WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Match play got underway Sunday at the 2023 Watertown Men’s City Golf Championship with 32 golfers vying for the coveted title in the championship flite.
The tournament started at the 10th hole this year.
The first match of the day featured defending champion Joe Tufo against 32nd seed Brendan Laverty.
On hole 10, it was Laverty with the birdie chance but his putt slides right. He pars the hole.
Tufo buries his par putt to halve the hole, Tufo beats Laverty 4 and 3.
2nd seed, and 17-time City Champion Bob Hughes met Brad LaLone..
On hole 10, it was LaLone with the birdie opportunity that drifts left.
Hughes drains his birdie putt to go 1-up and Hughes beats LaLone 7 and 6.
3rd seed Adam Brown met Joe Augustus.
On Hole 10, Augustus misses on his birdie putt. He would settle for par.
Brown misses his par putt to go 1-down, but Brown beats Augustus 1-up in a playoff.
4th seed Phillips Rogers took on Caleb Houppert.
On Hole 10, Houppert’s Birdie chance lips out, he pars the hole.
Rogers birdies the hole to go 1-up. Rogers beats Houppert 7 and 6.
5th seed Tyler Davison took on Matt Barton.
On the 10th hole, Davison sticks his approach. He would birdie the hole.
Barton misses to go 1-down, but goes on to beat Davison 4 and 3.
Also winning Sunday was 8-time City Champion John Bufalini, who beats Liam Hobbs 5 and 3.
The first weekend of competition at the 1812 Shootout wrapped up on Sunday at Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, with the boys’ school teams taking center stage after the boys’ club teams took to the field on Saturday.
99 teams total were on hand Sunday competing in grade levels from 1st and 2nd grade all the way up to the varsity level.
Teams from all around the North Country and state were well represented.
”For the NAC Massena, Potsdam representing. Every Frontier League team has players playing today. Other schools as far out as Orchard Park, Buffalo, Saugerties, Vorheesville down by Newburgh, Mohawk Valley region, Guilderland out of Albany, and Johnson City out of Binghamton. So, we’re really touching every corner of the state today,” said Chad Green, 1812 Sports and Entertainment President.
The 1812 Shootout was also the first tournament for players to get a chance to see a new lacrosse stick that was released by Cascade Maverik Lacrosse on the 4th of July: the Maverik Kinetik K-3.
Members of the events team for Cascade Maverik say the 1812 Shootout is a perfect venue for them to introduce the latest in lacrosse sticks to the players in attendance.
”So, I mean the 1812 Shootout is a great opportunity. We get a lot of upstate teams from all over New York State, and obviously you get a nice influx of age ranges and age groups. It’s a great opportunity to show off what’s new. We do this every year,” said Anthony Marcuccilli of Cascade Maverik’s Summer Events East Coast Team.
The Watertown Rapids began their longest road trip of the season Sunday as they traveled to Boonville to face the Lumberjacks.
The Rapids losing streak extended to 8 games at Toyota Field Saturday night as they lost to the Blue Sox 9-6 in 10 innings.
It’s a 5 game road trip that won’t see them return to the Fairgrounds until Monday, July 17th because of the Jefferson County Fair setting up shop at the fairgrounds for the next week.
Rapids Manager Mike Kogut says the players are prepared and ready for the extended road trip.
”We’re on the road for 9 straight days with the Jefferson County Fair that happens every year. We’ve got some veteran guys that have returned that have kind of filled the guys in on what to expect. You know, we’ll be road warriors here for a little over a week,” said Kogut.
On the gridiron, the Watertown Red and Black picked up a big road win Saturday night beating Charlotte 20-0 in Rochester.
With the win, the Red and Black improved to 4-2 in league play and 5-2 overall.
What made the win more impressive was the fact that the team was playing shorthanded with some players playing on both sides of the football.
”On the road, whenever you can win it’s always a nice ride home. Now we got 2 more home games on the 22nd and the 29th, and hopefully we can finish 6-2 and place pretty high in the standings for the playoffs,” said Red and Black Coach George Ashcraft.
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