WILSON CUP 2024: ‘Salt in the wound’ for Wedgewood sitting out finals at home

The fate that befell the Wedgewood Public Golf Course team arguably ranks as the most unkind of Wilson Cup interclub golf scenarios.

With Wilson Country Club, Willow Springs Country Club and Wedgewood bidding to emerge from Saturday’s semifinals at Wilson Country Club with one of the two finals spots, Wedgewood, wrecked by a poor start, wound up third with 6 ½ points.

WCC set the pace and defending champion Willow Springs followed with 13 ½ points. WCC and Willow Springs teed it up for 2024 supremacy Sunday at Wedgewood, with the first tee shot scheduled for 8 a.m.

Thus, Wedgewood players not only sat out the final 36 holes, but did so with the awareness the championship was going to be contested on their course — and they’re not participating. Wedgewood had avoided that predicament with the arrival of head golf professional Brady Pinner, who led them to a pair of Cup championships.

Long-time WC head pro Reid Hill remembers the WCC team once being smitten by “salt in the wound” happening and assured: “It really sucks.”

But Wedgewood’s 12-member lineup braced itself once Saturday’s 18-hole morning session produced only three points and left it trailing WCC by five and Willow Springs by four. The menacing rough and course management challenged the players.

“”It’s hard when you don’t play here often, and it’s going to be a sure penalty to be in that rough,” explained David Lee, who teamed with Mike Caddy to notch three of a possible four points in Lee’s debut in the Seniors division. “You can’t hit greens and you can’t make birdies. It’s tough to make par.”

Lee reasoned the assignment was the most difficult for the younger guys as the course of nearly 7,000 yards played nearly from the tips.

“We knew we were the underdogs and that we had to play well,” said Lee, who is a long-time WCC member.

Of Lee-Caddy deadlocking the WCC tandem of Bill Boles Jr.-M.A. Tyson and blanking Willow Springs’ Mike Kennedy-Butch O’Briant, the 55-year-old Lee noted: “We did a good job; we won three of our four (nine-hole) matches. We played really solid and had fun.”

But the highly-regarded pair of Mark Whitley-Travis Hux managed only a point, while Jody O’Neal, who turned in blistering performances each of the previous two years, was shut out in partnering with Joey Lamm, also a WCC member.

Yet, Lee found humor in a situation that didn’t prompt laughs.

In playing in the Senior ranks this year, Lee quipped: “My value was at an all-time high at age 55.”

But when he competed as an under-50 entrant, he acknowledged: “At age 54, my value was at an all-time low.”

But of not playing in the championship match on his home course, Lee admits: “It’s salt in the wound.”

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