stevereilly:Final match of the worst ball series, and USA won 2 & 1. We had to call in a USA alternate, Moosetaya, but he did the USA proud.
It started to fall apart for team ROW on hole 1, WigerToods2010 (Johnny) hit the tree from the tee and then had an almost impossible bunker shot off the approach.
Team ROW fought to get back in the game but USA were solid, not giving us a chance with solid par play throughout.
On the 5th it was my turn to have a blip, missing a crucial par putt.
Team ROW just couldn't break the USA defences, and so it was all over on the 8th hole.
We played to the finish, well done USA.
Well, thanks everyone for your patience and for managing to get this game played. Obviously, I'm pretty disappointed in Wolf's second no-show, this time without any notice, and feel at this point that we will need to excuse him from the rest of the tourney.
It turns out that Dakotarov didn't respond to my PM until after you had finished playing (he had a golf round anyway that would have prevented him filling in as alternate, and the other 2 pre-existing US alternates, dougsda and a new 3rd alternate, TarheelsRule had no viable time overlap. So, I'm glad you found Moosetaya, who really proved his worth!
It's extremely bad luck Steve and Johnny to have lost out. You managed an extraordinary best ball score of -8, and would have won 4&2 had it been in that format. But it seems that the dependable, solid par golf of Dave and Moose was exactly what the format demanded, and they fully deserved their win. Proof that birdies are somewhat meaningless unless both players in a team make them! And that it's incredibly difficult to come back from a deficit.
Congrats to Team USA who seem to have excelled at the strategy in this first series, and take a deserved 3.5 to 2.5 point lead into week 2. Here is the updated Overview.
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I will need to check the week 2 Best-Ball series match F, and see which of the alternates, in signup order, has matching availability to partner Wesdogg instead: 1-dougsda (who has very limited availability), 2-dakotarov, 3-TarheelsRule, 4-Moosetaya (I'm delighted to see you've already gone in and filled out the availability form. Thanks!).
So, players in that match, please await further info from me, and keep checking this thread. Thanks!