The Wellington Cup
The first Wellington Cup came together pretty quickly. I was able to secure a couple of back to back tee times at the Charleston Municipal Golf Course and figured it was a good opportunity to try something I had wanted to do for a while. The idea was pretty simple. Get a group together, split into two teams, and play six singles matches for the Cup.
We went with Team Classic and Team Caddie, representing the two distinct Wellington Golf Co. logos that we use. Most of the guys in the field are people I have gotten to know from playing at the Muni over the last couple of years. One of my favorite parts about playing there regularly has been the people I have met, so it felt fitting to have the first Wellington Cup at a place that connected a good portion of the field.
There were a few connections from outside of golf as well. I originally met Joe Provost and Grant Sauer through a kickball league, and four more friends from that group came out to walk along and watch. Shoutout to Lacey, Forrest, Hunter, and Erin! We even had a few guys on the bag. Layton Mahon caddied for me, Frank Provost caddied for Joe, and Clay Buxton caddied for Grant. Clay and Frank are also buddies from kickball, and Layton is a friend from his days working at Grady Ervin & Co. on King Street. Having caddies and a group of spectators walking with us gave the afternoon a little more of an event feel than our normal Sunday round at the Muni. There was a buzz around the course about the event. It felt really cool to have organized, and I am beyond grateful to have had that amount of support from friends for the event!
We also had a very late change to the field. Steven Slocum was originally set to play Will Bastian, but broke his foot on Saturday while painting his bathroom. Will brought in Greg Sanders as a last minute replacement. Coincidentally, Greg is also Steven’s neighbor, so we were able to keep the match intact with less than 24 hours to spare.
Once we got on the course, Team Classic started building an advantage pretty quickly. Through nine holes, Greg was 5 up on Will, I was 4 up on Tristan Gold, Nick LaBate was 2 up on Brandon Kuntz, and Joe was 4 up on Grant. Ryan Bruneau had Team Caddie’s lone lead at 3 up over JT Bloomer, while Ford Gordon and Nash Nickerson were tied. With four of the six matches leaning toward Team Classic, we were in a good position heading to the back nine.
Team Classic continued to pull away from there. Greg made the most of his last minute addition to the field and closed out Will 6&5. I finished my match against Tristan 6&5, while Joe had the largest margin of the day with an 8&6 win over Grant. Nick added another point with a 2&1 win over Brandon.
Ford and Nash had the closest match of the afternoon. They were tied through nine and took the match all the way to the 18th before Ford secured a 1 up victory. Ryan earned Team Caddie’s only point of the day, maintaining the advantage he had built on the front nine and defeating JT 3&2.
When all six matches were finished, Team Classic had won the inaugural Wellington Cup 5 to 1.
After the final matches came in, we headed over to Charleston Sports Pub on James Island for dinner and a few drinks. It was a fitting way to finish something that had really started with nothing more than finding a couple of tee times at the Muni.
For the first attempt at putting something like this together, I thought it turned out about as well as it could have. There was not some huge plan behind the first Wellington Cup. We had a golf course that has become an important part of Wellington Golf Co., two logos that gave us a natural way to create the teams, and a group made up largely of people I have met through playing golf in Charleston. Add in a few caddies, some friends walking along, a last minute alternate, and six matches with a Cup on the line, and it turned into a really fun Sunday afternoon.
Hopefully this was just the first of many Wellington Cups. For now, Team Classic has the first one and a Cup to defend.
Our friends over at Harlestons helped get our team uniforms together on less than a days notice. Bryan Thomas is the co-founder and Director of Sales at Harlestons. When we first started Wellington Golf Co., I reached out to Bryan and he was so enthusiastic about our new brand and was willing to help us with out first order of polos. This was such a great touch to the event that really helped elevate the team experience. Harlestons is a premium provider of on course and off course apparel, based right here in Charleston. Their name takes inspiration from Harleston Green, the site of the very first golf course in America which is right in the heart of present-day downtown Charleston. The Team Classic wore the Bowen polo in a striped Moss green and the Team Caddie wore the Rutledge polo in Chambray & Magnolia Color.
Even from the couch with his broken foot, Steven still found a way to participate in the event! He has a friend that started Live Tourney which is a golf event management software for keeping a live scoreboard. This was a huge benefit for the tournament, and it allowed a friends of Wellington Golf Co. to follow along during the event! The interface was super user friendly and it was seamless to use for our event. You are able to build in sponsor logos, run different style tournaments on there, and it keeps all the scores up to date instantly. This was not an element that I had thought of before the event, but Steven suggested giving this a try and I am glad we did! I had people texting me throughout the tournament that were following along with the tournament action. I posted a link to the Wellington Cup on out instagram story and it was a huge hit!
See the full results of the Wellington Cup.
Check out Live Tourney for your next tournament!
