Rain scuttled Friday’s elimination rounds for the 2014 Men’s Village Cup.
The elimination rounds were rescheduled for Tuesday with the same individual match-ups at Glenview Country Club. The final round, originally set for three days next week, will be held Wednesday and Thursday.
The annual Men’s Village Cup is one of the most popular golf tournaments in The Villages. Golfers with the best scores are named team captains and they select their teams through a draft. Teams play for each of the country clubs and players compete in either regular or senior divisions.
Individual scores are calculated by how many holes are won by each golfer. Each team receives a point for matches won and a half point for matches tied.
The rain-out may provide some breathing room for the Tierra del Sol team, which fought its way to the semifinals through two tiebreakers and an aborted match that ended in darkness on Thursday night.
After a Friday morning playoff victory over Palmer Legends, Tierra del Sol faces Lopez Legacy in the elimination round.
Playing in his fourth Village Cup tournament, Tierra del Sol captain John Olsen said the event “gives you a chance to really start building camaraderie among people you’ve never met before.”
His team played two tiebreaker rounds to reach the semifinals and Olsen said he hopes those extra rounds help members of his team relax during the semifinal round.
“A lot of these guys have never played this kind of competition,” said Olsen, who lives in Tamarind Grove.
Tierra del Sol and Palmer Legends battled Thursday night in a match that ended with golf cart lights used to brighten the fairway and green. When play finally was suspended in a tie, each team was asked to select three golfers for the tiebreaker round early Friday.
In the three-hole, sudden-death tiebreaker, Doug Puvogel sank a three-foot putt to put his team into the semifinals.
Olsen said his strategy for the tournament is simple: “Just win, baby.”
This year’s tournament was the third time Lopez Legacy captain George Bell has served as a team captain.
Originally from Maine, Bell said he first got interested in golf when he couldn’t play soccer due to an injury.
“I got really serious when I was 30,” said Bell, an 11-year villager who used to work as a Villages gatekeeper. “I’ve got a strong group of seniors and they’re doing very well.”
In the other elimination battle, Evans Prairie is pitted against Cane Garden.
“It’s going to be a tight match,” predicted Cane Garden captain Ron Clark.
Playing in his 10th Village Cup tournament, Clark was captain of last year’s Palmer Legends Championship team.
His team and individual match-up opponent, Evans Prairie captain Russ Jimeson, arrived in The Villages a month ago from Grand Rapids, Mich. His golf resume includes playing on the Ohio State University golf team with professional golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf.
Jimeson, who tied for the second best qualifying score in this year’s tournament, said the Ohio State team had a terrific coach.
“He helped me sort out how to play the game,” said Jimeson, who worked in computer systems before retirement.
Not all of the best golfers make it to the tournament finals.
Dan Chiappetta, who turned in the best score in the qualifying rounds, saw his team eliminated by a single point.
“Obviously, the other team was better than us,” he said. “I didn’t play very well myself.”
Chiappetta is among a handful of Villages golfers with a zero handicap rating.
Before he started playing golf at age 14, Chiappetta said he spent a year as a caddy and he just observed those playing, taking note of what caused missed shots and successful ones.
“I’ve never had a lesson in my life,” he said.
Besides Chiappetta and the four teams in the elimination round, this year’s other team captains are Dan Zlotek, Bob Wade, William Munn, Stephen Bussey, Randy Dugger and Pat Monti.
Winning the Village Cup championship is an accomplishment that lasts, said Paul Hoerrner, a member of last year’s Palmer Legends winning team. Throughout the year, he said, team members greet each other warmly when they meet at the grocery store or elsewhere.
He put together a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from last year’s tournament that he still peruses sometimes.
“It’s about the camaraderie that’s built,” said Hoerrner, originally from Long Island, N.Y., and playing this year for Lopez Legacy. “It’s just a big sense of fulfillment and it doesn’t go away.”
