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| Conrad mired in third place in Ryder Cup |
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| Wednesday, 27 June 2007 09:35 | |||||||
 BLASTING OUT Conrad golfer Carman Jensen blasts out of trouble on the 502-yard par five first hole during Ryder Cup play at the Pondera Golf Club on Friday. Conrad placed third in the annual event. I-O by Buck Traxler The event is a two-day 54-hole match involving Conrad, Cut Bank and Shelby golfers played on a rotating basis at two different cities, 36 holes on the first day and then 18 holes for the finals. The matches are loosely set up in the format of the professional Ryder Cup, pitting the U.S. against European players. Here, players go against each in a team best ball format and then have a team-alternate shot format on the first day and individual match play over the final 18 holes. This year, the first 36 holes were played in Conrad on Friday and the finals in Cut Bank on Sunday. After the morning round, team scores looked like this: Conrad 4.5, Cut Bank 3 and Shelby 7.5 Winning matches for the homeboys were the teams of T.J. Bennyhoff-Bill McKinley, Calvin Schlepp-Dave Orcutt, Mark Gage-Terry Will, and Tom Billings-Ryan Eisenzimer. Each match is worth one point; a tie is good for half a point. Lyle Orcutt and Carman Jensen gained a tie. Losing their first round matches were Buck Traxler-Howard Bouma, Ryan VanDyke-Jay Taylor, Jim Bjelland-Dave Howard, and Joe Russell-Gregg Orcutt. In the alternate shot format in the afternoon matches, winners for Conrad included Traxler-G. Orcutt, Russell-Bouma, Jensen-Billings, Don Dutro-Eisenzimer with Gage and Howard gaining a split. Team scores after day one had Shelby with 15.5, Conrad 9, and Cut Bank 5.5. There were a number of first and second round highlights for the Conrad teams to make them optimistic going into Sunday’s action. For example, Howard had two birdies over the final two holes to pull into a tie. Eisenzimer chipped in for a birdie two at the 189-yard par three (normally) third to win a match, his 18th hole on the day. Bjelland recorded two eagles, one the 502-yard par five first hole and the other at the 500-yard par five fifth hole, both coming on the front side to help him win a match, and G. Orcutt and Traxler were two down with four holes to play and battled back to win their match. However on Sunday in Cut Bank, the home team, as Emeril Lagassi, a TV chef likes to say, “Come on back, we are going to turn it up a notch!” And they did, picking up 15 points in the individual matches while Shelby gained nine points and Conrad six. Final standing and winners of the Ryder Cup for the last four years in a row were Shelby with 24.5 points, Cut Bank next with 20.5, getting 15 points on the day, and Conrad in third with 15, getting six on the day. Winning their individual matches were Scott Arvidson, Gage, Bennyhoff, Bjelland, Taylor, with G. Orcutt and Wyatt Frydenlund getting a split in their matches. Suffering losses were McKinley, Will, Howard, D. Orcutt, Jensen, Bouma, Russell, Traxler, L. Orcutt, Dutro, Schlepp, Billings, and VanDyke. Once again it was a Conrad golfer, Billings this year, who had the shot of the tournament. For the second year in a row, a Conrad golfer has gotten a hole in one in the third round at Cut Bank. Billings aced the 190-yard par three fourth hole. It was his first hole in one, Readers will recall that Schlepp got an ace in Cut Bank last year. I wonder what the odds of this are? Proceeds of the tournament go to benefit the junior golf programs in all three cities and Shelby once again gets bragging rights for year. But we already know that next year belongs to Conrad.
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