The 3rd annual Canal Cup Matches between the top 12 golfers at the Seneca Falls Country Club and Silver Creek G.C. were held Sunday in Seneca County. The matches consist of four 9-hole, Ryder Cup style matches with 18 holes being played at both golf courses. Each match is worth one point and all ties result in 1/2 point for each squad.The 2004 Canal Cup began early Sunday morning on the first tee at Silver Creek in Waterloo, NY. The front nine consisted of 6 alternate shot matches. The two teams split the early morning matches, ending up with 3 points each.When the competition moved to the back nine at Silver Creek the SFCC team took control of the overall leaderboard by dominating the best-ball portion of the matches winning 5-1. SFCC won 4 matches and Silver Creek could only muster 2 ties on the back nine of their home course.With an overall lead of 8 to 4 the matches moved to Seneca Falls Country Club in the afternoon.The front nine at the SFCC was a 2-man scrammble format. The teams again split 3 points apiece making the overall score 11 to 7 heading into the back nine. The final nine holes would be 12 individual (one on one) matches where 12 points were at stake. The SFCC needed only 4 1/2 points to retain the Cup which they have held for the past two years. Silver Creek needed 8 1/2 points out of the 12 available to bring the Cup back to Silver Creek for the first time.Around 6:07 pm Sunday night the SFCC got the 4 1/2 points needed to retain the cup. The individual matches finished with the SFCC earning an 8 1/2 to 3 1/2 advantage making the final tally 19 1/2 to 10 1/2.The 9 point margin was the second largest in Canal Cup history. The SFCC won 20-10 in 2002. Last year, the matches were more tightly contested finishing 17-13, SFCC.The 2004 Canal Cup Champion SFCC team was captained by 8-time club champion Mark Hylwa. The roster included Doug Brown, Pete Manzo. Randy Bos, Tim Jones, Jim Sinicropi, Doc Hilimire, Mark Scheuerman, Jim Sandlas, Jason Perrault, Jimmy Williams III and Steve Hyde.The Silver Creek squad, for the third straight year, was captained by Jeff Kapps. Kapps’ team consisted of 2004 Club Champion Michael Burdsall, Al Lopresti, Paul Clark, Dan Johnson, Don Johnson, Jody Benedicks, Evan Rodznevik, Cliff Stein, Tim Spina, Tom Schweitz and Silver Creek owner Norm Sharman.After the Canal Cup returns from the engravers it will reside in the Seneca Falls Country Club clubhouse until next year’s matches.Visit both courses’ homepages on the web at:http://www.senecafallscountryclub.com and http://www.silvercreekgc.com
