Back to Back for Scotland!

Team Scotland won the 2018 Quaich in dominant fashion with a final score of 14 – 6 over a beleaguered team from the USA.  Scotland Captain Ronald “NSW Ronnie” Denholm led his team to its first back-to-back victories in the history of the Quaich.

“I’m enormously proud of my team,” said NSW Ronnie. “To a man, they played fantastic.”

Team Scotland was strong top to bottom with every player bringing in multiple points during the four days of matches.  The result was the most lop-sided victory since the infamous “Rout in the Rockies” in 2008, where Team USA won 18 – 6 in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado

Scotland needed to look no further than its captain for inspiration this week. NSW Ronnie led the team with a perfect 4 points.  In fact, NSW Ronnie has not lost a match in the Quaich series since the modified scramble at Lakota Canyon Golf Club in 2008.  “I blame that loss on my partner at the time,” said NSW Ronnie, referring to Graeme “H” Wilson who was subsequently dropped from the team roster.

Victory again!

Douglas “Slicer” Brown epitomized the grit of this Scottish team.  “Ah canny play,” said Slicer at the start of the week. “I've got a gammie leg.”  But Slicer showed up ready to play despite a diagnosis of patellar tendonitis in his right knee.  Ignoring the pain that came with every downswing, Slicer brought home 2.5 points for his team.

The eternally youthful Tony “Hef” Denson had another strong performance in East Lothian.  He delivered 3 points, proving he is a long way from hanging up his spikes.  He also educated his playing partners on his latest carnal accomplishments including something called the Bosnian see-saw and a Norwegian torch blower.

Ross “Rosco” MacCallum also brought in 3 points including an inspirational singles win on Sunday over long-time American rival Chris “Cudman” Van Horne.  The two players should have been playing in a steel cage with boxing gloves on because it was golfing slugfest over 18 holes at Archerfield’s Fidra course.  The pair have now met in 7 times in Quaich singles competition with a cumulative match record of 2-2-3.  “By the way absolutely heehaw wrong with tha’!” exclaimed Rosco after his win.

The matches were tied at 4 points for each team after the first two days of competition.  After that successful start, however, Team USA managed only 2 points over the final two days of play.  Team USA struggled with the foursomes format on Saturday at the Archerfield Direleton course, managing just a half point from the day.  Trailing by 3 points going into the final day of competition, USA Captain Chris “Guvna” Hughes nonetheless put his team in position to win on Sunday with shrewd singles matchups.  Six of eight matches still hung in the balance on the 18^th tee, giving Team USA an outside chance of victory.  But the players from Team Scotland showed their hearts were brave by closing out all of them with scores of par or better.

“Team USA choked,” concluded Rosco at the end of the day.

“Team Scotland played the best golf,” offered Guvna with cold eyes and tight smile.  “They holed putts when they had to and we missed them. They deserve to retain the Quaich.”