Enders wins back cup by dominating singles

    Members of the Enders Lake Golf Course team used a dominating performance in singles to defeat the Imperial Country Club team to win the 18th playing of the Chase County Cup.
    Ender’s win snapped a three-year winning streak by Imperial, repeating their winning margin of 2015, 15-9.
    That mark stands as the second largest winning margin. Imperial recorded the largest winning margin in 2018, 17.5-6.5.
    Enders evened out the number of wins with each team winning the cup nine times.
    The match play event alternated between the two clubs,  with Enders hosting the event this year.
Match play format
    The event is played under match play rules over a possible 27 holes.
    The first nine holes consists of best ball team play, known as four ball. The 12-man teams pair up into six twosomes to take on twosomes from the other team.
    In four ball, both team members play their own ball and  match the best of their scores on the hole against that of the other twosome. Each match is worth one point for a total of six team points.
    The second nine holes are played in an alternating stroke format with the twosomes alternating shots, also known as foursomes. Team members also alternate which holes they tee off on. Again, one point is at stake per match for a total of six team points.
    The final nine holes features 12 head-to-head singles matches, with one point up for grabs in each singles match for an overall total of 24 points.
Doubles-single matches
    In the four ball matches, Imperial won three matches and halved two for four points with Enders winning one match outright and halving two.
    Enders reversed Imperial’ 4-2 lead in foursomes winning four matches to Imperial’s two.
    That evened the match at 6-6 going into the singles with 12 more points to be decided. Enders needed to win at least 6.5 points to dethrone Imperial, who could have held onto the cup with 6 points.  
    Enders won five of the first six singles matches and clinched the cup by winning the next two matches. They finished with nine wins in singles compared to Imperial’s three wins to make the final point tally 15-9.
    Golfers competing for Enders this year included Joe Humphrey, Jess Vapenik, Jesse West, Craig Poppe, Joel Burke, Troy Space, Matt Teply, Matt Jablonski, Matt Borchers, Rick Einspahr, Aaron Keiser, Matt Klima. Lee Denker served as the team’s non-playing captain.
    Golfers competing for Imperial included Dan Russell, Kirk Wilson, Derek Russell, Eric Exum, Tom Luhrs, Jim Pirog, Eric McDaniel, Aaron Cyboron, Travis Wheeler, Bruce Wheeler, Russ Pankonin and Brad Spady. Bob Thomas served as Imper­ial’s non-playing captain.
    Results of the matches are as follows:
Four Ball (Best Ball): Pankonin/Spady-I halved with Space/Burke-E; Borchers/Einspahr-E defeated Dan Russell/Wilson-I 3&1; Derek Russell/Exum-I defeated West/Poppe-E 3&2;  Wheeler/Wheeler-I halved with Humphrey/Vapenik-E; McDaniel/Cyboron-I defeated Klima/Keiser-E 1 up; Luhrs/Pirog-I defeated Teply/Jablonski-E 4&3.
Enders: 2 points, Imperial: 4 points.
Foursomes (Alternating Shot):  Space/Burke-E defeated Pankonin/Spady-I 2&1; Borchers/Einspahr-E defeated Dan Russell/Wilson-I 3&2; Derek Russell/Exum-I defeated West/Poppe-E 1 up;  Humphrey/Vapenik-E defeated Wheeler/Wheeler-I 1 up;  Klima/Keiser-E defeated McDaniel/Cyboron-I 3&2; Luhrs/Pirog-I defeated Teply/Jablonski-E 1 up.
Enders: 4 points, Imperial: 2 points.
Singles: West-E defeated Pankonin-I 3&2; Einspahr-E defeated Spady-I 3&2; Poppe-E defeated Dan Russell-I  1 up; Burke-E defeated Wilson-I 3&2; Travis Wheeler-I defeated Space-E 2&1; Teply-E defeated Bruce Wheeler-I 3&2; Vapenik-E defeated Exum-I 1 up; Humphrey-E defeated Derek Russell-I 2&1; Klima-E defeated Cyboron-I 4&2; McDaniel-I defeated Borchers-E 3&1; Jablonski-E defeated Pirog-I 2&1; Luhrs-I defeated Keiser-E 3&2.
Enders: 9 points, Imperial: 3 points,  
Final standings: Enders: 15 points Imperial: 9 points.