The spirit of one-upmanship with the Sudbury Ryder Cup circles is going to be severely tested in 2024.
A year ago this time, the Lively Golf Club crew sat near the green of the 18th hole at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, awaiting the result of the Ward Kyle (Idylwylde) vs Jay Jewett (Timberwolf) battle in order to assure themselves that a furious Sunday rally would not go for naught, captain Max Kallio and company picking up their first Ryder win since 2017.
This past Sunday on their home course, the Lively eight stormed back once again on Day 3, though this time around, both of the final two matches – Cory Vaillancourt (Idylwylde) vs Alex Watier (Lively); Ben Fowke (Timberwolf) vs Jason Picco (Idylwylde) – were still in play in terms of final results.
In fact, as that final quartet of competitors made their way past the tees of the par three 17th at Lively, the following possibilities still existed: a) a Lively repeat – with Watier needed a win to cinch; b) a first Timberwolf triumph – only if Fowke wins and Watier loses; c) the first playoff since, apparently, the early 2000s (achieved with some combination of victories and all-squareds).
In the end, though it wasn’t pretty, Watier would do enough to finish one up, joining six other teammates who secured a half point or better. For the record, Chase Chatwell (3 & 2 over Pat Laferriere), Brian Ceaser (one up over Alex Fowke), Eric Vickman (4 & 2 over Matt Dumontelle), Parker Case (4 & 3 over Jordan Couture), Dan Couillard (one up over Brian McGarry) also hit the win column on the double-point day, with Jean-Luc Lacelle earning a half point in his match with Paul Schweyer.
“We liked our matches, we felt comfortable and we finish at our home course this year,” said Watier, a regular in this event since his 18th birthday or so, recently joining the 3-0 club. “We just focused on trying to play our own game and take the point if you can get it. It came right down to the end and I kind of limped home, but I played well at the beginning which helped me get to the end.”
Lively would finish the three day competition with 11 points, Timberwolf just one back at ten and the Idylwylde happy to look forward to ’24 after racking up three points. The local Ryder features partnered match-play events the first two days, with 12 head to head battles highlighting things on Sunday.
“I always like singles but it’s also nice to pair up with someone and have each other’s back that way,” said Chase Chatwell, closing out his third appearance at the Ryder with a win. As has been said several times before, keeping it close through play on Friday and Saturday is often all that you need if your team is returning to the comfort of your familiar locker rooms to close things off.
“It seems like no one likes to play Lively (the course), except for us,” Chatwell noted with a smile. “Lively has some quirks. Home course advantage helps us know where to hit, where to miss, that sort of stuff which definitely plays in our favour.”
More than half of the winning roster were also part of the 2022 championship octet, the group very much reflective of the small town atmosphere that engulfs the course on which their golfers are members.
“These guys are awesome,” said Watier. “We spend the whole weekend together, even after golf. We’re together the whole time. It’s fun and a lot of laughs; one of my favourite weekends of the year.”
In other local golf news recently, Alex Fowke recently secured a berth at the 118th Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship from August 7th to 10th at the Pulpit Club in Caledon. Stringing together an incredibly consistent performance (73-70-71-72), the young man who played last fall at Laurentian after stints at both Seattle University and Ranger College (Texas) finished the Ontario Amateurs a few week back, all alone in 14th place.
“I didn’t really leave between the top ten and top fifteen the whole week,” said Fowke Sunday in Lively. “I played well – aggressive off the tee – and tried to drive as much as possible. It was a course where you needed to be straight off the tee, and it was playing softer than usual,” he added, the provincial tournament having been hosted at Black Bear Ridge Golf Resort, just north of Belleville.
“My strength is getting around the green and being straight off the tee and I used that to my advantage. A lot of guys were errant and that was a course where you needed to be between the goal posts to be successful.”
Advancing to nationals in just his second appearance at the Ontario Amateur Championships, Fowke is not about to over-complicate things next month. “For me, it’s continue what I did last week, continue to be aggressive, not to change the game plan. There’s a lot of players that I know from the NCAA, guys from around Golf Ontario, good buddies of mine that I will be playing against.”
“It’s a great field.”
