Greenville Captain Terry Willis accepts the Cyder Cup from Spartanburg Captain Todd Whitehead.

Greenville retained the Cyder Cup with a convincing victory over the team from Spartanburg. The annual matches were held at the Carolina Country Club and the home course advantage was not much help to the Spartanburg team.

The final score of the three rounds of competition gave Greenville a solid 20 1/2 to 11 1/2 victory. The way the Greenville team won the Cup was almost identical to the year before.

“We played great in the alternate shot round,” said Greenville captain Terry Willis. “We got a big lead on Spartanburg in alternate shot last year and this year we did even better,” he said.

The first round of four-ball matches finished with Greenville holding a one point lead over Spartanburg. The second round on Saturday was the alternate shot competition and Greenville was almost perfect.

The Greenville team won the afternoon round by a 6 1/2 to 1 1/2 score to give  the team an almost insurmountable 11-5 lead going into the singles competition on Sunday.

“Our guys seem to play just a little better together in the alternate shot round. They have pretty much paired themselves up and they have done a good job matching their games,” said Willis.

With a big lead Willis didn’t need a lot of strategy to set his singles line-up for the final round. Greenville needed to only win five of the sixteen singles matches to keep the cup.

“I saved a couple of our stronger players for the last couple of matches. Jeremy Revis and Brandon Bradosky were in the final two matches just in case it got close. I knew I could count on them to play well,” said Willis.

As it turned out the two anchors of the Greenville lineup didn’t figure in the final outcome. Instead Greenville wrapped up the cup midway through the singles competition.

Since there is no live scoring or leader boards around the course it is difficult to figure which match exactly earned the Greenville team the win. However, when Dan Constantino’s scorecard was turned in and the score posted Greenville had the 16 1/2 points to wrap up the win.

It was the second year in a row that Constantino happened to post his score and give Greenville the win.

The Sunday singles matches were also won by Greenville with a 9 1/2 to 6 1/2 total to give them the victory.

“We had a nice mix of new players to the Cup and some older veterans. I think everyone played well and regardless of the scores there was some very good golf played by both teams,” said Willis.

Greenville won the Cyder Cup for the second year in a row and now holds an 8-5-1 advantage over Spartanburg. Team members included Jeremy Revis, Kurt Waldthausen, Duane Barnes,  Matthew Hopper, Danny Brock,  Cory Slocum, Dan Constantino, Dani Ezelle, Matt Mead, Bryan Kelley, Brandon Bradosky, Jared  Crane.  Seniors  Terry Willis,  Bobby Hines,  Duff Wagner, Mike Caprio. 

Last year Greenville won the Cup from Spartanburg with a 9-point victory which turned out to be the same margin this year.

“The same thing happened to us this year as last year,” said Spartanburg captain Todd Whitehead. “We have got to figure out a way to play better in the alternate shot round. We just didn’t play very well,” he said.

While the matches are fun and a highlight for all the golfers who make the teams the purpose of the Cyder Cup is to raise money for the First Tee of the Upstate.

This year the sponsorships raised by the competitors earned around $18,000 for the Upstate program.

“We have fun playing and the competition is great, but at the end of the day it is really about what we can do to help raise money so more kids can experience The First Tee programs in the Upstate,” said Whitehead, who is the vice-president of the organization.

Greenville now has eight wins to Spartanburg’s five victories with one match ending in a tie.