Mike Schwenk ’04 teed off yesterday morning in the first round of the St. George’s Golf and Country Club Championship. Schwenk, last year’s runner-up, was seeded at #2 entering this year’s match play tournament. His opponent, Mike Romeo, was also his first round opponent last summer when he, a scratch golfer, soundly defeated Romeo, a three-handicap golfer, by going up 5 holes with 4 to go, making it mathematically impossible for Romeo to win. However, Romeo, a very good golfer with an excellent short game, changed his swing over the winter, enabling him to lengthen his distance off the tee and perhaps close the gap with Schwenk.
1st Hole (Par 4 – 374 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Both hit well off the tee and made the green in regulation. Romeo holed his par putt and Schwenk missed his 10-footer to give Romeo the hole.
2nd Hole (Par 5 – 574 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Schwenk bombed his drive but missed the green on his second shot. After almost holing his third shot he birdied, putting the pressure on Romeo to make his six-foot birdie putt. Romeo, a model of consistency, coolly sank it to remain in the lead.
3rd Hole (Par 4 – 408 yds) | Romeo up 1 | They halve the hole after each registering par.
4th Hole (Par 4 – 360 yds) | Romeo up 2 | Both reached the green in two shots and had lies in an identical path. Romeo’s spot was 25 feet from the hole while Schwenk’s was 22 feet, enabling him to “go to school” on the path Romeo’s ball would take. Romeo struck an incredible putt, finding the bottom of the cup for birdie and placing the pressure squarely on the shoulders of Schwenk. The former Bear missed his rebuttal giving Romeo a two-hole edge.
5th Hole (Par 4 – 356 yds) | Romeo up 2 | After a great drive, Schwenk skulled his second shot which placed him on the green but in a precarious spot 35 feet above the hole. On his third shot, Schwenk almost holed the difficult putt, but was left with a 10-footer coming back as the ball rolled down the sloping green. Romeo parred so Schwenk had to make his next putt to prevent going down by three holes early in the round. Hewas equal to the challenge as he made his first of several clutch shots on the day.
6th Hole (Par 5 – 465 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Schwenk’s first victory came in an unlikely fashion. After crushing his drive into the wind, he topped his second shot with his 3 wood and his ball trickled just 25 yards down the fairway. Things did not get better for Schwenk as he pulled his third shot well to the left of the green and onto an embankment. The lie was so difficult that he earned a free drop to get a better stance. Meanwhile, his opponent was on the green in three and looked poised to burgeon his lead. With his feet to the fire, Schwenk hit one of his best shots of the day, holing his fourth shot from the hill for a birdie. After Romeo missed his birdie attempt his lead was halved going into the seventh hole.
7th Hole (Par 3 – 181 yds) | Romeo up 1 | They halve the hole after each registering par.
8th Hole (Par 4 – 382 yds) | Tied | Schwenk ties the match by sinking a birdie putt to best Romeo’s par.
9th Hole (Par 3 – 147 yds) | Tied | They halve the hole after each registering par.
10th Hole (Par 4 – 374 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Schwenk pulled his drive and couldn’t get up and down to salvage par. Romeo continued his consistency by winning the hole on a par putt to go back up by one.
11th Hole (Par 3 – 194 yds) | Tied | Schwenk wins the hole to immediately even the score again.
12th Hole (Par 4 – 420 yds) | Tied | On one of the course’s most difficult holes, it appeared as though Schwenk was in the driver’s seat to take his first lead of the match when Romeo found the trees off the tee, leaving him 220 yards from the green in a patch of rough. Schwenk was just 132 yards from the pin after his drive found a comfortable lie in the fairway. Romeo chose a 3 wood for his next shot and with an incredible stroke nearly found the green in regulation. Schwenk was on the green in two, but after both missed their birdie putts, Romeo holed a huge par putt and Schwenk buried his tricky par attempt as the pair remained deadlocked.
13th Hole (Par 4 – 459 yds) | Tied | Both register pars after narrowly missing their birdie attempts.
14th Hole (Par 4 – 388 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Schwenk would say that the 14th is his “nemesis hole” at St. George’s, a par 4 that has given him trouble in the past. Yesterday was no different as he found the rough off the tee, then crushed his second shot with a 9 iron 20 yards over the green, past the cart path, and into thick fescue. He was happy just to find his ball and avoid an automatic one-stroke penalty. Meanwhile, Romeo got a big break when his flared drive just missed a pond. He nearly reached the green on his next stroke.
