The Cider Cup 

3-PEAT!!!

On October 20th and 21st, 40 golfers gathered at the Cynthiana Country Club to try and “beat each other’s brains out” in this game we call golf. The event was the annual Cider Cup and just like the five previous years, 2018 did not disappoint. The weather was far from balmy but once the ball was in the air and the adrenalin kicked in, the chilly temps were a non-factor.

As usual, the Team Captains like to keep things fresh and interesting and we certainly saw our share of “tweaks” this year. We will get to all of them shortly, but the first added twist was the Podcast from Joseph and Emily Ammerman’s front porch on Thursday Night. About 20 golfers came out and listened to Captains McCauley and Sparks talk about the origin and history of the event, money generated for charity, favorite memories and then we jumped right into the pairings for the Alternate Shot session. The Alternate Shot format was expanded this year to 18 holes and was moved to Saturday morning as the 1st session. After some back and forth prognostications, the Captains paired up their Singles matches for Sunday afternoon. In another change, the teams were put into 4 groups of 5 based on HDCP. Each Captain had the freedom to pair up matches within those groups rather than just run straight down the line. The Podcast was a great kickoff to the event and hopefully something we will continue. Early reports are that it was WCYN’s most listened to program since they “mic’d up” Harmon and sent him to the City Hall Wrestling matches.

 

As mentioned at the beginning, there were 40 golfers participating …the most ever in the event. The Cider Cup started with 8 players on each team, moved to 12, then 14, followed by two years of 16 and winding up with 20 on each squad this year.

 

Coach McCauley seemed to have no issues fielding 20 golfers, but it was quite the opposite for Coach Sparks who wound up with 9 Rookies on his squad versus 1 Rookie for the McCauley group. In the weeks and days building up to the event Sparks had to overcome the following:

• Stalwarts Varner, McIlvain, Marshall, Turner and Box had either previous engagements, injuries or apathy that prohibited them from participating.

• Richard Wiglesworth had committed to play but had to cancel when he awoke in a cold sweat a month prior having forgotten that he had a scheduled camping trip. Thankfully, he re-enlisted just days before the event and had a heck of tournament for his team.

• Lee Kendall had to withdraw the week of due to knee and back issues.

• Doug Hampton had to bow out in 3 of the 4 events because of the SEC network picking up the UK Basketball Scrimmage and he needed a nap on Saturday afternoon. To Doug’s credit, he replaced himself with Cider Cup legend Fred Caudill. Fred stunk it up by going 1 Win and 2 Losses, but he’s one of the nicest guys I know and we were glad to have him.

• Charlie Biancke had to cancel a few days prior due to shoulder issues which allowed the aforementioned Richard Wiglesworth back in. More on Charlie in a minute.

• Rookie Chris Anderson was in bed most of the week with flu-like symptoms and it wasn’t until Cider Cup Eve that he felt like he could go.

• Shain Stephens has an issue with rain and while he was not deterred, the threat of precipitation was always there. Thankfully he overcame the mist and played his butt off. On a side note, if you are thinking about committing a crime in Harrison County, my advice would be to do so when it’s raining. Your chance of escape is much greater.

• Grant Howard awoke on Saturday morning with projectile diarrhea, forcing him to bow out. A call was made to Charlie Biancke and luckily, he was able to come in on short notice, fill a spot and help earn us a point. Thankfully, Grant was back on Sunday.

• Mike Lenox awoke on Sunday morning with dysentery issues and informed Coach Sparks that he had been on the porcelain throne since 5:30 AM. He was later overheard telling someone else that he’d been on the throne since 5:00 AM and then again was overheard telling yet another person that he been suffering since 4:30 AM. Not sure exactly which of these three times was accurate, but he sucked it up and went out and won his Best Ball match with Jamie Case and halved his Singles match with Hank Whalen who had to chip in for birdie on the final hole or Lenox would’ve been 2-0 on Sunday.

Now on to the golf. Players were greeted to members of the Georgetown College Golf Team who packed, cleaned and carted our clubs which was a great touch. Once again Rebecca McCauley and Emily Ammerman manned the Bloody Mary Breakfast Bar which was much appreciated. Speaking of Emily, she got some new software and wanted to try it out on the Cider Cup Logo and it turned out great. We used it to have these signs made which added to the overall flavor of the event.

