After a season of ups and downs, the Andover Golf Team looked to finish up the spring on a high note at Portsmouth Country Club. The team teed off against rival Exeter and Governor’s Academy during the last leg of competition for both the Lovell Cup and the Witherspoon Bowl. Going into the tournament, Andover was seventeen strokes behind Governor’s who had played some excellent golf to achieve that position. Exeter struggled during the second leg, falling slightly behind Andover in the stroke play event. However, Exeter held a 4-2 lead over Andover in the match play competition. Off first for Andover was Nicholas Koh ’08, who looked to finish off his career at Andover with a win against Exeter’s number one. Although Koh felt good at the beginning of the day, he could not master the swirling winds and ended up shooting a score of 82. Koh commented on his last round, “It was one of those days where you could have had a great round, but you didn’t get the good breaks like you usually do. It was extremely frustrating for me but that’s golf.” Following close behind Koh was Ben Ho ’11, who ended up shooting the same score as Koh, despite a tough triple bogey when his tee shot found the water. At the end of the day, Ho ended up scoring the only point for Andover, halving his match with Exeter’s number two by making a clutch birdie on the eighteenth hole to tie his match. Jim Ricker ’09 was also one down in his match going into the treacherous four hundred fifty-yard par four eighteenth. After a short approach shot and a tricky chip, Ricker had a twenty-footer for par to tie his match. Unfortunately, Ricker’s par putt burned the edge, and he lost to his Exeter opponent one down. Although the team suffered a heartbreaking defeat in both competitions, the team has high hopes going into next year’s season.