Schwenk’s third shot was pure as he hit a lob wedge through the trees and within 20 feet of the cup, that is until the two-tiered green claimed another victim. Schwenk helplessly watched as his makeable birdie attempt turned into a 40-footer after rolling down to the lower tier. It looked as though Romeo was going to leave the door open when he mishit his chip shot, giving himself a tricky 18-footer for par, but Schwenk’s deep par attempt did not have enough gusto to get all the way up the hill, leaving him with an 18-footer for bogey. It was a shot that Schwenk would not need to take as Romeo sank his long par attempt to reclaim the lead.
15th Hole (Par 3 – 164 yds) | Romeo up 2 | The 15th is a challenging hole because of the “dead elephant,” a large hump in the middle of the green. Romeo’s drive left him 12 feet from the hole on the good side of the elephant while Schwenk’s left him 25 feet away on the wrong side. Schwenk’s extremely challenging birdie putt nearly found the bottom of the cup, just lipping out and leaving him a four-footer for par. Romeo also missed his birdie putt and it appeared they would halve the hole and move on when Schwenk missed his par putt to go down by two with just three holes to go. Through 15 holes Schwenk had won just three holes and he would have to nearly equal that production in order to tie Romeo.
16th Hole (Par 4 – 318 yds) | Romeo up 1 | Schwenk, showing the resilience that made him one of the finest golfers in Suffolk County during his time as a Bear, came right back with a victory on the 16th to remain in the match. Needing to be aggressive, Schwenk pulled his driver out of his bag then watched as his shot found a greenside bunker to the left of the hole. His lie in the sand was horrendously located on the backside slope of the trap. Romeo, on the other hand, was sitting pretty in the fairway just 80 yards from the hole. It appeared that Romeo could end the match right there, without the final two holes needing to be played, but this hole, and the match, was far from being decided.
Romeo complicated matters for himself when he lofted his second shot over the green, down a 30-foot slope, and into thick fescue. Schwenk, after a solid bunker shot, was just off the green. On his next shot, Romeo hit the ball well over the green in the other direction and actually hit another golfer in their foursome, a lucky break that prevented his ball from rolling all the way down the sloping green. It appeared that all Schwenk needed to do was chip it close and sink a par putt to win the hole, but his muffed chip traveled just two feet, leaving him a tough 12-footer for par. On his par attempt, Romeo nearly holed his very difficult shot, putting the pressure back on Schwenk who now needed to sink his par putt to win the hole. Schwenk was clutch again as he found the tin and sliced Romeo’s lead in half with two holes to go.
17th Hole (Par 3 – 122 yds) | Romeo up 1 | After each drive, most of the gallery, which had grown as word began to spread of the exciting match, was penciling in Romeo as the victor. Romeo was sitting four feet below the hole while Schwenk was nestled 25 feet above it. Romeo had been making his putts all day long so Schwenk’s caddy and former coach, Mike Hickey, told him to be sure to not leave it short and give it a chance to go in. Schwenk took his coach’s advice to heart and nailed the putt for his biggest shot of the day. Romeo also holed his birdie putt to set up a thrilling finish.
18th Hole (Par 5 – 535 yds) | Tied | After a great drive by Romeo, Schwenk crushed his shot but found a fairway bunker after the wind swallowed it up. Romeo was firmly in the driver’s seat but opened the door when he tried to cut the corner of the dogleg left but mishit his shot and found a fescue covered berm. Schwenk was unable to fully capitalize on the mistake when his second shot found the rough.
He made up for it on his next stroke as his ball landed on the top tier of the green, caught the edge and rolled down the bottom tier just a few feet from the hole. Romeo was left with a 25-foot par putt after his third shot and nearly won the match when he came within inches of burying the putt. Schwenk tapped in for par and Romeo made his bogey. Schwenk finished with an even par 70, besting Romeo’s 71 by one stroke, but they remained tied as the tournament was match play and not stroke play. A playoff hole would be needed to decide the victor.
Playoff – 1st Hole (Par 4 – 374 yds) | Schwenk up 1 | The pair went back to the 1st hole for a sudden death playoff. Romeo found trouble right away when his drive landed in the rough. Schwenk fared better as his ball came to rest in the fairway 152 yards from the hole. Romeo’s next stroke found a greenside bunker leaving the door open for Schwenk who did not miss the opportunity.
Schwenk went for the jugular with his 8 iron, knocking the ball within four feet of the hole. Romeo chipped out of the bunker and was left with a 20-foot par attempt and after missing that he conceded the hole to Schwenk who merely had to two-putt from four feet to win. It was Schwenk’s first lead of the day and the only one he would need to secure a spot in the next round. Schwenk’s round epitomized perseverance and toughness as he shook off several disappointing shots and plenty of pressure from Romeo to emerge triumphant.
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