 

 

The 18 Hole Alternate Shot session is first up and after rookie Richard Wiglesworth struck the opening tee shot, the 6th Annual Cider Cup was underway. This is an event that has historically gone Sparks’ way and they were looking to keep that success going. The opening match paired Ray Sparks/Richard Wiglesworth against PGA Member Hank Whalen and Nick Thornton (not a PGA Member). Whalen and Thornton went 1 up on the second hole, but Nick credited the wrong team in the Golf Gamebook app so it looked like Sparks/Wiglesworth were up. This sent a charge thru the ranks and optimism was at a fever pitch until we saw maybe the best team on the golf course (John Kennedy/Robbie Cox) look like they were stuck in neutral and were down 4 early. They made a bit of a rally but fell short against Rus Whalen and JD Ashbrook. Let me pause for a minute and explain my comment regarding Kennedy and Cox. We were using Senior Tees for the 1st time and they both qualify, not to mention that they have great short games and play as much as anyone at the club. I’m sure it was Robbie’s fault, but when questioned at the press conference, John took the high road and said that they each struggled and complimented their competitors. Earlier in the paragraph I mentioned the Golf Gamebook app and can I just say that it was awesome. It allowed us to monitor each match with real-time updates. Definitely a great addition to our event and if not for the half point issue (which Kinsey figured out and corrected), it worked perfectly. Thanks to Brian for setting this up. But I digress and as the 1st session came to a close, McCauley’s team had taken the early lead 6-4.

 

 

The afternoon Scramble matches loomed large for the “Olds” as they were usually pounded in this event and already being 2 pts being down wasn’t where they wanted to be. Rookie Jon Henson had been very involved and instrumental in helping Coach Sparks rethink his pairings and there was a “change in the air.” Shain Stephens and Fred Caudill (playing in his 1st match) went out first and smacked El Diablo and Bob Ammerman making the overall score 6-5. The next 3 matches from the #1 Tee went the way of the “Youngs” as Works/Thornton crushed Sparks/Cox, Rus Whalen/Miles defeated Feeback/Frank Henson and the team of Hank Whalen/Dexter Dailey whipped Chris Anderson and Mike Aldridge before the 1st tee shot was struck. But something unusual was happening with the groups teeing off of #5. All five of Sparks’ teams won their matches and back on the #1 Tee, the final pairing of Lenox/Wiglesworth finished off Johnny Mac Dawson and Bill “Dozer” Meeks. The Scramble matches tilted in favor of Team Sparks 7-3 and as Day 1 came to a close they found themselves with an 11-9 lead.

 

 

 

One of the interesting aspects of Saturday was that 8 out of 20 matches went to the final hole. There were four in each session. In Alternate Shot, McCauley’s Team won all 4 of them and Sparks’ Team won 3 of the 4 in the Scramble session. Another “fun fact” was that on Saturday there was 246 holes of golf played and only 2 points separated the teams.

Another “tweak” this year came on Saturday Night as the teams gathered at Maiden City Brewery for some cold beverages, great food from Bell on Wheels and fantastic music from the Marble Creek Ramblers. Doug Hampton was gracious enough to conduct a challenging live auction that generated $1800 for charity. On top of that, KY Growers Insurance donated $1000 which was unexpected, but much appreciated. Thanks to Bob Ammerman and Rus Whalen for their influence in obtaining. On a personal note, my golf career was made complete as Rus retold the story of his grandfather Gerald’s reaction to hearing the news of Hank and Nick losing to Richard Wiglesworth and me in Alternate Shot. Just knowing that Hank will have to live with the fact that Gerald is disappointed in him, puts a warm spot in my heart. It seems the euphoria of Hank’s Iron Man success wore off quickly at the patriarch’s house.

 

 

Not sure if Johnny Mac, Letch and Clint are praying here or looking at their SnapFace, InstaTwit or what?

 

Larry Bishop led us in a devotional on Sunday morning based on the Beatitudes and flipped it around to tell us what Satan’s Beatitudes might sound like? It certainly makes you rethink what’s truly important in life. To show our appreciation for “Bish” we donated $200 in his honor to the Helping Hands Ministry at Cynthiana Christian Church. It helps those less fortunate in our community. We also had Larry autograph our Cider Cup flag, which was purchased by Jon Henson for $100 at the Silent Auction.

 

With a two-point lead and the winds at our backs, hope sprang eternal for the Sparks Team as we looked forward to the Best Ball matches followed by Singles which we have had great success in. I don’t know if it was the chilly temperatures, too much craft beer the night before, Rus teeing off in a UK Football Helmet, Bill “Dozer” doing pushups, Bish putting a hex on me because when I moved my membership from Cynthiana Baptist to Indian Creek I didn’t give him a tryout or what, but my team was soundly thrashed in Best Ball 7-3. Had it not been for wins from Stephens/Winkle, Lenox/JCase and halves from ECase/Kennedy and Howard/Fuller it would have been even worse. Especially painful was my loss to Austin. McCauley’s Team closed out 3 matches on the 7th hole and one match didn’t make it past #6. The Best Ball session had the least number of holes played. Out of a possible 90 holes that could have been played, only 78 were needed….87%. All other sessions were 91% or better.

