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| The tent and scoreboard are in place and it won't be long now! |
The ball is rolling. Like, really rolling.
“This is my 11th year and the course is in the best shape it has been in since I’ve been here,” said Alex Kirk the HCC head professional. “I think the greens are going to be the fastest we have ever seen them.”
Credit new rollers, green covers, a mild winter, Superintendent Mike Pollard and his crew, and the super of supers, Mother Nature.
Kirk is confident that the 56 two-man teams who will be split into four flights after qualifying will find the condition of the course and the greens to their liking.
“I think so,” he said. “You just have to adjust to the speed. Overall, I think it will bring out the best championship golf.
“We’re playing the ball down in the fairway. We are playing real golf. Between that and the caliber of play I think it will bring out the best in the field.”
The father-son team of Shane and Nick MacDonald is back to defend the championship they won in the annual tournament honoring Tommy Keane, the HCC pro and Dartmouth golf coach from 1922-1966.
“This is probably the top weekend of our summer,” said Kirk. “It is fun for all the people who come back from all over. It is a good melting pot of different groups and ages and talents, and there’s some good golf being played.”
The MacDonalds captured last year’s edition of the Four Ball match play event with a 3-and-1 win over recent Hanover High School graduates Benny Hayes and Nate Choukas. The championship was the fourth overall for Shane MacDonald, the third overall for Nick, and their second playing together.
Hayes and Choukas figure to be just one of the teams pushing to dethrone the champions.
“The McDonalds are always a powerhouse between Nick’s firepower and Shane’s consistency,” said Kirk. “Billy Vielleux is playing really well and Jake Obar is always a solid competitor so they will be tough. But you just never know. You have those guys but then you also have college kids in there like Choukas and Hayes, and Zach Temple – who is playing pretty good – with Mak Lyford again.
“It’s easy to make predictions but the fun thing is they have to go out and do it. That’s why you’ve got to swing the club and see who gets it in the whole the fastest.”
DIVOTS
If there are teams tied for the final spot in the championship flight Friday they will gather at the first tee at 6 p.m. With the rest of the field watching from the Hanover porch, the teams will “march” down the fairway to determine which will be in the championship flight.
“That’s one of the best spectator things here at HCC all summer,” said Kirk. “It’s almost disappointing where there isn’t one. The march is always fun to watch.”
Match play begins Saturday morning with teams needing to keep winning Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to make it to Sunday afternoon’s championship matches.
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