MGA, GUI Tied After First Day of Carey Cup Matches
Cronheim, Reardon each win two matches as MGA vies to win back Cup
May 5, 2009 — The first day of play at the Governor Hugh L. Carey Cup matches saw an MGA team veteran and rookie rise to the occasion at the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links in Dublin, Ireland. Mike Reardon is on his fourth MGA international team and Robert Cronheim on his first, but both played at the top of their games as the Metropolitan Golf Association and Golfing Union of Ireland finished the first day of competition tied at 3-3. The first day featured foursomes in the morning and fourball matches in the afternoon and the competition will conclude with six singles matches.
In the foursome (alternate-shot) matches, team captain Gene Westmoreland paired the young Cronheim, who plays out of Twin Brooks CC in Watchung, N.J., with the Tuxedo Club’s Reardon in what turned out to be the hottest pairing of the day. Cronheim and Reardon defeated Paul Cutler and Rory McNamara, 2&1, to earn the only MGA point of the morning. In the other matches, Greg Rohlf of Winged Foot GC and Huntington CC’s Joe Saladino were beaten, 1-up, by the GUI team of Andrew Hogan and Alan Dunbar. Sixteen-year-old Cameron Wilson of Shorehaven teamed up with Ed Gibstein of Engineers, but they were unable to overcome the GUI team of Paul Dunne and Dara Lernihan and lost 2&1.
The MGA would gain some ground back in the afternoon fourball matches as Westmoreland shook up his last two groups. Rohlf and Saladino played together again in the afternoon, but were unable to take down Lernihan and Hogan and succumbed 4&3. It was the play of Cronheim and Reardon, this time with different partners, which propelled the MGA team into a tie with the GUI. Cronheim joined forces with Gibstein to beat the GUI duo of Dunbar and McNamara, 2&1. Just behind them on the course were Reardon and Wilson, who were in the midst of a commanding 3&2 victory over Dunne and Cutler to even the score after the first day of competition.
The Carey Cup matches were inaugurated in 1996 by former New York State Governor Hugh L. Carey as a way to stimulate sportsmanship and good will between the U.S. and Ireland. The event is a reincarnation of the Metedeconk Challenge, which was played in 1990 and 1992 and matched teams of Irish and American amateur golfers in a Walker Cup-style competition. This year’s event marks the eighth playing of the Carey Cup. The field consists of six-man teams of amateur golfers representing the Metropolitan Golf Association and the Golfing Union of Ireland.
The competition concludes on Wednesday with the singles matches, which begin at 9:30 a.m. GMT (5:30 a.m. Eastern). Visit www.mgagolf.org for complete coverage and live scoring for the singles matches. For more information please contact Bob Nielsen (bnielsen@mgagolf.org) or Greg Midland (gmidland@mgagolf.org) at the MGA office, 914-347-4653.
