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Golf

Cape golf team wins first match

March 28, 2011

The Cape Henlopen High School golf team won what turned out to be a relatively easy first match of the 2011 season over the Smyrna High Eagles, 177-207.

The Vikings hosted the March 22 match on the front nine at Rehoboth Beach Country Club on a typically brisk, windy opening day.

Head coach Dave Inglis mentioned that Smyrna lost all of its varsity squad from last year, which was an impressive bunch. By comparison, this year’s Eagles look like they will be struggling a bit.

A Henlopen Conference golf match puts six players from each team into three sets of four golfers, with the lowest four scores for each side making up the totals for the competition.  Typically the players begin play simultaneously on three different holes, but for this match the teams teed off on only two holes.

That didn’t help speed up the pace of play, which is often notoriously slow among competitive high school matches. The last group didn’t finish until 6:30 p.m., three hours after the start.

That qualifies as a Gilligan round (a three-hour tour). With warmer weather and improving skills, however, matches later in the season should not take as long to complete.

Junior Shane Ghigliotty earned medalist honors for the match with his 41 total. “I had a good time. At the beginning I was struggling a bit. Then I started hitting more solid shots,” Ghigliotty said. “I birdied the [par-5] ninth hole, and doubled the sixth hole. I parred the seventh and eighth holes, and finished with a par on the first hole.”

Ghigliotty almost chipped in for eagle on the par 5 ninth hole, missing by perhaps two inches.

Senior Devin Medd took second among all other players with his 42, including an impressive birdie on the ninth hole. “I had 197 yards for my second shot to the green,” Medd said. “I used a five-iron.”

That approach shot landed on the green and rolled to a stop 10 feet or so below the hole, set in the back third of the green. Medd’s eagle attempt slid to a stop short of the hole, but he easily converted the birdie putt.

James Fenstermaker picked up where he left off at the end of the 2010 season, with a 45 that pleased the Cape junior. “I definitely felt a lot better this year than I did at the beginning of last year,” he said. “I expect to do better.”

Fenstermaker is no fan of early spring golf. “It was windy and cold, and I don’t like that. I had four or five pars, and some doubles.  I could have done better if it wasn’t so cold.”

Nick Purnell completed the team scoring with his 49, about which he suggested the less said the better. “I played well after the fourth hole,” he said, which included parring the fifth and ninth holes.

Junior Matthew Dernoga competed in his first varsity golf match, and seemed to accept his 51 as a sort of breaking-in score. “I was kind of nervous,” he said. As for playing his first varsity round, he said, “It was cool. I liked it. I had a couple doubles and a triple, and parred the seventh hole. It was pretty windy.”

Inglis said, “I’m pretty happy with how we did. We go to Sussex Pines next, to play Sussex Central.”

Another charity golf opportunity
The Boys & Girls Club of Rehoboth Beach will hold its first Irish Eyes Open Thursday, June 23, with a shotgun start at noon at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club.

The tournament raises funds for the Boys & Girls Club, whose mission is to provide opportunities for the educational, vocational, social, health, and moral development of its members. The Rehoboth club opened just two years ago and already serves more than 50 children with daily after-school programming, as well as a Summer Fun Club for children in the area.

Individual golfers can register for $250, and corporate hole sponsors (four golfers, four extra guests for reception, sign at hole, plus recognition at reception) can register for $1,200.  Other sponsorship opportunities are available.

For more details go to bgclubs.org or call 302-260-9864.

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