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Willow Oaks Defends River Cup
Tie In Singles Matches Good Enough for Win
Images From River Cup 2000
10/29/00:  Willow Oaks Country Club retained possession of the coveted River Cup by holding off a charging CCV team by the score of 48-48 in singles matches at Willow Oaks. Willow Oaks went into Sunday's singles play with a razor thin 3 point lead after winning Friday's fourball matches at CCV's

    Joby Klotz and Scott Warren enjoy a victory cigar at the 18th hole
Joby Klotz and Scott Warren enjoy a victory cigar at the 18th hole on Sunday
    
Tuckahoe Creek 37½-34½. Willow Oaks' winning margin of 85½-82½ represents the smallest margin of victory in River Cup history.

    With each singles match worth 6 points - 2 for the front nine, 2 for the back, and 2 for the round - Willow Oaks steadily increased its Friday lead to 9 points through the first 10 matches on Sunday. But CCV's Jack Rogers blistered Willow Oaks' Dennis Ryan 6-0 in match 11. Match 12 came to the last hole with Eddie Eddins needing to win the 18th to salvage 3 points in his match against Rob Hershey. Hershey made a tough 6 foot par putt to turn the match into a 5-1 win for CCV. The two blowout wins gave CCV a 1 point lead and hope of wrestling the Cup from the firm grasp of Willow Oaks with only four matches left on the course.

    But match 13 proved unlucky for CCV, a surprisingly easy 5-1 by Willow Oaks' Jim Dwyer over Blake Dennis. Dwyer's win put Willow Oaks up 3 points and Tom McCandlish increased the lead to 9 by putting another 6-0 bagel treatment on CCV's Cliff Culley in match 14. George "Ear" Moorman's 6-0 shutout over four-time Willow Oaks' MVP Brad Smallwood brought CCV within 3 points after match 15 leaving the final match between John Hyslop and CCV's JF Dunlap as the decision maker. Hyslop was able to hold Dunlap to an even 3-3 halve, leaving Willow Oaks' lead intact and the Cup on the south side of the James for the second year in a row.

Willow Oaks Takes River Cup Lead After Fourball Play

10/27/00:  Willow Oaks Country Club took a 37½-34½ lead after Friday's fourball matches at CCV's Tuckahoe Creek Course in the River Cup, an autumn golf classic in Richmond, Virginia, pitting two cross-town rivals in heated match play. Playing in unseasonable warmth under sun-drenched skies, Captain Langdon Moss' Willow Oaks team put on a gritty performance highlighted by an upset win by Willow Oaks' Eddie Eddins and Dennis Ryan over CCV's Blake Dennis and Cliff Culley. Coming into the match as heavy underdogs by virtue of their combined fourball record of 1-7-1, Eddins and Ryan took the match 7½-1½. The carnage would have been worse if not for a major blunder on the 18th green by Eddins.

    Faced with a 16 inch putt to halve the 18th and win the back nine 1-up, Eddins skanked the putt 3 inches wide of the hole as a stunned gallery watched. "It was a huge misread on the putt from Ryan," an obviously angry Eddins burbled in a post-round press conference. "He was a load all day long. I don't know what I was thinking asking him to read a putt for me.

    Eddie Eddins / Dennis Ryan
Eddie Eddins getting ready to miss short putt at 18th hole, Tuckahoe Creek Course
    
That won't happen again." Partner Dennis Ryan refused to comment on Eddins' remarks other than to say that "I gave him a good read. He just yanked the damn thing." The CCV loss was the first in the fourball career of Blake Dennis, coming into the match with a stellar 3-0 fourball record. The Dennis-Culley duo was a heavy betting favorite in Las Vegas despite Culley's dismal 2-4 record in fourball coming into this year's events.

    The only bright spot on the CCV team was a torrid 73 thrown on the board by Jack "The Silent Assassin" Rogers. Rogers' has previously held the River Cup scoring record in singles and with the 73 took honors in fourball as well. Rogers and partner Chris Young hardly needed the hot round in their match against Willow Oaks' Jim Dwyer and Chuck Ditsler. Ditsler has been a whipping boy for CCV for years and this outing proved no exception. "Look, I am sick and tired of the abuse I've taken in the press over the years", snapped Ditsler after the match. "I'm proud of my 0-8-1 record in the River Cup. If you throw in my matches in Scotland, I've even got a win." Partner Jim Dwyer has petitioned Willow Oaks' Captain Langdon Moss for a new partner in next year's matches. "I carried Ditsler to the only halve he's ever had in the River Cup. I think I have carried the burden long enough. It's time for someone else to suffer," said Dwyer. "I'll even play with Hyslop if that's what it takes to get away from Ditsler."

    Englishman Jonathan "Big Spoon" Reynolds had a triumphant return in this year's match, partnered with CCV Captain Jim Nelson against Willow Oaks' Brad Smallwood and Doug Urquhart. The Nelson-Reynolds duo lost the match, but Reynolds was nonetheless ebullient speaking to the press after the match. "To me, it's not whether you win or lose but whether you get any points," said Reynolds. "I got

    Richard Locke / Doug Westmoreland
Richard Locke on the cell phone while Doug Westmoreland takes care of business behind tree
    
three whole points this year. I'm so happy - yippee!" Nelson ruefully admitted that Reynolds' approach lacks the fire that he expects of his players. "Anybody with that kind of attitude doesn't deserve to be carrying the CCV mantle," said Nelson. "No wonder we won the Revolutionary War - all those damn Brits care about is winning some points."

