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Cape golf team notches three wins before spring break

April 21, 2017

The Cape Henlopen High School Vikings kept their winning streak alive April 11 with a 178-213 win over Indian River at Cripple Creek Country Club near Ocean View. Matt Zehner’s 42 earned him the medalist honors for the day, while Nolan Brown and Dane Palmer tied for second best with their 45s. Michael Bollig completed the team scoring with his 46.

Cape head coach Chris Krueger said, “Our team depth is coming in handy.” 

The Vikings then hosted Milford and Concord in a tri-meet April 12 at Rehoboth Beach Country Club. Milford’s Kyle Strassle won medalist honors with his one-over 37, but Cape won both of its matches, 173-197 over Milford and 173-185 over Concord. 

Palmer’s 41 led the Vikings, followed by Zehner’s 42, Brown’s 43 and Bollig’s 47. Sophomore Maddie McGreevy shot a 50 in her first varsity start for the year, tying Reed Jones. 

Krueger said,  “It was another great team effort. The competition for playing in the matches is getting tougher for the coaches to decide on!”

A synergistic opportunity for Cape Region businesses

Dave Hambly appreciates the fact that local businesses working together can do very nice things for each other. The Lewes-area resident enjoyed a long career in direct marketing and other ventures. He also captained the Penn State golf team in the mid-’60s, and had a successful run in amateur golf in New Jersey and South Carolina. 

Hambly is now putting the finishing touches on his new business, giving golfing visitors and local golfers more opportunities to enjoy the benefits of the Cape Region. He made an arrangement with The Rookery that provides an immediate chance for a nice prize for a good tee shot on the South Course’s ninth hole, along with a series of discount offers for local businesses.

Once the golf season begins in earnest, Hambly or one of his representatives will greet the golfers at the ninth tee, a par 3 hole normally set at 115 yards from the white markers. For $10, players have a chance to win an Odyssey putter by hitting their tee shot within a grip-length of the hole. Even if they don’t quite make that goal, all is not lost. They can fill in a form for an eventual drawing for the putter, taken from the other participants who didn’t win in the last 45 days or so.  

The golfers also receive several other items: a $10 certificate toward a Rookery golf shirt, $10 coupons for Matt’s Fish Camp and Bethany Blues restaurants near Lewes, an additional $10 coupon from Waves Car Wash near Wescoats Corner, and a $10 discount toward a round of golf at Rookery North.

Tee box greeters offering some kind of deal are fairly common at tourist-oriented golf destinations in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and elsewhere. What’s nice about Hambly’s version is that his coupons and discounts should appeal to local golfers as well as visiting players.  

Hambly gave his conservative estimate that about 15,000 golfers will be exposed to this opportunity during the busy season. He expects the deal will be well received by local players, as well as those coming to play here as part of a package tour or family vacation. 

Hambly is in discussions with other golf courses in Sussex County, with the coupons targeted to dining and other options in their immediate areas.

Criquet Shirts

Men’s fashions tend to be cyclical. In my closet is a 40-year collection of neckties that prove the point.

Two young men, childhood friends since their days on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, have recognized this fact and are trying to take advantage of it.

Criquet Shirts was one of the smaller companies to have a booth at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show. Its employees were doing a nice bit of business taking orders for the upcoming season when I sat down with co-founder Billy Nachman.

He and co-founder Hobson Brown began Criquet in an Austin, Texas garage and started slowly with an online store. They’re now enjoying their growing presence in green grass pro shops and other retail outlets, in addition to their website, criquetshirts.com.

Nachman said he and Brown grew up with a prep school/golf aesthetic, based in the late ’70s and ’80s. They have brought back some of the fashion elements of that era, with a modern sensibility. 

The shirts have a four-button placket, running a bit deeper down the chest than more recent trends have done. They also use hard collars instead of the knit variety. To combat what Nachman called “bacon collar,” Criquet shirts also come with removable collar stays.

Collar stays work well, but tend to disappear along with single socks during laundry day. With Brooks Brothers in the Tanger Outlets, however, replacing lost stays in the Cape Region is not a problem.

Brown and Nachman also have a sense of humor about their wares, notably in the names they’ve given their shirts. You’re My Boy Blue (Will Ferrell’s Old School) and The Bushwood (from Caddyshack) are among the styles offered in their Players Shirt line, along with Spruce Lee, Panama Red, and The ’86, a bright yellow solid similar to what Jack Nicklaus wore in the Masters final that year. 

Criquet uses 100 percent organic cotton. For sizing purposes, they suggest their medium size would fit a 5-foot-11, 180-pound man. The Players shirt retails for $75, with the long-sleeved version available for $95 SRP.

Local club competition results

The Kings Creek Ladies 9 Hole group played its first tournament of the season April 12, using the Tee to Green format that only counts strokes until arriving on the green. 

Jeanne Drake won first place, followed by Gail Petren in second, Mary Beth Merolla in third, and Mary Mezger in fourth. Mezger also won closest to the pin on the 11th hole.

The Kings Creek CC Ladies 18 Hole League started their competitive season April 13, with a net score event. 

Judy Wetzel won first place in the first flight, with Deb Ward in second and Winnie Sewell in third.

In the second flight, Joan Crowley took the top spot, as Sheree Davis finished second with Ruth Lauver in third.

Amy Micholas won the third flight, with Joanne Yurik in second and Barbara Morales taking third. Joan Repetto finished closest to the pin on the 11th hole, at 9-feet-9-rinches.

The Sussex Pines Ladies 18 hole group played a Nassau game April 18.

Sue Brady won the front nine, and Linda Townsend won the back nine, but Debbie Quinn won the 18-hole total.

Dawn Slacum won closest to the pin.

  • 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.

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