Cape Golf Team Wins First Match of 2011 Season
March 25, 2011
The Cape Henlopen High School golf team won what turned out to be a relatively easy first match victory of their 2011 season, over the Smyrna High Eagles, 177-207.
The Vikings hosted the March 22 match on the front nine at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, on a typically brisk, windy opening day.
Head Coach Dave Inglis mentioned that Smyrna lost all of its varsity squad from last year, which was an impressive bunch. By comparison, this year’s Eagles look like they will be struggling a bit.
A Henlopen Conference golf match puts six players from each team into three sets of four golfers, with the lowest four scores for each side making up the totals for the competition. Typically the players begin play simultaneously on three different holes, but for this match the teams teed off on only two holes.
That didn’t help speed up the pace of play, which is often notoriously slow among competitive high school matches. The last group didn’t finish until 6:30 p.m., three hours after their start.
That qualifies as a Gilligan round (a three-hour tour). With warmer weather and improving skills, however, matches later in the season should not take as long to complete.
Junior Shane Ghigliotty earned medalist honors for the match with his 41 total. “I had a good time. At the beginning I was struggling a bit. Then I started hitting more solid shots,” Ghigliotty said. “I birdied the [par-5] ninth hole, and doubled the 6th hole. I parred the seventh and eighth holes, and finished with a par on the first hole.”
Ghigliotty almost chipped in for eagle on the par 5 ninth hole, missing by perhaps two inches.
Senior Devin Medd took second among all other players with his 42, including an impressive birdie on the ninth hole. “I had 197 yards for my second shot to the green,” Medd said. “I used a five-iron.”
That approach shot landed on the green and rolled to a stop 10 feet or so below the hole, set in the back third of the green. Medd’s eagle attempt slid to a stop short of the hole, but he easily converted the birdie putt.
James Fenstermaker picked up where he left off at the end of the 2010 season, with a 45 that pleased the Cape junior. “I definitely felt a lot better this year than I did at the beginning of last year,” he said. “I expect to do better.”
Fenstermaker is no fan of early spring golf. “It was windy and cold, and I don’t like that. I had four or five pars, and some doubles. I could have done better if it wasn’t so cold.”
Nick Purnell completed the team scoring with his 49, about which he suggested the less said the better. “I played well after the fourth hole,” he said, which included parring the fifth and ninth holes.
Junior Matthew Dernoga competed in his first varsity golf match, and seemed to accept his 51 as a sort of breaking in score. “I was kind of nervous,” he said. As for playing his first varsity round, he said, “It was cool. I liked it. I had a couple doubles and a triple, and parred the seventh hole. It was pretty windy.”
Coach Inglis said, “I’m pretty happy with how we did. We go to Sussex Pines next, to play Sussex Central.”
Another charity golf tournament opportunity
The Boys and Girls Club of Rehoboth Beach will hold their First Annual Irish Eyes Open on Thursday, June 23, with a shotgun start at noon at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club.
The tournament raises funds for the Boys and Girls Club, whose mission is to provide opportunities for the educational, vocational, social, health, and moral development of its members. The Rehoboth Club opened just two years ago and already serves more than 50 children with daily after-school programming daily, as well as a Summer Fun Club for children in the area.
Individual golfers can register for $250, and corporate hole sponsors (4 golfers, 4 add'l guests for reception, sign at hole. plus recognition at reception) can register for only $1200. Other sponsorship opportunities are available. For more details go to www.bgclubs.org or call 302-260 9864.
Shaping up for the new golf season
March 18, 2011
Preparing for this year’s new golf season will be a little harder than usual, and I prefer to blame it on the weather.
Unlike prior Cape Region winters, this one had few if any mild days, where one could feel a tad adventurous about playing a round of golf in the high 40s, as long as the wind wasn’t too brisk.
I recently returned to the practice range at Shawnee Country Club, where I hadn’t played since last November.
I would love to say that my golf swing came back to me immediately, but that would be stretching things just a bit—a huge bit, in fact.
The mats at the range are pretty forgiving, but there were plenty of squirrelly shots, both right and left, mixed in with the occasional “yeah, that’s it.”
On the morning of the next day, several body parts also announced that they were not used to the strains of the practice session. They were in the mood to remind me that returning to golf after a long absence requires some physical reconditioning.
Therefore, I have returned to our basement exercise area, and have re-acquainted myself with the free weights, the Joe Weider cable weight station, and a few other torture devices.
My year-round exercise routine always includes 30-minute sessions on a stationary bicycle, several times a week. At this point, however, I should be increasing that regiment to a minimum of six days per week.
As for weightlifting, I have come around to the notion that repetitive lifting of lower weights is better for my golf game than attempting to set new age-group records for total poundage.
