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| Adam Mitchell (USA) was the recipient of misfortune on the 14th hole. (John Mummert/USGA) |
By Dave Shedloski
Ardmore, Pa. – There are countless ways to lose a hole in match play. USA members Adam Mitchell and Cameron Tringale inadvertently discovered a new method that they couldn’t afford against a Great Britain & Ireland duo playing an impeccable brand of team golf.
With Eamonn “Stiggy” Hodgson holing devilish putts from all corners of the sloping greens at Merion Golf Club, GB&I avoided a shutout of the morning foursomes Saturday with Hodgson and Niall Kearney registering a 3-and-1 victory in the last of the team matches.
“Putting is the strongest part of my game,” said the diminutive Hodgson, 19, of England. “Anywhere inside of 10 feet and I can be fairly deadly.”
Outside of 10 feet he’s awfully good, too. Hodgson holed a couple of 25-footers at Nos. 8 and 13, the latter giving him and Kearney their second 1-up advantage. They looked sure to go 2 up when they found the fairway at the uphill par-4 14th while Tringale drove in the deep rough right of the cross bunker.
Fortunes appeared to turn when Mitchell hit a mammoth approach out of the hay to reach the green while Kearney missed short and right. But the Americans never got a chance to putt for the win after Hodgson’s pitch shot to 5 feet. USGA President Jim Vernon, serving as the match official, informed the USA duo that Mitchell had caused the ball to move as he addressed the shot. Had he noticed it, Mitchell could have replaced it and incurred a one-stroke penalty. Because he did not replace it, and he played the ball from the wrong spot, the infraction resulted in loss of hole.
“I never saw it move. I had no idea,” said Mitchell, 22, of Chattanoog a, Tenn., who had been looking down the fairway at the green when the ball moved a fraction of an inch.
Former USGA Executive Committee member Peter James, who was a spectator in the gallery and standing near the Americans’ ball, alerted Vernon of the penalty, Vernon said.
“That was pretty unfortunate, but I’m not sure it would have made a difference in the outcome of the match,” Hodgson said.
“That’s golf. It happens,” said USA Captain George “Buddy” Marucci. “Our guys played well, but that’s a jolt when something like that happens that late in the match.”
The Americans did exhibit some splendid golf, shooting even par in alternate shot with two birdies offsetting two bogeys. But Hodgson and Ireland’s Kearney countered with five birdies against one double-bogey, that coming at the 504-yard par-4 fifth.
USA led once, 1 up, when Mitchell converted a short putt at the seventh. Hodgson’s lengthy birdie squared matters at No. 8. Each team converted birdies in the 4- and 5-foot range at the par-4 10th as part of a four-hole stretch of halves.
Hodgson’s breakthrough at 13, punctuated by a fist pump was a steal after USA’s Mitchell had stuck wedge to about 12 feet.
“It was a good match, but we caught a bad break at a bad time,” said Tringale, 22, of San Juan Captistrano, Calif., of the penalty. “We hit a lot of good shots, but it wasn’t meant to be, not when he [Hodgson] was putting so well. He really made a lot of putts for them.”
Fittingly, Hodgson made one more to close the match. While Kearney put a utility club on the green on the 244-yard par-3 17th, Mitchell missed his tee shot to the right. Tringale chipped to 15 feet, but Hodgson lagged up to the hole from 35 feet. It trickled in the right corner of the hole just as it appeared to die on the lip.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on USGA championship sites.
