A few weeks ago you may or may not have seen the forum buzzing with the inaugural AG Ryder Cup, if not then you have been living under a rock! A total of 16 members had signed up, and were split into two teams, with two captains.
For this event we picked a theme, and still today in the UK a massive one, the North vs the South. On paper teams were slightly weighted towards one side, but anything is possible in golf. Could the favourites handle the tag, or would they crash under pressure? Below we'd like to give a quick overview of the teams, the format and a review on how the tournament played out.
Course: The Belfry
Northern Monkeys
Captain: paullowes80
Vice Captain: N/A
Joe
Burga boii
Big B 1970
IDanger IMouse
Tunners1
Emotionalworm
Harryn9000
Southern Gigolos
Captain: Wizzfox
Vice Captain: Berty44
Red Rhinoceros
wellsa27
BobBank
RFC Buncey
Riverman
Goldenbeard
Round 1 - 3 Alternate Shot Games (2 vs 2)
Joe / Tunners Vs wellsa27 / RFC Buncey - Joe/ Tunners won 5&3
Paul Lowes / EmotionalWorm Vs Berty / BobBank - Paul Lowes / EmotionalWorm won 6&5
Burga / Dangermouse Vs Red Rhino / Goldenbeard - Red Rhino / Goldenbeard won 2&1
Northern Monkeys 2 - Southern Gigolos 1
A shock start sees the Northern Monkeys take an early lead as the Southern Gigolos crack under pressure. Both Joe/Tunners and Paul/Worm helped their team to thumping victories, comfortably beating their opponents. The Southern team of Rhino/GoldenBeard ensured it wasn't an opening 3 - 0 whitewash. The Northern Monkeys come out firing, the South does not know what just has hit them.
Round 2 - 3 Four Ball Games (2 vs 2)
Burga / Bri Vs Wizz / Goldenbeard - Wizz / Goldenbeard won 5&4
Joe / Tunners Vs River / Rhino - River / Rhino won 1UP
Paul / Harry Vs BobBank / Wellsa - BobBank / Wellsa won 3&1
Northern Monkeys 2 - Southern Gigolos 4
After the opening round and their good start, it was the turn of the Northern Monkeys to crack, losing all three matches to see the score swing in favour of the Southerners. The games were close, and could have gone either way. In Bob/Wellsa's match, Paul / Harry were 3 UP after the beginning holes so Bob/Wellsa had to dig deep to turn this one around. The back 9 is where they made their move, reeling them in and surpassing towards the end to give them victory.
Round 3 - 8 Single Matches (8 vs 8)
Joe v Red Rhino - Match Tied
Paul Lowes v Wellsa - Wellsa won 2&1
Burga v BobBank - Burga won 2&1
Big B v Berty - Match Tied
Tunners v Goldenbeard - Goldenbeard won 3&2
Dangermouse v Wizzfox - Dangermouse won 3&2
EmotionalWorm v Buncey - Buncey won 9&7
Harry v Riverman - River won 9&8
Northern Monkeys 5 - Southern Gigolos 9
In the last round, the best of each team were matched up where possible to give a thrilling end to the tournament. In what was the match of the round, Joe and Rhino produced a thrilling finale on the opening match. Rhino had a lead going into the back 9, but in a matter of holes, the lead had swung around and Joe was leading going into the final hole. Rhino had a poor start, leaving Joe the chance of victory, but he decided to give Rhino a chance. After a few shots, Joe had the match in the palm of his hand, but lost his bottle and somehow the match was tied! There were good wins for Wellsa, Burga, GoldenBeard and DangerMouse (2 for each side), and thumping wins for Buncey and River. Another surprise saw Bri tie the match with Berty, with many saying Berty was a guaranteed winner. It just shows that Bri played a stormer and got his team 1/2 point for his efforts.
Overall it wasn't the drubbing most predicted, the Northern Monkeys did put up a fight, but ultimately the Southerners prevail in the singles, where it was won and lost.
It was a fantastic event all round, and I hope you all enjoyed the fun and banter along the way.
I want to say thanks to everyone for putting in the effort to get their rounds played on time, and making it as successful as possible. Also to the guys who streamed their rounds, with pretty much all games made available for the whole site to sit back and watch the action.
We sign off this blog by saying thanks to everyone for their participation in not only the AG Ryder Cup, but the AG Tour as well. Many may or may not know that Rhino and myself have decided to step down from running the AG Golf Society, and will hand over the reins to a fresh face to continue the success.
Roll on Season 6 and the next installment!