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Match
play golf doesn’t get much closer than it did at the
2003 AJGA Canon Cup. Trailing by two points entering the singles
matches, the West team earned 12 of the possible 20 points
on day three to retain the Canon Cup, 26-24. It is the third
consecutive year the West has hoisted the trophy.
The tournament
was conducted at the Sea Island Golf Club, Seaside Course.
The 40-player event consisted of 32 Polo Golf Junior All-Americans
among the East and West teams, each composed of 10 girls and
10 boys. Past competitors in the event include Charles Howell
III, Kelli Kuehne, Grace Park and Tiger Woods.
The tournament
featured three days of match play competition. The first two
days included foursome and four-ball matches, and the final
day was played in singles format. In the 14-year history of
the event, the East team has claimed victory seven times,
and the West has captured six titles, including four of the
last five. One tie occurred in 1998.
The West
team began day three with a two-point deficit, 16-14, but
wasted little time pulling even. Randy Lowry of Spring, Texas,
opened up the day with a 2-up win against Chris Kirk of Woodstock,
Ga. Hannah Jun of San Diego, who finished the event with a
4-0 record, followed with a 1-up win against Sukjin Wuesthoff
of Toms River, N.J.
“The
one thing I really wanted bad was to be on a Canon Cup team,”
Jun said. “Then after I achieved that I wanted to win
a Canon Cup, and that’s the best part.”
Luke List
of Ringgold, Ga., responded for the East with a victory against
Seung Su Han of Chino Hills, Calif., 3 and 2.
Jenny
Suh of Fairfax, Va., put the East in the lead by two with
a triumph against Lauren Espinosa of Irving, Texas, 7 and
6.
The West
took control with a flurry in the next seven matches. When
the dust settled, the West earned six points, winning five
and halving two. The final match of the stretch proved to
be crucial.
Chanin
Puntawong of Bradenton, Fla., led Will Osborne of Wichita
Falls, Texas, 1-up with one hole to play, but Osborne won
the 18th hole to force a halved match.
“This
was definitely the hardest of the three (Canon Cup wins),”
said West Captain Gus Montaño, who has served as West
captain during the team’s three-year winning streak.
“We stayed strong, stayed to the game plan, and when
we had a window of opportunity, we took advantage of it.”
The West
vaulted to the front with a 22-20 lead, but the East refused
to go down easily. Christie Reed of Coral Springs, Fla., cut
the lead to one point when she defeated Kristen Svicarovich
of Hillsboro, Ore., 3 and 2. Reed provided a bright spot on
an otherwise disappointing day for the East as she and Jun
were the only players to win all four matches.
“It
got so exciting starting halfway through (Wednesday’s)
morning matches,” East Captain Matt Cuccaro said. “(The
West) really started to turn it on and start creeping closer
and closer, and they just kept closing that gap. We built
a pretty good lead that first day, and I really thought we
were going to hang on to it. I thought we were going to excel
in the singles matches, but it just didn’t work out
like that this week.”
Daniel
Im of La Mirada, Calif., Amanda Blumenherst of Scottsdale,
Ariz., and Taylor Leon of Dallas subsequently recorded victories
to push the West’s total to 25 points.
Needing
only a half point, Amie Cochran of Torrance, Calif., halved
her match with Whitney Myers of East Berlin, Pa., to collect
the decisive point.
“It’s
really cool (to score the decisive point),” Cochran
excitedly said. “The first day was kind of scary because
we were way down, but I knew we could bring it together and
come back.”
In 2002,
the West won 35.5-14.5 at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest,
Ill., and won 30.5-19.5 at Biltmore Forest Country Club in
Asheville, N.C., in 2001. Next year the AJGA Canon Cup will
be played at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, Md.
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