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As the Singles began, McCauley’s Team held a 16-14 advantage in what had become the most tightly matched competition since 2014. The first 2 matches went to Team McCauley, making it 18-14. The next 6 matches saw 2 wins and 2 halves for each team, bringing McCauley’s Team that much closer to their 3rd straight victory in the event with the score now standing at 21-17. As the matches were coming to a close, one that was of particular interest to me was the one I was playing in against Stephen.

After a birdie on 6, I stood 2 up with 3 to play. I then proceeded to hit a 50 yard tee shot on 7, lose the hole with a bogie and head to #8 one up. Stephen flared his tee shot out to the right and I dumped a well-struck 7 iron into the upper bunker. With McCauley on the green, I needed to just pop the ball out of the bunker and let it trickle to the hole. Calling on the knowledge I’d learned from a Hank Whalen bunker lessen last year I then proceeded to leave my first attempt in the bunker and on my second attempt I shanked it and almost hit my teammate Frank Henson in the face. All square headed to the last hole.

We both have tricky par putts. Stephen had a 6 footer from the right side with at least a foot of break, while I had a 2 footer from above the hole. After some deliberation between McCauley and his teammate Johnny Mac, Stephen makes the incredibly difficult putt to guarantee a half. This now put me in a position where I had to make to get a half point and save at least a bit of dignity. I pulled in Frank Henson to help read it and what was the most nerve racking putt I’ve ever had somehow found the bottom for an “all square.” When we checked the App, it showed that it was the clincher, giving Stephen’s team 25 ½ points. Even though the Cider Cup was clinched, the last 2 matches on the course provided great drama as Eric Case eagled from 50 yards to halve Kevin Letcher and Hank Whalen birdied from just below the green to pull to an all square with Mike Lenox.

 

 

In the Singles Event, 11 of the 20 matches went to the last hole with McCauley’s Team winning 3, Sparks’ Team taking 2 and 6 winding up all square. This gave Stephen’s Team a 12-8 Singles victory and a 28-22 win, their 3rd in a row.

Some stats from the event:

• 489 holes of golf were played over the course of 2 days.

• 23 of the 50 matches went to the last hole. Incredible.

  • McCauley’s Team won 9 of those

  • Sparks’ Team won 6

  • 8 matches were halved.

• Rookies

  • Dexter Dailey was the lone Rookie on Stephen’s team and went 3-1-0.

  • The 9 rookies on Sparks’ Team combined for a record of 12-18-3

    • Led by Eric Case and Richard Wiglesworth who each carded 3 points.

The Cider Cup now stands at 4 wins for McCauley’s Team and 2 Wins for Team Sparks. I know I speak for most of you when I say that I absolutely love this event and “win or lose it’s the best golf tournament of the year for me.”

Thanks to:

• Mike Lenox and Grant Howard for their work getting the course in shape.

• Trent Harris for hooking up the Podcast for us.

• Jon Henson for helping with strategy as well as raking bunkers on Friday.

• Amanda and her staff – unbelievable job by them.

• Austin and members of his Georgetown College Golf Team.

• Brian Kinsey for his work on the Golf Gamebook App.

• Shain Stephens for the great on-course signage.

• Charlie Biancke for playing hurt on Saturday.

• The Auction – thanks to Doug Hampton, those that donated items and those that purchased them. After the dust settles we will have raised more than $5000.00 this year, bringing our 6-year total to well over $20,000.

• Larry Bishop for the devotional.

• Our wives, friends and families for allowing us to spend a few days chasing around a little white ball acting like we’re playing in the greatest golfing event in the world…(which it is).

• To the players. The Cider Cup would not be what it has become without your participation, enthusiasm and passion.

• 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.

• As always, thanks to Stephen McCauley for everything he does for the event. As I’ve said before, he is the “straw that stirs the drink”. He’s constantly going above and beyond with everything he does for the Cider Cup. Without him, this event would not be what it is….so thank you Stephen and congratulations to you and your team.

• Finally, I want to thank all you for playing. Your support, friendship and enthusiasm of the Cider Cup is appreciated more than you know.

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

 

As I second guess my pairings and look forward to 2019, I’ll leave you with this quote that I used last year:

“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”

• Arnold Palmer

I never thought that this little event we dreamed up 6 years ago would turn into what it has. We have helped a lot of people, become lifelong friends and had a lot of fun.

Again, congratulations to Stephen’s team, you played well and deserve the Cup, but know that we will work even harder to get it back.

May God Bless you and your families.

Looking forward to 2019.

Ray Sparks