Noori Defends Individual Title & Matt Takes His Revenge
 
 
Friday, Aug 21, 2009
 
The Varsity players weren't able to repeat their 2008 championship performance at this year's Bryan Gunter Classic, but they did walk away with the event's runner-up award. In the individual competition, Noori defended his individual title and Matt was able to walk away with a strong 4th-place finish.
 
The team got off to a rocky start on Thursday at Rock Harbor. After Matt and Noori carded scores of 74 (+3) and 70 (-1), no one was able to follow their lead into the 70s. At the close of day one, Noori took a 1-stroke lead into the second (and final) round and the team was alone in second place and trailing Loudoun Valley by 13 strokes after posting a score of 310 (+26). Nick and Kyle rounded out the scoring for day one.
 
Day two got off to a much better start as the team shot out of the gates and was 4-over through the first 9 holes. The more difficult back nine was a tad more unforgiving as the team surrendered a 10-over par performance. But, despite the unforgiving back nine, the team posted a round's best 302 (+14).
 
Two of the reasons the reasons the team was able to eat into the lead were the scores posted by Han Joe and Nick. Both were able to to improve upon their performances from Thursday and crack 80. Han Joe actually bettered his score by 10 strokes and carded a potent 76 (+4).
 
In the individual competition, Noori was able to notch another 1-under par performance (71) which ended up costing Tommy Arthur - the Handley coach and event organizer - one dollar. The dollar was lost on a bet he made with another coach that no one would break par. Following Noori's lead, Matt birdied two of the last four holes to card a tough-fought 76 (+4).
 
Day two play ended with the team shooting a 2-day total of 612, which was four strokes off the pace from last year and 8 strokes off what was needed to defend the title this year. Loudoun Valley was able to avenge their runner-up trophy from last year by posing a team score of 604. The next closest was Jefferson County, who fired a 654 to finish 3rd.
 
Noori was able to defend his individual title by posting a 2-day total of 141 (-2) and Matt took home 4th place with a 150 (+7). Matt was able to exercise some measure of revenge after last year's snafu when he was awarded 5th only to have it ripped from his grasp minutes thereafter when a scoring oversight was noticed. Matt was very gracious in the confusion stating that it was "no big deal," but nonetheless, a small tear in the corner of his eye was noticed by a certain parent of Matt who will go unnamed and just happens to be someone of the male gender. Yeah, it was his Dad. And no, Matt didn't really shed a tear. Nonetheless, it's still no doubt that much sweeter for Matt this year.