Following the Pine Needles Foursomes and Mid Pines Hickory Open, the VA and NC teams met at newly renovated Southern Pines Golf Club on Monday-Tuesday, November 8-9 to contest the VANC HICCUP. The trophy, a renovated Janus-faced (baby blue NC on one side and navy blue on the VA side) funeral urn, also known as the Flame of Eternal Hope, was up for the taking after a COVID gap in 2020. The weather (cold and windy for Mid Pines) cooperated with beautiful sunny warm temperatures on both days. The SPCC venue has been highly touted since its opening in September. The course maintained its original routing but intensified the sandy waste area flavor common to the area. More than 500 trees had been removed to open up the course, and in typical Donald Ross fashion, the green complexes were very “complex” with undulating Bermuda grass greens and steep drop-offs and false fronts. The course has several “hilltop” greens demanding accurate distance judgment and shot execution.
The VANC HICCUP is a decade old competition designed in Ryder Cup format with 18 holes each for Fourballs, Foursomes and Singles. This year we fought match play with one point each for the front nine, the back nine and the overall total, 60 points available, 30 for VA to retain the cup, 30.5 for NC to regain the cup.
The VA team was an eclectic group including lifetime VaHGA members from Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and at one point even North Carolina. The NC team was a moving target with WDs occurring almost daily which led to Captain Rich Schmidt canvassing his larger member base to fill in emerging gaps in the competition. As late as tee time, some players were not sure who their opponents would be.
Monday the two twelve-man teams played fourballs in the morning and foursomes in the afternoon. The afternoon Foursomes matches concluded in near total darkness when the leaderboard taped on the window at SPCC’s grill room showed the VaHGA team with a solid 14-10 lead, setting the stage for the 12 singles matches on Tuesday.
On Tuesday both teams sent out their players largely ranked by handicaps hoping to establish a strong start. Halfway through the singles matches (6 matches) NC had racked up a 15-3 turn around! NONE of the matches showed any half points, all were sweeps including the lone VA bright spot, Greg Whitmer who swept his three points for the VA side. At this point, the score was VA 17, NC 25.
The higher handicaps did not fair much better as the final score was VA 26, NC 34. At the trophy ceremony on the patio/deck at SPCC, Captain Rich Schmidt, resplendent in his Loudmouth Scottish flag “lucky” pants, pasted the “2021” sticker on the baby blue Carolina side of the FOEH. Tails tucked the VA team headed home to all points of the compass, determined to regain the FOEH in 2022—in Virginia.
Here’s a link to a number of photographs from the event.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vnao6veyu2yebuq/AACyxiE_HIynAMMY4msrQLiga?dl=0