By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Lake Monticello Travelers golf squad plays 12 matches this season with home and away matches against teams from six other golf clubs. On June 12, they hosted a team from the Old Trail course in Crozet. The format for this match was “Nassau.” Two-man teams match up against each other and there are three points at stake in each match. One point for the first nine holes, one point for the back nine and one point for the full 18 holes. There were 11 matches, so each team fielded 22 players.
The Travelers team won eight of the 11 matches for a one-sided final score of 24-9. This is not an unusual result. Two Traveler teams won all three points in its match. Joe Bock and Mark Watlock shut-out their opponents 3-0 as did the teams of Larry Cormier and Doug Weaver and John Horsfall and Paul Seehaver. Five Travelers teams won 2 ½ to ½. Travelers’ coordinator Karl Bergstresser said that it is rare for the visiting team to win in these matches. The home course advantage of being extraordinarily familiar with a course is extremely hard for a visiting team to overcome. The Traveler squad almost accomplished this feat on June 19, when they traveled to the Greene Hills course.
At Greene Hills, the teams played in a different format. Ten two-man teams competed in a match play format. Each team’s best net score on a hole was compared and the lower net score won one point per hole. So, if the Traveler players had a seven and a five and the player with seven had a handicap stroke, the Travelers would have six and a five on the hole. If The Greene Hills players had two fives, but one of them had a handicap stroke on the hole, they would have a five and a four and would win the hole for a point.
In this format each match has 18 points. The final score of the match was very close. Greene Hills won 91 ½ to 88 ½. Leading the way for the Travelers were four teams that scored double figures. Karl Bergstresser and Jim Higginbotham led the way for the Travelers scoring an 11-7 win. Mark Watlock and Cole Hunter won their matches 10 ½ to 7 ½ Ray Mishler and Doug Weaver also topped their opponents by 10 ½ to 7 ½. Tom Sullivan and Dan Atkinson also posted a double figure score beating their opponents 10-8.
The Travelers team now has three wins and two losses. They played Glenmore Country Club home and away in their first two matches, winning at home and losing away. They then destroyed Greene Hills at the Lake course 24 ½ – 2 ½. The Travelers still have home and away matches to play against Orchard Creek, Wintergreen and Richmond Country Club, and will travel to Old Trail.
Karl Bergstresser has been the coordinator for the Travelers team for the past four years and is ably assisted by Paul Seehaver and John Roeder.
