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NCPGA takes Hanna-Wehrman; NCGA wins Staedler-Jetter
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (Oct. 23, 2012) -- The NCGA’s reign in NCGA-NCPGA Cup matches came to end on Tuesday, at least partly. For the first time in 13 years the NCPGA seniors, earned possession of the Staedler-Jetter Cup , beating the NCGA seniors 15 ½ to 12 ½, while the NCGA amateurs retained the Hanna-Wehrman Cup over the NCPGA professionals for a seventh straight year.

After taking an 8-6 lead in team play on Monday, the NCPGA seniors kept their momentum going, winning seven of the 14 matches and halving another to win the singles session 7 ½ to 6 ½. Co-Captains Chris Bitticks and Charlie Gibson knew the fortunate position his team was in after yesterday’s matches and the NCPGA team rallied together to make sure not to squander it.

“I think [NCPGA team member] Larry Babica said it best last night, he said that he had 10 second place medals and he’d trade them all for one first place medal,” said Bitticks.

Going into the singles matches, Bitticks said that there was some strategy involved by placing a couple of stronger players up front instead of the end, knowing that NCGA was likely to frontload some of its lineup. By his estimation the strategy proved to be beneficial, pointing out Michael Cook’s victory over Gary Vanier 3 & 2 early, which helped set the tone early. However, Bitticks will admit that figuring out an order is more or less a guessing game.

“On either team you could draw names out of a hat and you’d have great matches,” said Bitticks.

No matter how the NCPGA team came away with the victory, Bitticks and the NCPGA seniors were just happy to get the monkey off their back.

“Winning is always more fun,” said Bitticks. “There’s just no way around it.”

In the Hanna-Wehrman Cup the NCGA and NCPGA went into the singles matches on Tuesday in a dead heat, as the teams were tied 5-5. The NCGA got off to a quick start capturing the lead by winning the first two matches and never looked back. Matt Cohn earned the NCGA’s first point of the day with a 3 & 2 victory over Steve Watanabe and a couple holes later Nick Moore secured a point with a 1-up victory over Ray Otis.

Robby Salomon halved his match with Joe Dolby in the third match and Andrew Biggadike fell in his match to Rick Leibovich 3 & 1 in the fourth match, but the NCGA team came up big in matches five and six as Jeff Hoffman and Russell Humphrey both secured full points. Hoffman won his match 3 & 1 over Hae Lee, while Russell Humphrey defeated Jeffery Anderson by a whopping 7 & 6 margin. The wins by the recent Master Four-Ball Division champions put their Hanna-Wehrman Cup tally each at a 3-0 mark.

“Humphrey and Hoffman were solid,” said NCGA captain Dan Hansford. “They got the momentum going for the team.”

The final four matches were critical in Hansford’s estimation and he couldn’t have been more pleased with their efforts. Both Ricky Stockton and Josh Stone secured full points for the NCGA with 2 & 1 victories over Stuart Smith and Shawn McEntee, while Andrej Bevins and Danny Paniccia took their matches to the 18th hole before falling 1 up to Mitch Lowe and David Carr, respectively.

“We put our young and fearless golfers against their top pros, and it worked out,” said Hansford, praising Stockton and Stone for their victories.

The all-time series in the both cups, still remain in the NCGA’s favor with it leading in the Hanna-Wehrman Cup 20-17-9 and the Staedler-Jetter Cup 14-5-3.

View results for Hanna-Wehrman Cup Matches

ABOUT THE Hanna-Wehrman Cup Matches

The Hanna-Wehrman Cup features 10 amateur players representing the NCGA (top players from the previous season’s points list) taking on 10 professional players representing the Northern California PGA in a Ryder Cup-like format.

The first day of play consists of two rounds—one round of four-ball match play (better ball) and one round of foursome match play (alternate shot). The second day of play’s final rounds consist of singles match play.

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