Official Website
Corn & Soda
Album
1999 - Kiawah Island
Players and Synopsis
Players
Mike Brown, Dave Bootcheck, Doug Fusco, John Fagan, Bill Loos, Dan Kniola, Pete Stracke, John Gieselmann, Eric Olson, Tom Oliger, Dave Matthews, Mike Kazmerski
Courses
Osprey Point, Turtle Point, The Ocean Course,
Synopsis
The 15th annual C&S featured the Cup’s 50th matches and was as bizarre, unbelievable and unpredictable as all previous C&S Cups combined. It all started as we pulled into Kiawah for the practice round and Brown received a call from Loos that he was let go from his job at AMP and out of family consideration, would not be playing in the C&S. It looked like the Cup would be played with only 11 players. Later in the evening, Loos received the Purple Heart award as he decided to play regardless of his circumstances. The next unbelievable moment was when Bootcheck could not fly in to Charleston as scheduled and arrived at 2 am, missing the opening ceremonies. The unpredictable began at the opening ceremonies as the the player draw pitted the sales guys, with the exception of Brown, against the engineers. The weather channel predicted rain, rain, and more rain for Friday and Saturday so the Scramble Championship was moved to Thursday. When Thursday dawned, Soda (aka team sales) were extremely confident and at the end of the 2-man scramble matches, held a 4 to 2 lead. As the front moved into Kiawah, the Scramble Championship began in typical Ocean Course fashion with flag sticks bending side ways, hats flying off heads, and mist blasting in everyone’s faces. Yet, in what will stand the test of time as the best Scramble Championship round ever, the team of Stracke, Matthews, Olson, and Kniola shot a 4 under par 68 to win by 3 strokes. Conditions were so tough that 1 putt pars became the norm on most par 3’s and 4’s. Unfortunately the weather channel forecast was accurate and while it poured early on Friday, there was a ray of hope 100 miles away in Savannah, GA. As we drove farther south the heavy rain dissipated into light sprinkles that the competitors dealt with on the 1st tee. But there was no escaping the heavy rain and by the end of the round, everyone was cold and soaked while team Soda enjoyed a 7.5 to 4.5 lead entering the final day. Saturday dawned with playable conditions on the Ocean Course in light rain and wind. By the 10th tee, Soda’s 3 point lead had been erased. The momentum had clearly swung and Soda (aka team sales) could no longer stop the surge. In a bizarre end to a bizarre week, the 2nd edition of the “War by the Shore” was also decided on the famed par 3 17th hole. Loos executed a difficult shot out over the ocean trusting the wind to bring it back softly onto the green (and felt a lot better about his decision to play), and a few moments later clinched the Cup in the greatest comeback in C&S history.