Hop, Skip, and a Cup!

Water Shot Propels Purple Team to Cup Repeat

Indio, California - It is rare that any one shot is remembered longer than 24 hours at a Lewis Cup.  With each day having its own set of amazingly great, embarrassingly bad, or unbelievably lucky set of events, it is hard for a single swing of a golf club to stand out among the rest.  The 2007 cup may have added such a shot.

If asked, the Lewis Cup participants may recall either of the two holes-in-one produced by Cup executive member Bryan Cantwell, or life-time participant Russell White.  There was the 70-foot lag put by 2005 MVP Stacie Sasaki to within 2 feet on the 9th hole of the championship alternate-shot match to claim the Underdog's winning point and 2005 title.  But among the chip-ins, ricochets off of trees, and 50 foot putts -some on aerated greens, "The Skip" may best identify 2007's bid for the memorable-shot hall of fame.

After three days of preliminary matches, the top three tournament seeds remained on the line, heading into the Cup's Ultimate Shot tie-breaker; a two-hole total stroke match with all members of each team participating in a true alternate-shot format.  In this format, each team is required to set their team's order prior to teeing off for the first hole.  Orange Crush, captained by Cantwell, and the Purple team, captained by Jeff Lewis, finished their head-to-head match tied.  The winner of the Ultimate Shot would capture the top seed with 4-2 record.  The loser would be forced into another Ultimate Shot with the Desert Rangers, who finished round-robin play at 3-3, to determine the #2 and #3 seeds.

The loss of the tie breaker to Purple put Orange Crush's round-robin record at 3-3, equal to that of the Desert Rangers.  That send Orange back to the 14th hole for a second Ultimate Shot.  Unfortunately for Orange, their bouts with the water were not finished.  With The Ranger's in the fairway on 14, Orange found the water off the tee, then again on their approach off the back side of the 14th green.  That marked a string of five consecutive shots into the water between two matches for Orange.  The Crush regrouped a bit, making seven on the hole, but the Rangers claimed the tie-breaker by paring 14, and landing their tee shot on the green at the island 15th with a three-stroke lead in hand.

After the dust had settled, Purple held the number one seed going into the finals on Saturday, giving them a bye through to the afternoon championship match.  The Rangers held the two seed, putting them in a nine-hole semi-final match against the winner of a nine hole match between the Red Team, seeded fourth, and Orange Crush, who went from having a shot at the top seed and the morning bye, to having to play in the morning opener as the third seed.

Saturday Finals

The Red Team capitalized on Orange's misfortunes in that nine hole match, all two-man scrambles.  Red's Dave Chapman and Damian Delfino edged Cantwell and Ron Brunsell 1-up, following Ryan Glass and Tom Covaleski's 2 & 1 win for Red over Russell White and Jeff Stabile.  Sean Smith and John Cantwell earned Orange's only point in the match with a 3 & 2 win over Lance Novak and Erik Scherer.

Red kept that momentum going against the Rangers, steamrolling through all three two-man scrambles.  Chapman and Novak birdied three of their first four holes against Steve Jerrick and Jeff Lemmermann en route to a 4 & 3 win, followed by a pair of 3 & 2 wins by Glass\Erik Scherer over Lynn and Theresa Shourds; and Delfino\Covaleski over Mark Drosos and Greg Kimberlain.

That setup the 2007 Lewis Cup Finals of Red versus Purple, a repeat of the 2006 Final match where Purple knocked off Red by one point to win the cup.  The finals format consisted of six matches, three two-man scrambles on the front nine, and three two-man alternate shots on the back nine.  All three of the front-nine matches went to the ninth hole, and only Tim Braun and Matt Jensen could manage a full point for Purple with a 1-Up win over Delfino and Novak.  Chapman\Glass were able to get that point back, with a win over Jeff Lewis and Fred Elias by that same 1-up score.  The third matchup of the front nine had Gardner Hoch and Prentice Lewis for Purple up against Tom Covaleski and Rick Scherer for Red.  Playing the opposite nine of the other two matches, they finished on 18 at all square, keeping the match tied 1 1/2 to 1 1/2 going into alternate-shot. 

The Purple team appeared to take control of the championship pairing early on the back nine when the Jeff Lewis\Fred Elias team built a 3-hole lead against Red's Chapman\Glass duo.  With the island hole safely in their rear view mirror, a tie on any of the final three holes would have put Purple 1 point away from the 3 1/2 points they needed to retain the cup.  Red, though, showed the resilience that got them from the 4th seed all the way to the finals be sweeping those last 3 holes, keeping them even with two matches left on the course. Like the front nine, the Braun\Jensen vs. Delfino\Novak match went to the final hole.  With Red needing a win on 18 to forge a tie, the Purple team stayed clear of the water guarding the front of the long par 4, laying up in two with Braun playing safely to the right front side of the green.  When Red's par chance went by the hole, Jensen's putt to within two feet clinched the second 1-up win of the day for him and up-collared teammate Braun.  In fact, the Jensen\Braun paring proved to be Purple's most productive, going a perfect 6-0 during the Cup including a Thursday sweep of Delfino\Novak at Classic Club in round-robin play.

Jensen's lag putt on 18 kept he and Braun a perfect 6-0.

That left Purple a tie away from winning their second consecutive Lewis cup championship as all eyes focused on the final match left on the course:  Hoch\P. Lewis vs. Covaleski\ R. Scherer.  That paring had played their first 9-hole match of the day to a tie, and were all even after 6 holes in their second match.  On that sixth hole, Rick Scherer just missed giving Red a one-hole lead when his 20 foot effort caught half of the hole and jumped out.  The seventh hole proved to be the turning point as another putt from Scherer caught just enough of the hole to get the Red team excited, but not enough to go in.  Prentice Lewis capitalized, knocking in a five footer for a 1-up lead with just two holes left.  The 3-2 match lead for Purple put Covaleski\R. Scherer in a must-win situation for the 8th and 9th holes to send the championship match to the Ultimate Shot.

The Red teams spirited run through two earlier matches finally ran out of steam though, as both tee shots on the par 4 eighth hole found trouble.  Prentice Lewis put Hoch in good position off of the tee, forcing Red into a do-or-die position in the desert rough far off the right side of the 8th fairway.  When Covaleski's last-chance long iron, which needed to carry 175 yards over a 50 foot desert mound, landed in a rock pile, Red conceded the match, and the Cup.

Matt Jensen, the 4th seed for team Purple, was named 2007 cup MVP, his first Lewis Cup MVP award and third time on a Lewis Cup winning team.  He was 12-2 in matches for the event, helping keep the cup in Purple's hands.  Team Skipper Jeff Lewis added double meaning to the term in recording his 4th Cup title in 9 attempts, going 6-5-3 in his matches in leading his team's way to the winners circle.