Carolinas Team Set for the 69th Captain’s Putter Matches

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. – Two top point-earners in the Carolinas Men’s and Senior Men’s Amateur player rankings and past champions headline a contingent of 24 golfers who will represent the Carolinas team against their Virginias counterparts at the 69th Captain’s Putter Matches, set for Friday-Saturday, Oct. 17-18 at The Club at Creighton Farms in Aldie, Va.

Eleven players return from last year’s Carolinas team. Headlining the team is Scott Harvey, of Greensboro, N.C., the #1 ranked amateur in the Carolinas. The three-time Carolinas Player of the Year has had a 2014 golf season to remember. He was selected to Team USA’s roster for the Concession Cup in May. Then in July he won the Cardinal Amateur. At last month’s U.S. Mid-Amateur, he was stroke-play medalist and went on to win the championship. For those accomplishments he was named the Southern Golf Association’s National Amateur of the Month for September.

Carolinas golfers see plenty of each other throughout amateur competition, as both fellow-competitors and teammates. Harvey’s partner from their three-time winning duo of the Pine Needles Invitational, Brian Westveer, of Charlotte, N.C., placed fourth at the Carolinas Mid-Amateur. In this year’s Pine Needles Invitational, a hole-in-one from Harvey on the fifth playoff hole beat Matthew Crenshaw, of Burlington, N.C., and Chris Cassetta, of Winston Salem. Crenshaw claimed two CGA victories in 2014 – the Carolinas Mid-Amateur and the Carolinas Four-Ball. Cassetta qualified for the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur. Crenshaw’s partner in the Carolinas Four-Ball victory was Jonathan Jackson, of Chapel Hill, N.C, who tied for fifth at the Carolinas Mid-Amateur Championship.

Recent Georgia Tech graduate Bo Andrews, of Raleigh, N.C. made it to the Round of 32 at the 2014 U.S. Amateur and tied for third at Carolinas Amateur. Thomas Walsh, a high-school senior from High Point, N.C., claimed first place at the 2014 AJGA Izod Championship and a top-10 performance at the Carolinas Amateur. Josh Nichols, of Kernersville, N.C. is tied for the lead in career stroke average in Appalachian State University golf history.

Former UNC-Chapel Hill golfer Michael McGowan, of Southern Pines, N.C. comes from a golfing family. His father, Pat, plays on the Champions Tour while his grandmother, Peggy Kirk Bell, is a member of the Golf Hall of Fame. Logan Harrell, of Huntersville, N.C. placed third in the N.C. Amateur.

Cary golfers Eric Brady and Dean Channell complete North Carolina’s representation on the regular team. Brady, a 2014 graduate of East Carolina University, led their golf team in scoring average as a senior. Channell, a two-time CGA champion, tied for second at this year’s Carolinas Amateur.

Four golfers from South Carolina were named to the regular team. Walter Todd, Sr., of Laurens, had top-five finishes in both this year’s Carolinas Mid-Amateur and the SCGA Mid-Amateur championships. Steve Liebler, of Irmo, finished tied for second in the Carolinas Mid-Amateur. Ross Thomson, of Daniel Island, tied for third at the SCGA Amateur Championship. At the same event, Will Miles, of Hilton Head Island, placed seventh.   

In the eight-player senior portion, six of the top seven ranked Carolinas senior golfers were selected to the squad. Rick Cloninger (No. 1), of Fort Mill, S.C., is a two-time Carolinas Senior Amateur champion, was runner-up this year and won the SCGA Senior Championship. At the 2014 U.S. Senior Amateur, he made it to the semifinals of match play. Steve Sharpe (No. 2), of Greensboro, N.C., and Russ Perry (No. 4), of Winston Salem, N.C. tied for fifth at the Carolinas Senior Amateur Championship. Perry, the 2014 N.C. Senior Four-Ball champion, was runner-up at the 2014 North South Senior and Azalea Senior.

Wearing his trademark straw hat in competition, 28-time CGA champion Paul Simson (No. 5) of Raleigh, N.C., will return for his 11^th consecutive Captain’s Putter match – the longest active appearance streak. Charlotte, N.C. natives Jim Grainger (No. 6) and Gary Brown made the team with CGA championship victories. Grainger is the current Carolinas Senior Amateur champion; Brown teamed with Ron Carpenter, of Durham, N.C., to claim this year’s Carolinas Senior Four-Ball. Gary Robinson (No. 7), of Fayetteville, N.C., four-time CGA champion, rounds out the team.

The matches consist of two days of competition, with opening round four-ball and foursome matches (Friday, Oct. 17), followed by final-day singles matches (Saturday, Oct. 18). A victory in each match scores one point in the Ryder Cup-style format, and if a match goes 18 holes without a decision, one-half point is awarded to each side. Live scoring of this year’s matches can be found via: https://www.ghintpp.com/vsga/TPPOnlineScoring/Default.aspx?id=1549

In last year’s matches, two evenly-matched teams produced a close final result as the Virginias team notched a three-point victory (25½-22½) at Grandfather Golf and Country Club in Linville, N.C. The Virginias team retained the Captain’s Putter Trophy awarded to the champions and notched its third straight victory in the matches. Carolinas leads the all-time series 47-20-1, but Virginias owns a 7-5-0 lead dating back to 2002. The matches annually rotate between sites in the Virginias and the Carolinas.

The Carolinas team will be led by J. Richard Dosek (Advance, N.C.). Dosek is the immediate past CGA president (2012-13).

Carolinas Regular Team

Bo	Andrews	Raleigh	N.C.
Eric	Brady	Cary	N.C.
Chris	Cassetta	Winston-Salem	N.C.
Dean	Channell	Cary	N.C.
Matt	Crenshaw	Burlington	N.C.
Logan	Harrell	Huntersville	N.C.
Scott	Harvey	Greensboro	N.C.
Jonathan	Jackson	Chapel Hill	N.C.
Steve	Liebler	Irmo	S.C.
Michael	McGowan	Southern Pines	N.C.
Will	Miles	Hilton Head	S.C.
Josh	Nichols	Kernersville	N.C.
Ross	Thomson	Daniel Island	S.C.
Walter	Todd, Sr.	Laurens	S.C.
Thomas	Walsh	High Point	N.C.
Brian	Westveer	Charlotte	N.C.

Carolinas Senior Team

Gary	Brown	Charlotte	N.C.
Ron	Carpenter	Durham	N.C.
Rick	Cloninger	Fort Mill	S.C.
Jim	Grainger	Charlotte	N.C.
Russ	Perry	Winston-Salem	N.C.
Gary	Robinson	Fayetteville	N.C.
Steve	Sharpe	Greensboro	N.C.
Paul	Simson	Raleigh	N.C.

Some information for this release came from VSGA news releases.

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