Twenty-eight golfers from two teams have been waiting since Friday to learn which team would have the honor of playing in the Finals of the 2015 Men’s Village Cup against Team Cane Garden.
Captains Randy Dugger of Evans Prairie and Robert Hilliard of Orange Blossom each picked three players to play a three-hole sudden death match Tuesday morning to determine which team would continue on to the finals.
At 8 a.m., with the sun barely rising over the palm trees, and dew covering the ground, they teed off on #1 Laurel Valley. Teammates from both teams grabbed spectator tags to follow the matches to see if they were going to play another day.
First off – Senior players Ed Worcester (Evans Prairie) vs Terry Tanksley (Orange Blossom)
Second off – Nick Kent (Evans Prairie) vs Robert Francis (Orange Blossom)
Third off – (Captain) Randy Dugger (Evans Prairie) vs (Captain) Robert Hilliard (Cane Garden)
On the third hole of the playoff (#9 Laurel Valley), Dugger sank a putt from about 15 feet for birdie to clinch the win for his team. When the putt dropped, his teammates, who had been watching the match, ran to the green to congratulate him. Dugger’s response to them saying they had won was “we did?”
Nick Kent also playing the hole, and waiting to putt said, “what do you mean we won? I thought I needed to sink this putt.”
Neither knew their senior Ed Worcester had beat Terry Tanksley in the previous match.
With Dugger and Worcester’s victory in the playoff, Evans Prairie is now in the 3-day finals of the Village Cup beginning at noon Wednesday against Cane Garden.
Immediately after the playoff, in the breezeway of Palmer Legends, Randy Dugger and Nick Kent of Evans Prairie, sat down with Captain Brian Ellis and Eric Truax of Cane Garden and proceeded to set their lineups for Wednesday’s Four-Ball matches.
In Wednesday’s alternate shot format of two-man teams each player will hit their drive, then select the drive of their choice of the two, and alternate shots until it is hole. Not an easy format if you are playing with your partner possibly for the first time. “Sorry” will be heard many times during Wednesday’s play.