Based on my own experience, it’s not critically important to do weightlifting exercises that mimic the golf swing. It’s better for me to push and pull my normally deskbound muscles into better condition in a more general fashion. That means bench presses, lateral pulldowns, leg lifts, curling, and the other basic routines.
For specific golf muscle workouts, I use a weighted golf club that looks a bit like a five-iron, with a special grip intended to place your hands in the correct position. Fifteen to twenty slow, full swings per day seems to help bring me back into golfing shape, without risking injury.
For your own workouts, you might consider a consultation with not only your friendly local golf professional, but also your family physician. They can help you decide how much time and effort for your workouts is safe for you.
Preparing for the new season is not just a matter of your own physical conditioning, however. Take a look at your golf clubs, and see which ones could use new grips. The Cape Region golf shops and the local pros will be happy to help you with the replacement process.
I Hate It When That Happens
Some golfers collect logo golf balls. Others collect scoring pencils from the courses they play. I collect ball-markers.
Markers are usually colorful bits of metal, sometimes with magnetic elements to keep them attached to a ball-mark repair tool or a hat clip. Many golfers use special coins as a ball-marker alternative, such as a Canadian Loonie or a bi-metal British 2-pounder.
A recent USGA Ruling of the Day involved a ball marker that apparently wasn’t up to the task.
A player marks his ball position with a coin, and presses the coin into place with his putter, after removing the ball. Some yards away, he then notices that his marker coin somehow stuck to the bottom of his putter.
According to the USGA, there’s no penalty involved. That’s because the ball-marker’s movement occurred while actually marking the ball’s spot on the green.
The remedy is straightforward. Just return the ball or marker where the ball was on the green originally, or at least as close as you (and your playing partners, if desired) can recreate it.
New golf coach for Cape looking forward to first season
March 11, 2011
There are a lot of similarities between ice hockey and golf, and the new coach of the Cape Henlopen High School golf team is particularly well suited to take advantage of that fact.
Dave Inglis recently assumed his head coaching duties for the Viking squad, as the team began its initial practice sessions for the 2011 season. The 55-year-old ex-Coastie Chief Boatswain’s Mate didn’t begin playing golf until he reached his 30s, but his playing history in ice hockey goes much farther back, to club hockey days in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey.
“I played when I was a kid, and then coached ice hockey for years with kids’ teams,” Inglis said. “There are a lot of similarities, in how you prepare mentally for a match, in physical fitness, and especially in developing your hand-eye coordination.”
He also mentioned the fact that an effective swing in both sports requires a pivot off the hips. We both noted that there are dozens of very good golfers who happen to play in the National Hockey League, so Inglis certainly has a point.
The coach’s golf experience started when he was in the service. “I had lessons in my teens, but golf wasn’t cool then. I wish I’d taken it up sooner,” he said.
Inglis retired from the Coast Guard after 26 years, including stints on the east coast, Haiti, Guantanamo, Cuba, and Taylor’s Island in Chesapeake Bay. He moved with his family to the Cape Region six years ago, after working in Atlantic City as the manager of a Philadelphia Flyers-affiliated hockey rink. His golf coaching experience started several years ago, when he became assistant coach for former Viking head coach Claudio Smarelli.
“Claude’s been a great help to me and the golf program. I don’t think there would be a successful program at Cape without him for all those years,” Inglis said.
Inglis said his handicap once hovered around 28, but in the last year or so he’s brought it down to 12, playing regularly at The Rookery golf course near Milton. “With both knees replaced and a back injury, the lack of flexibility has actually helped my game,” he smiled.
As for his approach to coaching, Inglis said his perspective on what’s truly important comes from his military experience. “You learn what’s really critical, and what isn’t. This is golf, so I’m trying to keep it a bit laid back. I want to try and keep it light. Let’s have some fun. I hope to bring that to the team.”
Inglis also appreciates the help of the Cape Region golf pros at Kings Creek and Rehoboth Beach Country Clubs. “They’ve been really supportive.” In fact, Kings Creek teaching pro Chris Krueger is volunteering time with the team when he returns to the area in late March.
The Vikings began their practice sessions March 4. Returning senior varsity players include Devon Medd, James and Matthew Kersey, and Nicholas Purnell. Purnell and Medd both said they are certain that the team will outperform last year’s 12th place finish in the State Championship.
Achieving that kind of performance will call upon the contributions to team scoring provided by juniors Shane Ghigliotty and James Fenstermaker. Sophomore Michael Johnson and Freshman Nate Griffith are also hoping to play on the varsity team, along with Casy Bittner.
In addition, Sophomore Esther Kung and ninth-grader Amanda Flores are hoping to continue the tradition of talented young women playing for Cape’s golf team.
The team’s first match is currently scheduled against Smyrna High School March 22.