May 4, 2018
Castelconturbia, Italy
(Ben Hollerbach is on the North American team and reporting daily on the Freedman Trophy.)
Thursday at the Freedman Trophy – Fourball Matches
On a day best made for a duck, with a persistent drizzle and overcast skies, the play of the European team shown through. Winning six of the first eight matches, the Europeans dominated the Fourball session. Their early lead was built on the strong play of players like Paolo Quirici, Costantino Rocca, and Baldovino Dassù, each of whom were under par on their own ball for the day.
On the North American side Mike Stevens partnered with Jeff Blomstedt to beat Dennis Willadsen and Chris Homer 1 up and Bo Turocy and Tom McCrary beat Andrew Marshall and Jason Dolman 2&1. Jeff’s play was particularly impressive, with his golf bag lost somewhere in airlines baggage limbo he was forced to use a set of extra clubs cobbled together at the last moment. As his regular set was delivered late in the afternoon, Jeff’s impressive play led us to wonder whether he would return to his regular set of clubs.
With the strength of the European team coming in their depth of professional players, the Fourball format was always going to favor the Europeans. As the matches shift from Fourball to Foursomes, the change in format for tomorrow (Friday) should give the balanced North American team a good chance to equalize the matches, potentially setting up a tight and exciting final day of Singles play.
The North American team.
