Bobby "Rabbit King" Myape took down Jon "the Chemist" McSweeny to claim "Top Dawg Honor for the 2023 season played at Oak Valley GC a few weeks ago after pulling several rabbits out of his golf cap including, the one on the 18th hole where Jon missed a makable birdie putt to tie the match. I'm unsure if anyone checked his cap for tar residual after the round. As the Top Dawg Race winner, Bobby earned the captaincy badge for Team El Rey at our annual Ryder Cup event in August. Jon will captain Team El Verde.
Team Rattlers! came from behind after the trailing Team Asterisks! took an early lead after the first three groups had finished. Team Rattlers!' last two groups rallied back and snatched the victory from the Team Asterisks! with the final scores of 17-13. The Top Dawg's Playoff starts next month. The official playoff bracket will be published in the coming days. Congrats to the 12 qualifiers. The top four seeds (Myape, Maretsky, Woo, and Levine- TB)will get a bye in the first round. First Round Playoff: Greg Franklin(5th seed) will play his first round against Doung Sutton (12th seed). Lee (6th seed) will play the young McSweeny (11th seed). Barraza(7th seed) will play Mr. Garay (TB- 10th seed) and finally, Gerns (8th seed) will play his buddy Esperti(9th seed). Please arrange your 1st round match ASAP and let us know of the match result.
A solid final round by critical players down the stretch at the challenging and pristine La Purisima GC propels Team El Verde to repeat its claim to the RD Ryder Cup Trophy. Team El Verde has won back-to-back victories over Team El Rey. Congratulations to Team El Verde's Captain, Stu Levine, and his right-hand man, Mark Allen, for their feast this year. For 2024, RD Ryder Cup 2024 is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 8/8/2024 through Saturday, 8/10/2024. RD Committee already reserved La Purisima's Farmhouse as the Ryder Cup's headquarters for next year.
Silver Oaks Team is definitely a more popular vineyard in Napa. Nevertheless, somewhere over the rainbow, Ozzie led the Isosceles Team to victory at the wet Rio Hondo GC; 18-12. Next up, a visit to our good friend Art Gevarra on 4/16/23 at his course, El Prado GC in Chino Hills. Marc Marestsky broke a six-way tie for the Top Dawg and has a narrow lead for the 2023 Top Dawg Honor after two events.
The 2021 top Dawg, Stu Levine, defends his Top Dawg title against Dave McSweeny this past Sunday at RD's Season Opener playing at Tukwet Canyon GC. The weather was great and the golf course is in good shape overall except for the bunkers. Both of them played very well but a few mistakes in the back nine propelled Dave to a 2-up lead until hole 17th, a challenging par 3, where both of them tied the score on that hole and gave the victory to Dave, 2 up. Congratulation to both of them for their accomplishments especially to Stu who came pretty close to being our first back-to-back winner of the Top Dawg. For our first event, The Eagles beat the Chiefs 25-17. Our next event at Rio Hondo GC is open for sign-up at our website. The new tournament fee includes all buy-ins. Don't forget to renew your RD membership. Fairways and Greens!
Strong performances from all team members propel Team El Verde to capture the 2022 RD Ryder Cup with the final score of 59-37. Kudo to Assist Team Captain Mark Allen who guided the team to victory in absence of the Stu Levine, the Team Captain, who sat out due to personal health. We were blessed with good weather all three days of the competitions. Both courses are in fabulous shape. Special thanks to Ruben Hernandez and Val Garay for stepping in at the last minute to replace two players that unable to play. There are two players with perfect scores; 5-0, Jon McSweeney and Phil Rafferty. Congratulations to both players. They earned a max of 14 points each this year which is similar to the one accomplished by Jaime Montes last year. Kudo to Marc Maretsky who singlehandedly won his morning fourball match at the difficult La Purisima course against the El Rey Team despite playing by himself after his partner withdrew from the competition a day earlier. For 2023, the RD Ryder Cup is tentatively scheduled for Thursday 8/17/23 through Saturday 8/19/23. Next year's Team Captains will be Stu Levine (Team El Verde) and Greg Franklin (Team El Rey).