    This year's event features yet another English rookie, Gordon Smythe Hyde-Whyte, in a long line of European players seeking to make a name for themselves on this side of the Atlantic. Playing for Willow Oaks, Smythe Hyde-Whyte and partner Richard (un)Locke were on the wrong side of a 7½-1½ drubbing by CCV's Mark DeBlois and Keith "Mr. Excitement" Dull. Smythe Hyde-Whyte is playing under curious circumstances in this year's event, refusing to reveal his true last name despite repeated requests from the press. "For national security reasons, I am unable to reveal my true identity," claims the mysterious Mr. Hyde-Whyte. He refused to say whether British or American security concerns were implicated. His partner Richard Locke spent virtually the entire afternoon during their match in cell phone conversations with various representatives of British and American security organizations attempting to unravel the mystery. Locke claims to know who Hyde-Whyte is, but only hinted at it. "I will only say that when you finally find out who she is, you will be very surprised," said Locke.

In other fourball action:

    Willow Oaks' Joby Klotz and Chip Bliley easily handled Mike Miller and J.F. Dunlap of CCV 6-3. The highlight of the match was a bank shot by Bliley off the bag of opponent J.F. Dunlap. The carom narrowly lipped out of the hole to the amusement of the crowd around the 18th green.

    Gorgeous George Whitley and partner Will "Brother" Scott surprised even themselves with an upset 6-3 win over the always tough Willow Oaks tandem of Paul Sinclair and Marty Donlan. Donlan and Sinclair stormed back to an impressive 1-up win on the back nine on a thrilling birdie by Paul Sinclair on the 18th hole. Sinclair hit a 53 degree wedge within 2 feet of the cup, setting off a storm of cheers by a huge throng straining to watch the match as it played in. After dawdling for seeming hours over a 20 foot putt that would have halved the hole and wrapped up a shutout for his side, CCV's Brother Scott missed the putt three feet left and 6 feet past the hole. The embarrassing miss is yet another in a long history of poor putting on 18 by Scott. He missed an 8-inch putt on 18 in a crucial 1995 match. After the miss, Sinclair calmly and firmly knocked in his own 2-foot birdie putt to salvage three points for his team by winning the back nine. Donlan blamed the overall 6-3 match loss on Scott's characteristic gamesmanship. "Brother hit a nice drive on 11 and he and Gorgeous started moaning that he'd hit it in the water (fronting the green). Paul and I dropped down to 5-woods and ended up way short of Brother, whose ball was at least 50 yards short of the water. It really pissed me off when I looked over at Brother and saw him and Whitley chuckling and high-fiving each other over that ploy."

    Doug Westmoreland and his long-suffering partner Ear Moorman halved their match against a dapper Jeff Hull and an uncharacteristically quiet John Hyslop. In a match characterized by nothing so much as mediocrity, both teams carded best-ball 79's with Moorman shooting 86 to Westmoreland's 85. Hull took match honors with 84, besting partner John Hyslop's 86. "I wouldn't say that John talked a lot on the course," complained Moorman. "What I would say is that John talked incessantly on the course. I was hoping for the cone of silence to drop over my cart after about 2 holes."

    Scott Warren and Tom McCandlish shellacked CCV's Rob Hershey and Tommy Pruitt 9-0. Warren and McCandlish are long-in-the-tooth River Cuppers on the down side of careers which have had very little upside. Pruitt is playing in only his second River Cup and blamed his poor play on lack of River Cup experience. "I didn't realize it was acceptable to chortle at your opponent's swing in the River Cup," said Pruitt. "I won't be under that misapprehension in Sunday's singles matches, I can guarantee you that."

2000 Fourball Results at Tuckahoe Creek
Winner in bold. Ties in italics.
For detailed results for any player click the player's name
Hp CCV Gross (BB Gross) Pts Pts Hp WOCC Gross (BB Gross)
10 C. Young 84 / 5 J. Rogers 73 (70) 9 0
8 R. Hershey / 9 T. Pruitt 0 9
15 G. Moorman 86 / 14 D. Westmoreland 85 (79) 4½ 4½
12 M. DeBlois 81 / 12 K. Dull 84 (78) 7½ 1½
10 G. Whitley 82 / 7 W. Scott 82 (76) 6 3
4 B. Dennis 75 / 6 C. Culley 1½ 7½
16 M. Miller 90 / 14 JF Dunlap 86 (86) 3 6
9 J. Nelson 86 / 17 J. Reynolds 93 (84) 3 6

2000 Singles Results at Willow Oaks
Winner in bold. Ties in italics.
For detailed results for any player click the player's name
Hp CCV Gross Pts Pts Hp Willow Oaks Gross
12 W. Morck 90 0 6 15 J. Hull 88
12 M. DeBlois 94 0 6 13 D. Urquhart 90
16 M. Miller 92 3 3 17 J. Klotz 95
9 J. Nelson 87 4 2 11 S. Warren 92
10 C. Young 91 3 3 10 R. Locke 89
14 D. Westmoreland 93 2 4 16 G. Smythe Hyde-Whyte 91
17 J. Reynolds 1 5 15 C. Bliley
10 G. Whitley 85 3 3 9 L. Moss 85
9 T. Pruitt 5 1 8 M. Donlan
7 W. Scott 6 0 6 C. Ditsler
5 J. Rogers 6 0 8 D. Ryan
8 R. Hershey 80 5 1 8 E. Eddins 82
6 C. Culley 85 0 6 8 T. McCandlish 79
4 B. Dennis 85 1 5 4 J. Dwyer 80
15 G. Moorman 89 6 0 13 B. Smallwood 94
14 JF Dunlap 3 3 13 J. Hyslop

2000 Final Results
SinglesFourballOverallCCV Match RecordWOCC Match Record
CCV 48 - WOCC 48 WOCC 37½ - CCV 34½ WOCC 85½ - CCV 82½ Overall: 9-10-5
Singles: 6-6-4
Fourball: 3-4-1		Overall: 10-9-5
Singles: 6-6-4
Fourball: 4-3-1