Chris Kerrigan ’11 made a clutch up and down from the left greenside bunker on the treacherous 220 yard 9th hole at Ould Newbury Golf Club last Wednesday, closing out the scoring for Andover with a solid seven over 42. Andover entered the day only one stroke behind Exeter in the quest for Witherspoon Bowl, and Kerrigan’s score kept Andover in the match, as Andover stands only three strokes behind Exeter after two rounds of play. “The elevated greens at Ould Newbury proved to be difficult, but we still left ourselves in a good position to win on Saturday as we are only three strokes back. It should be very close in the end,” said Kerrigan. While Ould Newbury is not the longest of tracks that Andover plays, it is certainly the narrowest. With extremely undulating and tiny greens, Ould Newbury confounded Andover’s players, as they struggled to stick shots and make any putts under 10 feet. Ben Ho ’11 went off first for Andover and grinded out a solid two over 37 after making a tough double bogey on the first hole. Ho came back with a textbook birdie on the 8th hole after sticking his approach to five feet from 50 yards out and took medalist honors on the day. Meanwhile, Steven Winslow ’10 and James Poss ’10 followed with two scores of six over par 41. While both players could have scored much lower than they did, their consistency kept Andover in the race, as Exeter’s number three player struggled and shot a 12 over par 47. Andrew Lee ’10 and Kerrigan closed out the scoring for Andover with scores of 43 and 42. Andover will face off against Exeter and Governor’s in the third and final leg for both the Witherspoon Bowl and the Lovell Cup at Portsmouth Country Club. While Andover is three strokes behind Exeter in the race for the Witherspoon Bowl, it holds a tight four-three lead in match play, and looks to take back the trophies after losing them for the past few years. “I am excited that we have our best chance in years to beat Exeter. I look for Ho and Winslow to set the pace early and for Poss to have his best round yet. There are also a couple of subplots — Ho has a chance to capture the Mangan award that eluded him last year. And, of course, we are leading the chase for the Lovell Cup,” said Coach Brian Faulk. Playing at over 7000 yards, Portsmouth is one of Andover’s toughest tests. Andover will have to play its best to beat Exeter at their home course, but that is exactly what it plans to do.
