cup Eve which was a great boost for a local business.
We rented all 24 carts (only 23 were in working order) for both days and only needed 17 for the players. Considering that we rented 7 carts at $54 a day, that generated an additional $756 to the club and was part of what we raised for charity.
- For the CCC, the Cider Cup 3 Day weekend generated:
  - $3000 in Cart Fees.
  - $2700 in Food & Beverage
  - $120 in Range Balls
  - $120 in Tips
- Joe Joe Hinton received $1400
- John Daniel Herrington received $400
  - (Both Joe Joe and John Daniel’s totals reflected healthy tips)
- After all the bills were paid, we generated $4211.00 for charity and pushing us well past the $40,000 mark!!

Congratulations to both teams. There may be a winner each year in points, but there are no losers in the Cider Cup.

Thanks to:

Grant Howard for his incredible work getting our greens back. Trust me, this was no small feat.
Joseph and Emily Ammerman for opening their front porch to us on Thursday night for the “Pairings Party”.
Amanda Aldridge and staff – awesome as always.
Rees Feeback, Brian Kinsey & Kelvin Winkle, Johnny Mac Dawson, Shain Stephens and Austin for their help on Friday with setup.
Our wives, friends and families for their supporting us in this event.
Tiffani Sparks, Jennie Sparks, Rebecca Stephen, Brandi Dawson and the untold others that provided an incredible Saturday morning breakfast event.
To the Cider Cup Rookies. Thanks for playing. I hope the experience was all you hoped it would be and you’re looking forward to next year as much as the rest of us.
Your generosity. We raised a little over $4200 which will put this over $41K for the 11 years.
A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to Nicole Letcher and the generosity of Beam Suntory for the apparel and hats. If you’re not already, I encourage you to go the Makers Mark website and join their Ambassador program. It’s free and you get some great benefits. (Also a big thanks for her Bourbon Punch that was available Saturday Night.)

Finally, I want to thank all you for playing. It is without question my favorite golf event of the year and I hope it continues long after I’m gone. I’m amazed at the longevity and momentum of the competition as it seems to get better each year. The “secret sauce” is the people that play in it and support it. People like Wes Hall, who couldn’t participate this year, but made a generous donation

Please check the website at www.cidercup.com as I will be adding stats, info and pics in the coming days.

God bless each of you and your families.

Ray Sparks