October 23-24, 2009
Poppy Hills GC

October 24, 2009

PEBBLE BEACH – After months of league competition Riverside and Tehama almost needed extra holes Saturday to determine the last one standing. A clutch two-putt allowed Riverside to hang on and defeat Tehama to capture the 21st Annual Team Match Championship title at Poppy Hills.

Riverside’s victory in the final was its second in as many days, capturing the Saturday league title with a win over Spring Creek the day before. Both finalists moved forward on the strength of convincing 23-13 margins in the semifinals. Tehama was seeking to win its second title since 2005 with several players from the championship squad, including club head pro Rick Leibovich and team captain Bill Yakobovich anchoring the current team.

The championship match was all square heading into the 18^th hole with Tehama’s Yakobovich and Riverside’s Bill Duarte both on the front of the green in regulation more than 60 feet away. Duarte benefitted from seeing Yakobovich putt first. The Fresno resident cozied his first putt to the hole within tap-in range placing pressure on team captain Yakobovich to make a double-breaking putt from thirty feet.  After Yakobovich was unable to save par he graciously conceded Duarte’s winning par putt.

Duarte displayed calm and grit down the stretch after bouncing back from an unnerving penalty on the back nine. The Riverside team member was assessed a loss of hole penalty for touching his line of putt. He persevered on the closing stretch at Poppy Hills to claim the winning putt.

The magnitude of the win was not lost on Riverside. “This is the biggest victory the club has ever had,” explained team captain Manuel Herrera. “We were most definitely nervous but we kept playing hard and waited to see what happened.”

The popular championship is the conclusion to a summer-long competition involving more than 200 teams from across Northern California.  The 12-man teams competed in four-ball (best ball) matches concurrent with singles’ matches, with each match worth two points, or a total of six in each group. More than 15,000 rounds were played to bring the final four clubs - Tehama, Riverside, Whitney Oaks and Spring Creek - to the Monterey Peninsula.

“Each club selects its own team members and nobody has to qualify,” explains Jim Moriarty, NCGA board member and chairman of the Tournament Committee. “The maximum index is 18.4 and thus players who are not otherwise eligible for other NCGA tournaments can participate. Approximately 3,500 different players participated in 2009.  For the players making it to Poppy Hills it is the equivalent to their Presidents Cup. They take it seriously and have gotten this far for a reason.”

Whitney Oaks advanced to the final four at Poppy Hills for the second straight year. Like 2008 the Rocklin club lost on Friday and settled for a spot in the consolation match on the weekend. It was Spring Creek who captured third place honors though after a dominant 27-9 victory over the Rocklin Club. In a true team effort, every member of the Spring Creek squad contributed a point to the 27 point-total Saturday.  

Spring Creek: First row - Gary Lopez, Erik Armstrong, Gil Huckell and Mike Weintz. Second row - Kyle Huckell, Shea Rollins, Andy Ward, Mike McNulty and Andy Wilbur. Third row - Danny Castallon, Joel Tyrus, Mark Purdom and Paul Kaminski.

Tehama: First row - Rick Leibovich, Bill Yakobovich, Bill Kiely and Gerry Schwartzel. Second row - David Eckles, Marc Bromley, Dick Brown and Joe Fogel. Third row - Pat Sullivan, Lon Mollentine and David Gill. Fourth row - Dave Taylor, Ben Perry and Tom Zoller.

Riverside: First row - Charles Richardson, Jose Espinoza, Jeff Berry and Keith Berry. Second row - Jason Flores, Alan Axt, Bob Atkinson and Javier Soto. Fourth row - Ryan Wiezycki, Bill Duarte, Robert Jacobs, Manuel Herrera and Tim Schinner.

Whitney Oaks: First row - Doug King, Terry Siler, Mike Barnes and Gary White. Second row - Steve Ronan, Ed McGreehan, Scott Straub and Chuck Roberts. Third row - Greg Larson, Jeff Burkhead and Mike Poetsch. Fourth row - Fred Huston, Kyle Gilmore, Mark Lenz and Vern Chance.

