Team Metro Concludes the Mid-America Junior Cup
St. Louis, MO - We had two cool sunny days at Glen Echo Country Club for the Mid-America Junior Cup. For day one, we started with foursome matches in the morning and ended with four-ball matches in the afternoon. The foursomes were formatted with one boy and one girl, while the four-ball were the boys and the girls paired together. For the second day, all players participated in a singles match. In all rounds the 15 and under kids play against each other and the same applies to the 18 and under. The Mid-America Junior Cup is a competitive matchup of the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association versus the Central Links Golf.
The Team Lineups:
The Team Lineups:
| Team Metropolitan | Team Central Links |
| Eva Brown | Jacob Fratzel |
| John DeLuca | Josh Fratzel |
| Eric Ewing | Hank Homsey |
| Caden Fehr | Betsy Mitchell |
| Zoey Ficken | Hadley Neese |
| Avery McLaughlin | Jenny Sun |
| Cole Packingham | Gabby Vineyard |
| Ally Suhre | Bennett Warren |
Starting off in the foursomes were the 18 and under kids. Match one saw Avery McLaughlin and Eric Ewing for Team Metropolitan versus Hadley Neese and Bennett Warren for Team Central Links. It was a slow start for Team Metropolitan in this first match but they fought hard with things looking up on the back nine. McLaughlin and Ewing would end up losing the match 4 & 3. The second match out was Cole Packingham and Eva Brown for Team Metropolitan against Jacob Fratzel and Jenny Sun for Team Central Links. Packingham and Brown held control for much of the match and fought through Hole 18. They too would fall 1 Down at the end. The third match of the day was Caden Fehr and Zoey Ficken for Team Metropolitan versus Josh Fratzel and Betsy Mitchell for Team Central Links. Fratzel and Mitchell started off strong, but Fehr and Ficken started making a comeback on Hole 7. Despite their efforts Fehr and Ficken would lose 2 & 1. In the final morning match, Johnny DeLuca and Ally Suhre for Team Metropolitan took on Hank Homsey and Gabby Vineyard for Team Central Links. The match remained close until mid-round when Homsey and Vineyard broke away. DeLuca and Suhre would lose 4 & 3. The morning was a clean sweep for Team Central Links, leaving Team Metropolitan with nothing on the board.
Team Metropolitan took time to regroup before the afternoon, ready to fight back. This time Suhre and Ficken for Team Metropolitan played Vineyard and Mitchell for Team Central Links. Vineyard and Mitchell took an early lead in the match. Suhre and Ficken tried to make a comeback mid-round, but would eventually fall 5 & 3. McLaughlin and Brown of Team Metropolitan faced Neese and Sun of Team Central Links next. Winning the first two holes, McLaughlin and Brown took the driver's seat. They held on for the remainder of the match, allowing Central Links to only win one hole, and getting Team Metropolitan’s first point on the board with a 3 & 2 win. Next was DeLuca and Fehr for Team Metropolitan versus [Josh] Fratzel and Homsey of Team Central Links. Fratzel and Homsey took the lead on the third hole, but DeLuca and Fehr turned it around two holes later. The match would go to the eighteenth green - and battling darkness as well - where DeLuca and Fehr would not give up a hole to win Team Metropolitan’s second point by winning 1 Up. Last off were Ewing and Packingham of Team Metropolitan against Warren and [Jacob] Fratzel of Team Central Links. Ewing and Packingham won the first hole, providing hope for a good match. But despite their efforts, they would lose the match 4 & 3. Following this afternoon wave of play, the scoreboard read: Team Metropolitan 2.0, Team Central Links 6.0.
After a good night's rest, Team Metropolitan was ready for action in the Singles Matches, hopeful they could get some more points on the board. Team Metropolitan’s DeLuca started things off against Team Central Links’ [Josh] Fratzel. DeLuca got off to a strong start winning the first and then fourth holes. It was not until Hole 8 that Fratzel cut into his lead. DeLuca fought to hold on, but eventually fell 4 & 2. Fehr for Team Metropolitan took on Homsey of Team Central Links. It was a tough match on both sides, staying close for much of the match. Fehr would finish the day with a loss of 3 & 2. Starting out the girls were Ficken of Team Metropolitan versus Mitchell of Team Central Links. The match was tied through three holes before Mitchell broke away. Ficken did win the sixth hole, but it just was not enough to rattle Mitchell. Ficken would end her weekend on a tough 6 & 5 loss. Suhre of Team Metropolitan came ready to face Vineyard of Team Central Links. Suhre got off to a hot start and did not look back, going six up through seven holes. Vineyard won Hole 9, but Suhre didn’t let that stop her on her way to a 7 & 6 victory to earn Team Metropolitan’s first point of the day.
First after the halfway mark were Brown of Team Metropolitan versus Sun of Team Central Links. This match teetered back and forth all day, keeping them on their toes. Brown would enter the eighteenth hole one up, but Sun would equalize the match on the green for the pair to finish Tied. McLaughlin for Team Metropolitan took on Neese for Team Central Links next. McLaughlin found herself up after the first hole, but that was short lived. No matter what happened throughout the round, McLaughlin fought hard to bring it back for her team. She took the match to the final hole and just could not get the ball to fall to win the hole. McLaughlin would lose one down. Ewing for Team Metropolitan faced [Jacob] Fratzel for Team Central Links. Fratzel took the lead on the first hole, but Ewing took the lead back on Holes 4 and 5. Though he tried to hold on, Ewing would end up falling 4 & 3. In the final match of the day, Team Metropolitan’s Packingham closed it out against Team Central Links’ Warren. Warren would lead after Hole 2, but Packingham took back control of the match on Hole 6. Packingham got to two up in the match and worked hard to bring home that final win, but he would end up settling for a Tied match on the final hole.
At the end of the weekend Team Metropolitan would earn just 4 points, while Team Central Links got 12 points. This would make Team Central Links the Champion to take the trophy back to Kansas City. Next year, they will play host and Team Metropolitan will be back for redemption.