May 4, 2018
Castelconturbia, Italy
Ben Hollerbach continues his reports from the Freedman Trophy Matches
Rolling into the Foursome matches the European team started right where they left off the previous day. Another dominant session right out of the gate, it wasn’t until the 4th match of the day that the players saw the 18th green. The match between Mark Hollingsworth/Bruce Del Guidice and Paolo Quirici/ Markus Kummerle ended in a tie after an unfortunate poorly struck chip shot near the 18th green. It was one of just few mistakes by the European team in a format that can be very unforgiving to wayward play. After bogeying two of their first three holes, Roberto Francioni and Andreas Ahlm played level par for the next 12 holes to close out Ben Hollerbach and Dave Brown 4 and 3.
What looked to be the format that best suited the North American team did not bear fruit as the European team’s steady play continued to pay off. The Europeans ended the Foursome session with a 6.5 to 1.5 advantage. Building on their masterful Fourball play, the European team now takes a 12.5 to 3.5 point lead into the Singles matches. The lone North American point of the day came from the two Floridans, Will Peterson and Bill Geisler, who bested Baldovino Dassu and Chris Homer 2 and 1.
While the North American team reshuffled most of its pairings, the European team held half of theirs over from Fourball. European Captain Claus Muehlfeit must have seen something special in these pairings as they once again contributed to their strong session. The pairings of Luca Galliano/Pier Paolo Rampino, Robert Francioni/Andreas Ahlm, Brian Gee/Claus Muehlfeit, and Paolo Quirici/Markus Kummerle have contributed 7.5 of the Europeans 12.5 points. With the European team only 4 points away from victory, The North American squad needs a Brookline-esque comeback to have a chance at retaining the trophy.
In the evening the two teams congregated for the announcement of the Single pairings and then caravanned to nearby Veruno for dinner. Our hosts at L’Olimpia Trattoria rolled out the red carpet and provided the teams with an exquisite multi-course Italian feast. While the evening before, the teams stayed mostly segregated, on this wonderful evening every table was intermixed with players from both teams breaking bread, sharing war stories from the first two days of competition, and needling each other over the matchups for tomorrow.
While Foursomes and Fourball were played in the morning, Saturday’s singles will be pushed to the early afternoon. Groups of hickory players from Italy and Switzerland will have the course in the morning and the later start time will allow these players a chance to watch the final singles matches as they come through.
