2025 A "Hall" of an Event

2025 – A “Hall” of an Event

On a dew-soaked course at break of day,
The Cider Cup calls, we’re on our way….to the 13th Annual playing of this great event was held on October 25th and 26th, 2025 at the Cynthiana Country Club.

There was a record-breaking number of 51 golfers (including alternates/subs) competing this year. There were 6 rookies competing, 3 on each team.

Red Team (Todd Day/Mike Seaman/Logan Brown) with a record of 5-6-1.

Blue Team (Jason Sparks/Adam Hall/Kaleb Lester) with a record of 7-2-0.

Playing in their 13 consecutive event were Ray Sparks, Stephen McCauley, Joseph Ammerman, Rob Ogden and Kevin Letcher.

As usual, we were treated to a great breakfast coordinated by several of the wives.

The HDCP’s were about as close as I can remember, as taking the 48 Singles players into account, the Red Team had a Total HDCP of 221.4 and the Blue Team came in at 224.6.

After last year’s 31 ½ to 28 ½ Red Team victory, both teams held a 6-6 record in the event.

As we paired up the Scramble Format as usual on Joseph Ammerman’s front porch Thursday night, there were not a ton of surprises by either team, but in the end the Blue team whipped up on the Red Team by taking the opening session by a score of 7 ½ to 4 ½.

On a side note, while the overall session record on the Scramble format is tight (Blue Team holds a 6-5-1 advantage) it is much different in matches and points. The Blue Team has dominated in total matches with 58 wins, 43 losses and 16 ties along with holding a decisive total point advantage of 66 to 51.

When the Red Team has won the Scramble format, it has been close while the Blue Team tends to win by a larger margin. I am positive that the Red Teams’ analytics department is already working on this issue for next year.

The 18 Holes of Chapman event is the most competitive of the formats. Each team has won 2, lost 2 and tied 3, with the Blue Team owning a slim 36 to 32 point advantage. That being said, the Blue Team absolutely routed the Red Team 8-4 and it could’ve been worse had not the team of Grant Howard/Shain Stephens flip a 3-down match in the last 4 holes to win over Chris Miles/Eddie Feeback.

At day’s end, the Blue Team held a commanding 15 ½ to 8 ½ lead.

Some callouts from Day 1:

Scramble
- 7 of the 12 Matches were decided on the Final Hole with the Blue Team winning 3 and tying 3.
Chapman
- Only 3 of the 12 Matches were decided on the Final Hole with the Red Team winning 2 of those.
- There was a historic route of 9 & 7 by Austin Sparks/Conor Taylor over Ryan Howard/Ethan Jackson.

The Saturday night event was held at the new Two Rivers Pizza located upstairs at the Country Club. It was well attended and extremely well handled by their staff. We also raised some money during our silent/live auction, player donations, etc. John Daniel Herrington made his annual appearance and is to the Cider Cup what Neil Diamond (Sweet Caroline) is to the Boston Red Sox.

Nate Sowder led Sunday morning’s devotional. Incredible message that I have already referenced a couple of times with co-workers. As I shared at the event, Nate was eager to lead this devotion and that is another thing that is so special to me about this event. Men willing to speak out about Jesus.

Love this:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I think all of you would agree that if you hadn’t felt like you were in the “Arena” you certainly did after Sunday.

Sunday morning started with Alternate Shot. I felt comfortable that we could draw a bit closer, but admittedly I was stunned by just how close. The Red Team ground-thumped the Blue Team 9-3 and continued their dominance in Alternate Shot as we now have won 9 sessions, lost 3 and tied 1. Now things just got real. Only one-point separated the two teams. I had to go all the way back to the very first event to find a comeback even remotely close to this. In that inaugural event, the Red Team won 7 of the 8 Singles matches to overcome an 8-4 deficit and win 11-9.

Both Teams headed into the Singles with the Blue Team up 18 ½ to 17 ½ . It would take 30 ½ points to win the Cup, meaning the Blue Team needed 13 points and the Red Team needed 14 points with 24 total points up for grabs.

The Red Team was hoping to win 2 points out of those 6 "A" matches and did so with convincing wins from Eric Sanders and Ryan Howard. The Blue squad had equally convincing wins from Kaleb Lester, Austin Sparks, Conor Taylor and Patrick Oakley.

In the B Group matches, the Red Team won with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie.

The C & D Group matches were split down the middle at 6-6 and while there was a “path to victory” all day for both, the Blue Team came out the victors in what I would call an “instant classic”.

Every match mattered. Nothing was given and the atmosphere was electric.

The final score was Blue Team 31 and the Red Team 29. When you realize that there are 60 matches played and it’s this close…Golf doesn’t get any better than this.

Congratulations to the Blue Team who now hold a 7-6 advantage in the event.

Some stats from the event:

The Hall brothers went 7-0-0 combined. (Wes 4-0-0/Adam 3-0-0) . A “Hall” of an event.
Shain Stephens went unbeaten for the Red Team at 4-0-0 and Kaleb Lester went 2-0-0 for the Blue Team.
We’ve now had 90 players participate in the Cider Cup.

In the 13 years of existence, 585 points have been scored in the Cider Cup and only (5) points separate the two teams.

Some other call-outs from the event:

Blessed to have people like Nate, Taylor and others who volunteer to lead the devotional.
Congratulations to Conor Taylor who recently gave his life Christ. So proud of you.

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 $783 in revenue (carts, food & beverage) to those trying to get in one last practice session on a day that wouldn’t have generated near that amount had it not been for the Cider Cup.
The Station at Biancke’s had over 16 Cider Cuppers show up to eat, drink and be merry on Cider Cup Eve which was a great boost for a local business.
Two Rivers Pizza took in over $800 in food revenue. No idea what the alcohol bill was, but I’m guessing more than the food.
The Cider Cup 3 Day weekend generated:
- $4886 in Revenue for the CCC.
- $5464 in apparel
- Over $800 in Revenue for Two Rivers Pizza
- $350 for John Daniel Herrington
- After all the bills were paid, we generated $3857.25 for the Vaughn family. (I’m going to donate and round it up to an even $4000 on behalf of my team’s incredible comeback)

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 and Charlie Biancke for their work on the course. Everything was great!
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.
Brian Kinsey, Kelvin Winkle, Shain Stephens and Austin for the tee marker, flags, tent setup, etc.
Our wives, friends and families for their support in this event.
Tiffani Sparks, Jennie Sparks, Rebecca Stephens, Madison Case, Emily Ammerman 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. It is overwhelming.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for playing. It is without question my favorite golf event of the year and I hope it continues for years to come. It gets better each year and to be able to share it with Austin is a dream for a father.

Truly what makes the Cider Cup so great is “EACH OF YOU”. Somehow, someway, this group has become family, and I couldn’t be more humbled and prouder to be a part of it.

Please check the website at www.cidercup.com for more stats and information.

God bless each of you and your families.

Ray Sparks