UMGC wins first state A-Team championship
After making a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th green that clinched the Maryland A-Team championship for the University of Maryland Golf Course on Sunday, Ted Coon dissolved into tears.
Leading his teammates to their first state championship was a moving experience, especially for Coon, 43, who has won so many individual club championships that he’s lost count.
But his thoughts were not so much with his team as they were with longtime UMGC member Jeff Blauvelt, 47, who is losing a battle with brain cancer.
“We thought about dedicating the tournament to Jeff, but then we didn’t want to lose it for him,” Coon said. “Pretty much the whole day, I was thinking about him.”
For decades, Coon and Blauvelt have walked the fairways of UMGC as playing partners and friends. They participated in many A-Team tournaments. But the blue-collar club was often overmatched by the bluebloods of the Washington area — the Congressionals, Bethesdas, Chevy Chases and Columbias, loaded with players with scratch handicaps.
But the tide turned this year as UMGC rolled to six straight victories in April, all by decisive margins. In the semifinals on Saturday, UMGC dominated Chevy Chase, 14.5-3.5. In the title match on Sunday, UMGC handled Rolling Road, 11.5-6.5.
“We’ve always had seven or eight players who can compete with anyone,” said UMGC pro Jeff Maynor. “The difference now is we’re deep — 14 players strong.”
In the last four rounds, UMGC beat teams that had combined to win five of the last seven MSGA A-Team titles. In the Round of 16, 2006 and 2007 champion Bretton Bay gave UMGC its toughest test, 10.5-7.5. In the quarterfinals, UMGC toppled defending champion Beaver Creek, 11-7.
Maynor and his partner John Moheyer won 5.5 of six available points over the weekend and lost only one of six matches in the tournament.
Playing at home, Coon and Dwayne Nmezi won five of six points this weekend, completing a sweep of their six matches overall. Blair Kennedy and recent Maryland graduate Mike McGrain won all six points last weekend to also complete their April sweep of six tournament matches.
Kennedy, 24, who does marketing for the club and qualified for the Nationwide Tour’s Melwood Prince George’s County Open last June, blistered his home course with birdies on five of six holes on one stretch of the back nine.
Also contributing for UMGC were Steve Martin, Bart Mease, Dan Walker, Tim Connor, Ron Thomas, veteran standouts Vance Welch and Mike Wah, and Tommy Hanna, who became eligible last weekend after wrapping up his career with the University of Maryland golf team. There was little question, however, who the tournament meant the most to.
“To be honest, I was welling up,” said Coon, the 2008 Maryland Public Links champion. “Just a very emotional day.”
