Sports

Golf Team Destroys Proctor; Team Does Not Lose A Match

Phillips Academy’s Golf team went into Wednesday’s match against Proctor School with great confidence and high expectations. After blowing out New Hampton on Tuesday 8.5 – 0.5 at Campbell’s Scottish Highlands Golf Course.,Andover was looking to extend its unbeaten streak at the Sunapee Golf Course by defeating a team that had also destroyed New Hampton. On paper, it seemed like a close match, especially since Captain James Watson ’06 and Owen Remeika ’06 were taking a rest day. Tentative at first, Andover got into gear quickly, demolishing Proctor by 8.5 – 0.5. Andover’s numbers one and two pair of Evan Harmeling ’07 and Nicholas Koh ’08 established Andover’s dominance with three and two close-outs of both their singles matches and their best ball match. Andover’s second pair of Tanner MacNeill ’08 and Tom Tassinari ’06 returned 15 minutes later with two-and-a-half out of three points, after only Proctor’s number four was able to tie Tassinari. This was enough to give Andover an early win. Conor Sutherland ’06 and Simon Keyes ’06 playing numbers five and six swept their stunned Proctor opponents too, adding another three points to Andover’s winning tally. The top duo of Harmeling and Koh were up for any challenge posed by Proctor, shooting a pair of one-over par 36s. Koh, moving up from number three after Captain Watson’s benching, started the round strongly, by ramming a putt into the back of the hole on a shaky temporary first green for par. On the fourth, a 155-yard par-three, he stiffed a wedge shot to four feet, and then drained the short birdie putt. On the sixth, he unleashed a monster 350-yard drive, leaving himself a comfortable nine-iron to the 510-yard par-five. Harmeling calmly nailed a solid par putt to close the matches. Harmeling eloquently summed up the pair’s performance saying, “When Koh connects with the ball he kills it. Today we were firing on all cylinders, and Proctor was left behind in our dust. It was a picnic for us, a massacre for them”. Tassinari and MacNeill had more work for their match. Although MacNeill closed early with solid iron play and deft touches around the greens, Tassinari had to continue battling his opponent even on the ninth. He halved his match, adding somewhat of a blemish to an impeccable 14-0-2 record throughout his PA career. Keyes and Sutherland cruised to admirable two and one victories at the bottom of the ladder, bringing the tally to 8.5 – 0.5. Grinning, coaches Odden and Warsaw graciously hosted a team party at McDonald’s after the wins over Proctor and New Hampton. Andover is now 6-0 and will travel down to historic Newport Country Club in Rhode Island tomorrow for a major interscholastic tournament.