Brian Arbique stays cool under pressure, wins 3rd Sandbagger Cup
For the second year in a row, and third time overall, Belleville’s Black Bear Ridge was the site of the annual Sandbagger competition. In a slight tweak to the normal routine, we played rounds on Sunday and Monday (with only a single overnight). This year, both rounds were played at the scenic — but bloody challenging — course. The weather proved spectacular, sunny and unseasonably warm both days, with highs of 24. Our stay in Carter House, on-site, was very comfortable and is destined to be repeated.
Due to the compressed timeframe, the targets/handicaps were established in advance, by yours truly – and, sadly, without the benefit of the usual banter-ridden Star Chamber. No blood was spilt. The complaining was kept to a minimum.
The first round (i.e., on the Sunday) proved interesting, with most struggling to adjust to the pace of the well-oiled greens. Brian Arbique came into the competition the best prepared, having already logged 43 rounds this year at his exclusive private club (Wildfire). It showed, as he proved the most consistent, carding an opening round 94, for a +2. Tying for the first round lead was three-time champ Ricky Cunliffe, who was steady as ever in notching a 2-over 97. Yours truly lurched to third position, at +3, with a scorecard line that read 45-53 – 98, proving – if there was any doubt – the diminishing returns of being over-refreshed on the golf course.
Brent Mooney was in 4th position after Round 1, carding a steady, but unspectacular (for him) 6-over 95.
Derrick Hockley’s 95 deserves honourable mention, but still left him out of the leader’s group, in 5th position after the first round, 7 shots back of his target (88).
Rounding out the also-rans, in order, were: Andrew Posthumus (102/+9), Andy del Castillo (108/+13) and the tragically unhip Jeff Mains (score unknown). Unfortunately, Jeff was dealing with a dodgy hip and thus only hitting off the tee intermittently.
For the final round, on the Monday, Brian and Rick went in tied, one stroke ahead of your beloved convenor. A rocky beginning to the round — i.e., Brian (6-8-7 start) and Rick (6-9-8 start) left your much-admired commissioner (a 5-7-5 start) in the lead as I stood, surprised and shaky, on the 4th tee. From that point, after Rick uncharacteristically crashed (trees) and burned (worms), it became a hole-by-hole battle between Brian and Jim. Squarehead went on a 5-hole tear of 3-5-4-5-5, while I, your recently-married pretender to the throne, scrambled and bullshitted my way to a 4-5-4-6-5 over the same stretch. The 9th hole, however, saw Brian nab a par, while I crashed to a triple bogey. As it turned out, Brian’s hot streak didn’t stop at 5 holes. In fact, he rarely showed any signs of folding, firing an steady, impressive 45 on the back 9. The former ketchup king went into the final hole with a three stroke lead and coasted to a 2 stroke win – crushing the spirits of your loyal Sandbagger commissioner.
Honourable mention should go to Andrew Posthumus for carding the low round of the weekend – a very solid 90 on the Sunday — enough to move him into 3rd place overall. Andrew’s failure to recognize the effect this score might have on next year’s target setting is a testament to his confidence. In the same vein, however, we will want to disregard Ricky’s blow-up in round 2 (a 17 stroke difference from his first round) and Brent’s somewhat similar slide (from a 95 to a 105). Both were dealing with significant challenges – in Rick’s case his bulging, bruised, broken bicep, in Brent’s his annoying cartmate. Regrettably, we suffered through the second round without the always-entertaining presence of Senor del Castillo, who didn’t make the bell due to an over-indulgence in sketchy scallops on the evening preceding our gathering.
With his victory, Brian joins an exclusive club of three time champions on the Sandbagger tour. Ricky Cunliffe and the (absent) 2022 Champ Steve McMahon are the only other three time champions in the now 28 year (!!) history of the event.
Congratulations, Brian, on a well-deserved victory! Respect is due.
A breakdown of the scores, and standings, by round, is below.
| Sandbagger 2023 | ||||||
| Target | Rd 1 | +/- | Rd 2 | +/- | Total | |
| Brian Arbique | 92 | 94 | +2 | 93 | +1 | +3 |
| Jim Anderson | 95 | 98 | +3 | 97 | +2 | +5 |
| Andrew Posthumus | 93 | 102 | +9 | 90 | -3 | +6 |
| Derrick Hockley | 88 | 95 | +7 | 96 | +8 | +15 |
| Rick Cunliffe | 95 | 97 | +2 | 114 | +19 | +21 |
| Brent Mooney | 89 | 95 | +6 | 105 | +16 | +22 |
| Andy del Castillo | 95 | 108 | +13 | xx | xx | xx |
| Jeff Mains | 108 | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx |
