The Texas PGA Joe Black Cup at Cordillera Ranch

by Marc DeWall

Wow! What an incredible experience I had earlier this week as Cordillera Ranch hosted the 31st Annual Texas Joe Black Cup Matches. This annual Ryder Cup style competition pits the top 12 players from the Northern Texas PGA vs. their counterparts from the Sothern Texas PGA. The matches have been historically very close with the NTPGA holding the slimmest of margins 15-14-1.

The festivities began on Sunday evening with the Opening Ceremonies and Welcome Dinner taking place after an afternoon practice round. A special Wine Dinner was prepared by Chef Dwight and his culinary team for all of the participants, captains, sponsors and special guests. Mr. Joe Black, longtime PGA Professional and tournament namesake was once again present. Mr. Black has been an inspiration to many golf professionals and it was great listening to him speak. Bill Rogers was the featured speaker and he shared many stories of his time as a Ryder Cup player and Assistant Captain in 1999 at Brookline. The players were introduced by their respective captains’ and the matches were officially opened.

Monday morning the FourBall Matches began with the Southern Texas PGA taking a 4-2 lead. One of the biggest moments came when Ryan Polzin and Glenn Lee from the STPGA defeated Cameron Doan and Brian Ricketts from the NTPGA. They were three down at the turn but came back to win 2-Up. It was a big momentum shift as Cameron and Brian were arguably the best two players on their team. The players competed in Foursome Matches in the afternoon and things once again were very tight with the matches being split 3-3. Wes Skaggs and Matt Trevino for the STPGA teamed up to win an important point by winning the last three holes to secure a 2-up victory. So after the first day, the STPGA led 7-5.

The Singles Matches were delayed on Tuesday morning with stormy weather, and finally began off of #1 and #10 with a split-tee start. The NTPGA came out very strong by winning 3.5 points in the first four matches of the day. But the STPGA stayed steady and captured 6 of the next 8 matches to win the Cup! The final tally was STPGA 14 and NTPGA 10.

Serving as Captain of the STPGA was one of the highlights of my professional career. To be elected by my peers meant a great deal and the event was something I will cherish for many years to come. I had a few good friends that made the team this year that made it even more special. It also was great to form a bond with a few players that I had not had the opportunity to spend much time with prior to the event. They truly are great players and it was exciting to watch some fantastic golf being played.

I wish I could tell you how many of the players and sponsors came up to me and complimented the golf course, facilities and entire Cordillera Ranch community. They were blown away with everything and many mentioned they had played in a number of these and this was the best ever. They were so generous in their comments and many of them had no idea how spectacular a place Cordillera Ranch really is.

I owe a huge thank you to all of our members for allowing us to host this event. I hope it was not an inconvenience to any of you. A special thanks to all of the CWGA ladies who volunteered their time on both days to go with each group and score the matches. This allowed for live scoring and added a unique feature for everyone trying to follow the matches. Many of you who came out to witness the matches commented how exciting they were. My heartfelt thanks to everyone for allowing me the time and opportunity to be a part of something that was great for the game of golf and helped showcase Cordillera Ranch!

Posted: November 18, 2011 by Stephanie Monsanto