YPGA Cup Final Preview

Welcome to YPGA Cup Final Week! Sunday, August 15, 2021 will crown the champion of inaugural YPGA Cup – the YPGA’s Ryder Cup challenge. Currently, Team Hybrid Fire has a narrow 2 point lead after the three legs of the YPGA Cup. Sunday will be a strictly singles match play where eight matches will take place. Plenty of points up for grabs to decide the winner. Two scratches to note: Matt Kelly has been granted leave to tend to family matters, and Michael Patitucci had to withdraw due to an undisclosed illness.

Course: Lederach Golf Club

Weather: 82 and sunny. Congrats to the Exec Committee for scheduling the round after the heat wave breaks. Just another feather in the Exec’s caps.

Tee Times: 12pm start.

Important Competition Rules/Items:

• Gimmes: Holes 1 through 15, gimmes are allowed for a putt inside of a putter’s length. Birdies or better must still be putted – i.e. no gimmes for birdies or better. For holes 16 through 18, all putts must be putted. No gimmes allowed.

• Pairings: Each matchup must ride together.

• Closest to the Pin: Holes #7 and #16. $10 from each person must be venmo-ed to Ed Grambo. $10 for every mention of Vince’s hole-in-one on #16 will be donated to the Closest to the Pin fund.

• Tiebreaker: The YPGA Cup tiebreaker will be determined by whichever team has the most players inside the Top-5 of the leaderboard at the end of the round. Please note, the leaderboard factors in capped strokes for anyone over 23 strokes whereas the YPGA Cup matchup takes a person’s Grint-determined Handicap. For example, Sabara may get 57 strokes to apply to his YPGA Cup match play vs. Tag, but only 23 strokes for the leaderboard.

• The Grint: If you are over 23 strokes, please edit your handicap to 23 strokes before the round starts.

Matchups:

Andy vs. Pudd (12pm): Andy’s newfound membership at BBCC and daily golf lessons have been helping him contribute to Team ReachAround this season. After his dominating performance over Vince at Deerfield, Andy is poised to earn another point against David King, who recently showed some promise after delivering a 92 at Lederach just a few days ago. However, we’ve all seen this story before – take a person’s pre-YPGA tournament score, add 100 and that’s where they’ll end up on tournament day. Edge: Andy.

Carney v. Jason (12pm): An intriguing early day matchup has Carney v. Jason going at it again during a YPGA Cup round. These two met during the first leg of the YPGA Cup in a team match play where the players split the point. Both players have different strengths and weaknesses and can look really good on one hole and really bad on the next. If these two are playing even, the difference could be the strokes (4) allotted to Carney. Edge: Jason

Meyer v. Pook (12:10pm): A tasty matchup here! Two friends turned foes squaring off. Meyer with his lunch pail mentally versus Paul’s flying high MO. Paul is fresh off an 80 at Scotland Run where he missed out on breaking 80 by hitting 4 strokes from within 30 feet of the pin on 18. That has to be eating him up inside and I expect those bitter feelings to carry over to Sunday where Meyer will dismantle Paul by playing a boring game of scrambling for pars all day. Edge: Meyer

Sabara v. Tag (12:10pm): The Tour asked for it and the Tour is getting it. Ok, well Sabara has been asking for it for a while. Now’s his chance to prove to the Tour that he isn’t the worse golfer. Strides have been made by both golfers and the rest of the Tour appreciates it. This matchup can really swing one way or another on any given hole and the reality is, the battle for this point is MOST crucial. Edge: Sabara

Ed v. Launi (12:20pm): A very cheeky duel here between Ed and Launi features two vastly different games: Bomber vs. Scrambler. Ed will look to cut corners and bully the course en route to victory while Launi just plays one shot at a time mentality. Both golfers are prone to a lot of bad shots, but Launi’s “the most important shot, is the next one” mentality may be the difference here. Look for Launi to scrape together some important scrambles down the stretch to notch the point. Edge: Launi

Billy v. Dr. Gerry (12:20pm): Dr. Gerry has been a menace to Team ReachAround in the YPGA Cup, notching important victories at both Deerfield and Wyncote. Dr. Gerry’s feeble but straight tee shot always has him well positioned to attack the pin will keep Billy on his toes for all 18 holes. Billy will need to be able to hold a lead in his match, something he was not able to do in his last matchup. We expect this matchup to be a seesaw affair coming down to the fabled 18th hole. Edge: Dr. Gerry

Vince v. Nate (12:30pm): Nate will have an advantage out the gate in this matchup if he just continues to ask Vince how he got dismantled by Andy at the last tournament. Nate has been keen on getting his rounds in at tougher, prestigious and pretentious country clubs, which should have him well primed to deliver a strong performance at Lederach, which does not offer the same challenges. Vince, fresh off his career best 83 at Scotland Run, but just before he probably shoots a 96 at Rolling Green, will have a mix of mental statuses heading into his match. His erratic play as of late is concerning and leaves the audience wondering what Vince will show up. Edge: Nate and his strokes.

Wayne v. Michael (12:30pm): The matchup of the two best golfers should hopefully provide some drama to finish the day. A rare occasion when Musselman will be getting a few strokes could prove pivotal throughout the day. Off the tee, Wayne should have a nice advantage as Lederach provides a number of straight holes where Wayne’s 300-yard tee shot should give him a big advantage for his second shot. Although, Michael is a straight up Par Machine and no matter what he does off the tee, he has a 81.9% chance of making par. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any movement in this matchup until the back 9 when the pressure of the day hits every grouping. Edge: Wayne.