Santa Paula Men’s Golf Club has their President Cup Championships

June 21, 2019

C Championship - Cliff Gar-Mon defeats Cesar Esqueda for the title.

By Dan Diaz

Santa Paula Times Published 6/21/2019

Santa Paula Men’s Golf Club had their annual Presidents Cup Tournament culminating with the final round last Sunday.

There are three major home tournaments for the Men’s Club through the year. The Presidents Cup, the Club Championship and the Corona Cup (Latinos versus Gringos).

The first one of the year is always the Presidents Cup, open to all club members with three different divisions. With Santa Paula’s Mountain View closed, the Men’s Club now plays at Sterling Hills Golf Course as their home base.

Back in May, any club member interested in participating in the Presidents Cup must qualify by playing a round and according to your handicap you will be placed in one of three divisions.

Low handicappers play in the A Flight, Medium players in the B flight and high handicappers in the C flight. In golf, with everyone’s playing ability at different levels the three flights help to balance out the field.

Even within each flight, depending on your handicap a lower handicapped player will give strokes to his opponent. For example if your handicap is a 10 (meaning you average 10 strokes above par whenever you play) and your opponent is a 14 handicap, you must give him a total of 4 extra strokes (this are given one each on the 4 hardest holes) to help balance out the scorecard and make the match even.

So if that player scores a 4 but his opponent scores a 5 and it is one of the four hardest holes, both players push because the opponents score of 5 becomes a score of net 4.

Another difference of play during the Presidents Cup is the type of scoring. It is called Match Play. In Match Play the final score does not matter. The match is determined hole by hole. Again if one person scores a 4 and the other a 7, the person with the 4 wins the hole but the difference of three is not added to the final score.

The match is determined by who wins the most holes, not the total shots after 18 holes.

After qualifying for the Presidents Cup every flight has 8 players competing against each other in a single elimination format. Winners advance, losers go home. Each match is played over three weekends with the Finals on the third Sunday.

In the Championship C Flight round, Cliff Garmon with a 26 handicap played against Cesar Esqueda with a 25 handicap. Taking an early lead, Cesar was up two after three holes played. Coming back into the picture Cliff Garmon battled back and after the front nine he was leading by one, winning four holes, losing three and tying two.

As they went into the back nine, the match tightened up as they both tied the first two holes, then as Cesar won the third hole the game was all even with six holes to play.

This is when Cliff Garmon pulled out his elixir of medication that in Kentucky is extremely popular.

Settling his nerves and getting back in control Mr. Garmon won the next three holes and after tying on hole #16 he won the match and the C Flight Championship 3 & 2 (up 3 holes with 2 to play).

In the B Flight Championship Match, Tom Calvin with a lofty 21 handicap competed against Justo Marquez and his 21 handicap. Starting the match Tom Calvin took a lead and inflated it to a three-hole advantage after seven holes. Fighting back, Justo Marquez won the last two holes in the front nine and narrowed Calvin’s lead to only one hole.

B Championship - Tom Calvin sandbags his way to victory over Justo Marquez.

Going into the back nine after birding the #10 hole, Tom Calvin took a two hole lead and did not look back as Mr. Marquez’s game slowly unraveled like a ball of yarn. Losing four of the first five holes in the back Justo could not recover and eventually lost the B Championship to Tom Calvin 5 & 4 (up 5 holes with 4 to play).

In the final match of the day it pitted brother versus brother as older brother Jake Phillips went up against his kid brother Matt Phillips for the A Flight Championship. With Jake holding a 10 handicap and Matt at a 15, Jake had to give his Little Bro 5 strokes.

With the five-stroke margin everyone knew this was going to be a close match and the crowd was not disappointed.

As Matt held his own during the front nine, the score went back and forth with each brother winning three holes each and tying three holes. Going into the back nine it seemed that older brother Jake was slowly taking control as after the first three holes in the back nine, he was up two holes and kept that lead for three more holes.

Not giving up and having 27 years of sibling rivalry experience, Kid Brother Matt birdied hole #15 and beat Jake on #17 to tie the game going into the last hole.

As both brothers maintained par on #18, the match after regulation had to go into overtime. Up until this time if you were scoring normal, Jake shot a 74 and Matt a 79. This shows a great match so far with minimal mistakes on both sides.

The match now goes back to the #1 hole and both players start all over again and will continue playing until one player loses a hole.

Leading off, Matt hits an errant drive into the hazard on the right side of the fairway ending up having to take a drop and then finishing by bogeying the hole (one over par).

As Jake drove the fairway, then landed on the green in regulation he pared the hole and ended up winning the hole, the match and the Presidents Cup A Flight, 1 Up after 19 Holes.

Big Bro over Little Bro…

Great match…next time Matty Boy.

In the consolation rounds Angel Quirarte beat Louis Pelupessy for third place in the C Flight, Ron Araiza beat Juan Guiterrez for third place in the B Flight and Rob Olivera beat Doug Whitney for third place in the A Flight.

Another fun tournament with a solid group of men.

With various tournaments every month including an up coming trip to Palm Springs, the Men’s Club always welcomes new members and enjoys sharing the good times.

If interested in joining the Men’s Club contact Handicap Chairman Doug Whitney at: doug@gowinco.com

A Flight Championship - Jake Phillips narrowly defeats Kid Brother Matt on the 19th hole for the win.





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