James Poss ’10 sunk a downhill slider to beat both of his opponents in the season long quest for the Witherspoon Bowl. The difficult and windy conditions at Olde Newbury Golf Club did not produce many low scores, and with Poss’ gritty play Andover looked to make up on the huge lead that Exeter had developed over Andover and Governor’s. Going into the stroke play competition, Andover was far behind a talented Exeter team. With a thirty-stroke deficit to make up, Andover needed consistent scoring throughout the top seven in order to catch up with Exeter and hold off a more experienced Governor’s squad. Poss’ great play produced a solid score of 40, two better than his competitor’s. “I was able to hit almost all the fairways, so that takes a lot of trouble out of the way. The real key to stroke play is to not lose balls and to avoid double bogeys at all costs,” Poss said. But Andover needed more than just one good score to make up the huge deficit. Though Andover’s top two players put the team in a solid position, it was up to the middle of the ladder to produce the main results. The rest of the Andover squad struggled, however, with some high numbers appearing on the scorecards of the Andover golfers. On a tough day for Andover, it fell back another ten strokes to a very consistent Exeter team. While the boys’ team played at Olde Newbury, the girls’ team had a tournament at Newton Country Club. Veterans Sophia Lee ’09 and Lydia Smith ’09 played eighteen holes, while newcomers Marie Liu ’12 and Rachel Ryu ’12 played nine holes, with Liu taking ninth overall in the nine hole competition. Lee said, “It was a really fun day and the course was in really good condition. Lydia and I played okay, but it was really great to have fun in a competitive environment.” This weekend Andover will play in the final leg of the race for the Witherspoon Bowl and the Lovell Cup on Exeter’s home turf at Portsmouth Country Club. Coach Brian Faulk said, “Our top five need to be around level par — if we do so I think we will sweep all of the matches and recapture both the Witherspoon and Lovell Cups.”
