The Cape golf team concluded its 2023 match season May 15, with a tri-meet at the Ed “Porky” Oliver golf course in Wilmington against Hodgson Vo-Tech and Padua Academy.
The Vikings won, bringing the team’s record to 10-5, but it wasn’t pretty. The team’s 207 total was its highest of the year, but still beat Padua’s 233 and Hodgson’s 266.
Head coach Robert Harrod said, “It was just a rough day of golf for us.”
Sophomore Tyler Healy earned co-medalist honors with Padua’s Ella Aghajanian with 49s. His score included pars on the eighth and ninth holes.
“It was a tough course,” Healy said. “The greens were very small and hard. My approach shots would hit the green and go flying off the back. The rough was really deep. I never felt settled. Ella said it played harder than any other match this year.”
Fellow sophomore Dalen Daminger finished second for Cape with his 50. “It wasn’t great. I didn’t play well, except my putting was good. I one- or two-putted every hole,” he said.
Cape ninth-grader Chad Hughey played his first varsity match, posting a 52. Harrod said, “He played well, except for a nine on one hole. It was good to watch him make the effort.”
Sophomore Travers Johnson, in his first year on Cape’s squad, ballooned to a 56 for his worst score of the season. “I wasn’t mentally prepared for it,” he said. “I had two eights, and both of them came from when the ball went into water that I didn’t know was there.”
Johnson did not lose his sense of humor, however. Harrod said at one point Johnson told him, “Man! I’m battling this course and the course is winning!”
The Vikings’ two events remaining are the Henlopen Conference Championship Tuesday, May 23, and the state championship Tuesday and Wednesday, May 30-31.
Shattuck at the PGA
The PGA Championship, the second men’s major event for 2023, takes place this weekend at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.
Zac Oakley, a former Cape Region resident and past Delaware Open winner, played last year’s tournament as part of the 20-player PGA club professional contingent in the tournament field.
This year’s club pro group continues the Cape Region connection.
Braden Shattuck is the director of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pa. He won the 2023 PGA Professional Championship qualifier. He was in the first threesome Thursday morning, along with 2003 Oak Hill PGA Champion Shaun Micheel and Steven Alker, winner of the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
Shattuck first appeared in this column in 2009 as a 14-year-old when he won the boys’ championship at the Rehoboth Beach Junior Open. Shattuck won that event two more times, spent a year on the University of Delaware golf team, and then turned pro.
A bad car accident several years ago ended his touring career. After recovery, however, Shattuck made a successful transition to the teaching position he now holds at Rolling Green, site of the USGA’s 2016 Women’s Amateur.
Shattuck also won the 2021 Delaware Open as an assistant pro at Bidermann Golf Club, with fellow Bidermann pro Oakley taking second.
Local club competition results
The Mulligan’s Pointe Ladies 18 Hole group played a 2 better balls of 4 match May 16.
Jackie Chernutta, JoAnn Foster, Terese Kane and Mary Louise York won first place. Valerie Grib, Kathy Hudak, Rita McConnell and Wendy Michaelson finished second.
The Kings Creek Country Club Ladies 18 Hole group began their 2023 season May 11 with a game of Baker’s Dozen. Only the lowest 13 net scores count.
Lisa Lekawa won first-place gross in the first flight, with Diane Knizer taking first net. Jean Chlastawa finished second net and Donna Deely finished third net.
MaryAnn Noonan won first-place gross in the second flight. Nancy Froome won first-place net, with Katie Heintz in second net and Ruth Lauver in third net.
Robbie Monkman won first-place gross in the third flight, with Anne Farley taking first net. Deborah Grant finished second net and Shelly Conaway finished third net.
The Kings Creek CC Ladies 9 Hole group played their Baker’s Dozen game May 9, their first tournament of the season. For their version, only the best five scores are used.
Kim Parks won first-place gross in the first flight, with Darci Whitehead taking first-place net. Dot Filbert finished second net and Chris Emery finished third net.
Marie Murray won first-place gross in the second flight. Melissa Soper won first-place net, with Beth Cohen in second net and Cathy Larrabee in third net.
Brenda Schilli won first-place gross in the third flight, with Deb Hinderer taking first net. Juanita Wilson finished second net and Tish Brey finished third net.
The group played its second 2023 tournament May 16, using a net Stableford format.
Ruthann Santry, Barbara Morales, Pam Cranston and Margaret Rebarchik won first place. Patricia Magee, Prabha Karapurkar, Farah Englert and Nancy Derrickson took second. Angela Strano, Barb Fishel, Donna Romer and Brenda Schilli finished third.
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Fritz Schranck has been writing about the Cape Region's golf community since 1999. Snippets, stories and anecdotes from his columns are included in his new book, "Hole By Hole: Golf Stories from Delaware's Cape Region and Beyond," which is available at the Cape Gazette offices, Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Biblion Books in Lewes, and local golf courses. His columns and book reviews are available at HoleByHole.com.
Contact Fritz by emailing fschranck@holebyhole.com.
