Harry Huizer
Special to The Lake Report

Usually in sports, when a team wins four out of seven matches, it’s enough to take home a championship.

Well, golf can be different, as the annual match between the men’s Ryder Cup team and the women’s Solheim squad showed last Friday at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club.

The women outplayed the men in most of the matches, winning four, tying one and only losing two. But they lost on cumulative points by a score of 23-19.

Let me explain.

The pairs matches pitted seven teams of women against seven men’s twosomes over 18 holes.

The front nine was a team scramble and for the back nine, a better ball format was used. Six points were at stake in each match.

It was a perfect sunny summer morning that started with team pictures and even some humorous trash talk before the first match teed off.

Under captain Martha Cruikshank, the women hoped to win back the Pro’s Cup. And they almost did.

Some outstanding golf was played on both sides.

Newly crowned men’s seniors champ Patrick Craig and partner Drew Porter reeled off six birdies in a row to shoot 30 on the front nine.

However, the women’s duo of Judy Mantle and Ginny Green stormed back on the second nine to win the match 4-2. The men were in shock.

In another match, women’s club champion Louise Robitaille shot a 1-under 35 on the back nine to stun lefties Jim McMacken and John Reynolds, leading to another 4-2 victory for the women. Again, a shocker.

This pattern of dominance continued all morning as the women racked up four match play wins, all by scores of 4-2. Another close match ended in a 3-3 tie.

It seemed the trophy might be returning to the women. But wait.

The men’s side won two tight matches 6-0, which gave them enough points to squeak through and pull off a 23-19 win.

Glen Murray and Don Allen and Ted Carmichael and Peter Falconer got the 12 crucial points needed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The 6-0 score doesn’t tell you how close the two matches were. And it almost doesn’t seem fair after the women dominated by winning the majority of the matches.

They played great as a team, but the men won the cup based on points.

At a luncheon afterward, club pro Max Murphy presented the men with the coveted Pro’s Cup.

We’re sure the women’s team will be working on a way to recapture the trophy next year.