The 7th playing of the Fightmaster Cup took place in Louisville, Kentucky September 27th to 29th. Our team travelled to the US during the weekend of the 24th and settled into the Marriott Towneplace Suites our accommodation for the week kindly arranged by Alan Gentry the North America Team (NAOGA – North America One-Arm Golf Association) Captain. Alan’s team also stayed at this location.
Team Europe
The Fightmaster kick-off event was held at the house of a friend of NAOGA, David Schmidt. We enjoyed pizza, pasta and various beverages. We thank David for a most enjoyable evening, a great start to the week ahead.
Monday and Tuesday were practice days. On Monday we played at South Park Golf Club. After a morning spent on the practice range and light lunch, a press conference was held with the local TV networks. Keith, Captain Team Europe and Alan made opening speeches and introduced their respective team players.
In the afternoon we played a 4-ball medal competition pairing a player from Team Europe with a player from North America with the best score of the two man team to count. A good first game format providing an opportunity for the players to get to know each other. The winners were Mark Marshall and his American partner. Both teams spent the evening together enjoying a BBQ at a local restaurant.
Tuesday’s practice day was spent at Covered Bridge Golf Club, designed and owned until recently by the great American golfer Fuzzy Zeller.
After a morning spent on the practice range and light lunch the afternoon golf was a four man Shamble competition with each team comprising a One Arm golfer and 3 players from the Fightmaster event sponsors. A Shamble is a variation of a Texas Scramble, where each player plays a tee shot, the team choose the best ‘drive’ and each player then plays their own ball with the best score counting. The competition was won by David Schutsander’s team. The golf was followed by an opening ceremony and food at the golf club.
The Fightmaster Cup match started on Wednesday at the Covered Bridge Golf Club with morning Fourballs and afternoon Foursomes. The North American team had the better of the day winning both sessions 3 – 1, the match score was 6 – 2 at the end of day 1. Well done Cian Arthurs & Stuart Griffin, and Chris Wood & Steven Hutchinson winning their Fourball and Foursome matches respectively. Both teams met up in the evening for dinner at another local restaurant.
On Wednesday we were delighted to welcome to our party, Jerry Woodley, past Society Secretary & Fightmaster Cup Captain, together with his son, and for their support throughout the week.
We were very grateful to the North American team and their sponsors for providing all our food & beverage throughout the week.
The golf on Thursday was played at South Park Golf Club with morning Foursomes and afternoon Fourballs. Attempting to get points on the board we put out our strongest players in the morning Foursomes. The North American team continued to dominate winning the morning session 3.5 – 0.5, well done Cian Arthurs and Mark Marshall on getting our half point. A similar story in the afternoon with the American team winning 3-1, Cian again won his match this time paired with Simon Jackson, well done Simon playing his first Fightmaster. The match score at the end of day 2 was 12.5 – 3.5.
A special mention for 1st time Fightmaster team players Jim Darragh and Rob Jenkins. We agreed with Alan that there would be two nett players for this Fightmaster Cup match, the remainder played scratch matches. Jim and Rob were our nett players and came up against formidable opponents Bob MacDermott and Bart Olivia.
Together with Vice Captain Steven Hutchinson we considered how best to sequence our players to give us the best chance to win Friday’s singles matches. Friday’s singles were played at South Park Golf Club. We performed better narrowly losing the session 6.5 – 5.5.
The North American team were worthy winners and won the match 18.5 – 9.5. The results of all the three day matches will be published shortly. For the 7 matches now played between the two teams, Team Europe lead Team North America by 5 matches to 2.
The evening presentation dinner was held at Big Spring Golf & Country Club. Team Europe passed over and presented the Fightmaster Cup to the winning Captain Alan Gentry.
When I wasn’t playing, as Captain I went from match to match in my Captain’s buggy supporting Team Europe and had the pleasure of seeing fantastic ball striking by players from both teams.
We tried our best and are disappointed to lose. We all played in some great matches and spent an enjoyable week together in Louisville, Kentucky. We look forward to the next match planned to be played in 2025 when we will make every effort to win back the Fightmaster Cup.
Keith Dewhurst, 2023 Fightmaster Cup Captain, Team Europe
