Europe Claim Massive Victory at the Burstwick Cup!
Last weekend we hosted the prestigious Burstwick Cup which is in it’s ninth year at the club. For those who aren’t aware the Burstwick Cup is a Ryder Cup-esque event where players qualify for a place earlier on in the year, then the teams are randomly drawn into two teams; America and Europe.
Each team is led by the Men’s Captain and Vice-Captain, but as our Vice couldn’t make it this year, past Captain Andy Wilson stepped in to help. Having beat current Captain Alan Mackinnon last year in the Burstwick Cup, Alan was happy to accept Andy being the opposing captain in order to seek his revenge.
As the teams were being drawn out of a hat early in the week it was obvious that Europe were gaining many of the “big guns” such as Jack Maxey, Lee Webster and Mike Huzzard, but the USA team also had a few heavy hitters including Ashley Heidstra, James Bisby and David Lines.
As the matches got underway on Saturday the fierce competition was obvious with both myself and Alan Mackinnon going straight for the green on hole 1, while our partners Andy Wilson and Steve Young hit their tee shots safely on the fairway.
As the results began to come in, USA got an early lead of 1.5-0.5 but immediately after that things started to look grim for the red team. Europe rallied in matches three to six, taking all four points, and at this point it was looking great for Alan and his team at 4.5-1.5.
The last two matches were what the USA team needed to get themselves back into the game before Sunday singles, and they went down to the wire but the Americans managed to clinch the points. Europe 4.5 - USA 3.5 after day one.
In day two players went out on the course to play individual matchplay against each other, and there are twice as many points up for grabs. The USA team got off to a good start with Captain Andy Wilson beating Alan Mackinnon in match one, to even the scores up for the Americans.
For the next few matches both teams jostled for points and it wasn’t until the final five matches that Europe came through with a very strong finish, earning them a landslide win 15-9. After the matches a two course meal was enjoyed and many drinks to boot! It was another cracking weekend with great support from all the players.
See you all next year!
