Spikell fires 3-under to defeat Landon 188-200

4/22/10

Sam Spikell striped his tee ball at #7 on the front side of Norbeck CC right down the middle, but he was disappointed when his second shot came up short and right of the green. He faced a tricky, left-to-right sharply breaking chip to get up and down to salvage par. His demeanor exuded confidence as he calmly left his chip within easy tap-in range for his 4. As he walked off the green, Sam acknowledged that he was 3-under par through 7 and that the closest pursuer in his group was 8 shots back. Baring disaster on the last two holes the match was well in hand.
Sam made par on the last two holes to post another 33 in another big match against another big rival. He was playing in the third foursome of the day. Denny McCarthy (34) and Wes Strang (40) managed to tie their Landon counterparts - Ralph Blasey and Robert Balaban while Greg Bourdon (39) and Nate Cohan (42) coaxed a three-shot lead over Teddy Tollin and Nathan Bubes. So the final margin of victory came down to Sam's under par round as the Little Hoyas defeated Landon 188-200.
Denny started off on the first hole with a 35' putt that he drained for birdie. He got an unfortunate break when his tee ball on #4 landed in an aeration hole and his second shot was short of the green. He then made a 12-footer on the par - 3 sixth hole for a 2 and followed that with 3-footer for eagle on the short par-5 eighth hole to get to three-under. He hit a good drive on 9 and his second was left of the pin about 30' away. Unfortunately, he left his first putt a good five feet short and missed the second for a three-putt bogey. This was his fourth under-par round this season.
Wes and Nate both struggled through the first five holes as they each were five-over. Wes birdied #5 and made par on the rest for his four-over score while Nate finished with a bogey for a six-over score. Greg opened with two pars and hit his tee ball onto the third green but almost 90' away. His first putt charged past the cup and off the green almost 30' away on his way to a "four-putt". He recovered from his horrifying experience with birdies on both par 5s. He might have been lower but two more three-putt greens on 7 and 9 hurt his chances.
Devin Drewyer, Sam's playing partner, got off to an even rougher start than Nate and Wes as he tripled the first and then doubled the second. He finished at 44. The two Landon players Drew Mickum (42) and Constantine Valanos (43) closed out the scoring for the Bears.
Sam's scorecard was strikingly similar to one he fashioned against Gonzaga at Bethesda CC. He sandwiched three birdies in a row between two sets of three pars. On #4 Sam hit his approach to within 4 feet and then after a monstrous drive on the par-five fifth (almost 330 yards) he hit his chip to within 2 feet for an easy birdie. On the sixth hole he sank a 20 footer for his third birdie in a row.
Alternates Justin Butler and Tom Horton were relegated to playing by themselves when the Landon coach sent his alternates out ahead of our arrival at the course with one of his many assistant coaches. Despite a triple bogey seven on the first hole after hitting his tee ball out of bounds, Justin regrouped with 4 pars, three bogeys, and one birdie for a five over 41. Tom played a steady bogey round on his way to a 44.
With this win the team moves to 3-0 in the league with St. Albans on Monday, April 26 and Bullis, May 3, still to go. Of course, there is also the IAC tournament on Tuesday, April 27th. Landon has now lost two league matches on the season and needs a strong showing in the tournament to secure a spot in the Metros.
There was a hint of schadenfreude around the ninth green as the players discovered how well Sam was playing and that it meant that they were assured the win. Beating Landon is always refreshing especially when the boys fire under-par rounds. But the victory was shortly savored as a number of juniors headed back to school to see the Spring Musical for extra-credit.