	Championship Match
	Tehama GC			Riverside GC
	Rick Leibovich		2	Keith Berry	5&4
4&3	David Gill	2		Aaron Hensley
	Leibovich/Gill		2	Berry/Hensley	3&2
	Tom Zoller	2		Ryan Wiezycki
	Gerry Schwartzel		2	Jason Flores	1UP
	Zoller/Schwartzel	1	1	Wiezycki/Flores	AS
	Dick Brown		2	Javier Soto	1UP
	Marc Bromley		2	Manuel Herrera	1UP
	Brown/Bromley	2		Soto/Herrera
	Bill Kiely		2	Jose Espinoza	2&1
	David Eckles		2	Robert Jacobs
	Kiely/Eckles		2	Espinoza/Jacobs
	Bill Yakobovich		2	Bill Duarte	1up
2&1	Pat Sullivan	2		Robert Atkinson
2&1	Yakobovich/Sullivan	2		Duarte/Atkinson
	Lon Mollentine	2		Jeff Berry
	Joe Fogel	2		Alan Axt
	Mollentine/Fogel	2		Berry/Axt
	Total:	17	19	:Total

	Third Place Match
	Spring Creek GCC			Whitney Oaks GC
	Shea Rollins		2	Kyle Gillmore	1UP
2&1	Kyle Huckell	2		Gary White
1UP	Rollins/Huckell	2		Gillmore/White
8&7	Andy Ward	2		Mike Poetsch
	Mike Kinch		2	Scott Straub	2UP
4&3	Ward/Kinch	2		Poestsch/Straub
5&3	Danny Castallon	2		Fred Huston
	Alan Wilbur		2	Steve Ronan	3&2
4&3	Castallon/Wilbur	2		Huston/Ronan
5&4	Mike Weintz	2		Ed McGreehan
3&2	Gil Huckell	2		Greg Larson
4&3	Weintz/Huckell	2		McGreehan/Larson
5&4	Mike McNulty	2		Doug King
AS	Eric Armstrong	1	1	Mike Barnes	AS
1UP	McNulty/Armstrong	2		King/Barnes
4&2	Gary Lopez	2		Chuck Roberts
	Paul Kaminski		2	Terry Siler	2&1
4&3	Lopez/Kaminski	2		Roberts/Siler
	Total:	27	9	:Total

	Thursday League Finals
	Tehama GC			Whitney Oaks GC
4&3	Rick Leibovich	2		Kyle Gillmore
5&4	David Gill	2		Jeff Burkhead
3&2	Leibovich/Gill	2		Gillmore/Burkhead
AS	Tom Zoller	1	1	Gary White	AS
2&1	Gerry Schwartzel	2		Mike Poetsch
2&1	Zoller/Schwartzel	2		White/Poetsch
	Dick Brown	2		Vern Chance
AS	Marc Bromley	1	1	Fred Huston	AS
	Brown/Bromley	2		Chance/Huston
1UP	Bill Kiely	2		Ed McGreehan
	David Eckles		2	Greg Larson	4&2
	Kiely/Eckles		2	McGreehan/Larson	3&2
	Bill Yakobovich		2	Doug King	3&2
	Pat Sullivan		2	Mike Barnes	1UP
	Yakobovich/Sullivan		2	King/Barnes	3&2
AS	Lon Mollentine	1	1	Chuck Roberts	AS
4&2	Joe Fogel	2		Terry Siler
1UP	Mollentine/Fogel	2		Roberts/Siler
	Total:	23	13	:Total

	Saturday League Finals
	Riverside GC			Spring Creek GCC
3&2	Keith Berry	2		Shea Rollins
	Ryan Wiezycki		2	Kyle Huckell	5&4
AS	Berry/Wiezycki	1	1	Rollins/Huckell	AS
4&3	Charles Richardson	2		Andy Ward
	Jason Flores	2		Mark Purdom
	Richardson/Flores	2		Ward/Purdom
1UP	Javier Soto	2		Danny Castallon
1UP	Manuel Herrera	2		Alan Wilbur
4&2	Soto/Herrera	2		Castallon/Wilbur
	Jose Espinoza		2	Mike Weintz	1UP
5&3	Robert Jacobs	2		Gil Huckell
3&2	Espinoza/Jacobs	2		Weintz/Huckell
	Bill Duarte	2		Joel Tyrus
	Robert Atkinson		2	Mike Mcnulty	2UP
	Duarte/Atkinson		2	Tyrus/Mcnulty	2UP
1UP	Jeff Berry	2		Gary Lopez
	Alan Axt		2	Paul Kaminski	3&2
	Berry/Axt		2	Lopez/Kaminski	3&2
	Total:	23	13	:Total

This article was filed under Front Page News, Full Page, Tournament Recap.
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