the groundskeeper made the challenge, the greenskeeper accepted it, and the Bernardsville Country Club hosted it. the first BCC/SVCC Inter-club Championship was played on June 14th, 2007. a team of four from the Steeple View Country Club, captained by greenskeeper billy jo, against four members of the Bernardsville Country Club, battling for the Quantus Certaminus Trophy.
due to scheduling difficulties, competitors gathered on a thursday afternoon to compete in a three round match play competition. the first round being a two man team best ball scramble, the second, a two man team alternate shot format, and then four singles matches, eight matches in all (two points for a win, one for a tie) to be played on the eight hoops of the BCC.
the BCC presented it’s pairings and the SVCC made it’s match choices. the best ball matches paired up the groundskeeper, BCC & SVCC champ, with jef “scully” dreitlein, aka, “bad guys” against past SVCC champ derek schultz and billy jo (best player not to have won a championship) auld, also past BCC champ mike rosenberg and pete “the eagle” johnson, aka, “goods guys” against tony “TD” d’anna and robert “pops” auld.
the competition began with two birdies from the first group, halving #1 O.K. Corral (95yds). after two pars at #2 One Bad Apple (127yds), jef and the BCC captain went on a birdie run at #3 sight Unseen (113yds), #4 Octopine (103yds) and a third at the fifth hoop (clockwise #1 again). although captain billy jo made a amazing desperation birdie chip on the sixth, it was too little, too late and they lost 3 & 1. in the second match, mike and pete parred their way to a 3 & 2 victory. the BCC was up four points to zero and the BCC’s spirits were high, very very high.
the counter clockwise second round alternate shot pairings were the same but the outcome was not. after going down one at the first (#5 Octopine’s Revenge, 83yds), the BCC “bad guys” were one up at the seventh (#7 Big Roundup, 129yds), when captain billy jo once again made a long birdie chip to tie the match, turn the momentum, and won on the last hoop #8 Barn’s Window (111yds), when the BCC team was unable to make par. in the other match, the BCC “good guys”, mike and pete were up one until tony and robert birdied the fifth, #5. parred #6 Pines Gauntlet (109yds) and #7, and won 2 & 1.
the competition was all even, four singles matches left to decide who was more able on this day, nine points were needed by the SVCC to take the coveted Quantus Certaminus Trophy home with them. the singles matches paired up the two captain’s, then mike vs. tony, pete “the eagle” johnson against derek and finally jef vs. robert, in that order. in the first match, the BCC groundskeeper might have found revenge for his second round loss to the SVCC greenskeeper, with two birdies and a 4 & 3 win, but tony defeated mike 3 & 2 while derek and robert both won 5 & 3 in their matches against pete and jef. the Steeple View Country Club team, in their matching outfits, were down but not out, they came back, they overcame a tough BCC course, an able BCC team and in the BCC groundskeeper’s own words, “a cold day in hell”.
