Watson Cup est. 2011: December 2012

Saturday, December 8, 2012

2012 CHAMPIONS

The banter began seemingly the day following the european inaugural victory and continued incessantly until the first tee ball was struck at stonewall resort in 2012... team usa hoped that a change in venue might bode well in evening the score of a rivalry in its infancy.. from the early going it was evident that this years cup would be a battle to the finish.. usa jumped out to an early lead after the first 18, but quickly squandered that adavantage by the days end... with an eery simliar 2 point defecit heading into the final day team usa was delt an ever bigger blow when team co- captain and american stalwart jake leibee was forced to withdrawl from the tourney with a severe case of chicken pox.. to say the least the future looked quite ominous... grace was given by european team captain carroll and he allowed me the ability to juggle the lineup and make the tournament as fair as could be with team usa being a man down... with momentum gone and team usa struggling to stay in the match the deficit only climbed to 3 pts entering the final 9 holes.. with singles play about to get going an unexpected turn of events took place when european player jeff humphrey was forced to withdrawl from singles play with a rib injury... the deficit suddenly shrank to 2 pts and at least for me, a sense of hope returned.. not lacking motivation, team usa took advantage of the opportunity to square the rivalry... team usa won 8 out of the 11 pts total for singles and claimed the 2012 Watson Cup!!!

2011 CHAMPIONS

Our 1st Annual Watson Cup began in July 2011 at the beautiful Glade Springs Resort in Beckley, WV. Adam Carroll and I fell in love with the idea of annually organizing a ryder cup format golf tournament after experiencing the Spring Cup in Northern Michigan with our friend John Tetzlaff. After being a part of the Spring Cup we desired to bring the same passion and excitement created by the Spring Cup to our yet to be launched tourney. We knew several guys who loved to play golf, but we also recognized organizing a weekend tourney that required two 12 man teams would be quite the challenge. After what seeemed to be a plethora of texts, emails, and phone calls we finally recruited the 24 men needed to form 2 rosters. One of the coolest things for me in recruiting the guys was the reconnection with some of my friends that I hadn't seen in years.. With the 24 man field complete we proceeded to have our 1st and only Watson Cup Draft. Wow, you wouldn't believe the number of mock drafts that were held, as well as the disputing over player ability and inability. After hours and hours of phone conversations, texts and meetings we finally drafted our 12 man teams. I will forever remember the one and only, " watson cup draft." The tournament finally began on a beautiful late July morning in the mountains of Wv... with european union and usa flags adorning the golf carts we lined up to do battle for the first time... the first tee ball was hit by Rex Cooksey ( Coach) and the traditon offically began. The Europeans grabbed a lead from the first hole and seemed to never look back. Team Europe owned a 2 point advantage going into the final day of play.. With team USA making every effort to turn the tide, team Europe finished with a fury in producing a 10pt victory and what could potentially be the biggest lopsided victory in Watson Cup history.. . due to some unforseen cirucumstances singles were not held the first year.. although team usa would have attemped to overcome an insurmountable deficit, it would've been met with despair... none the less, congrats to team europe for the inaugural win!