Top Sports Stories 2015: A big season for Mattituck golf

Surprise, surprise (well, not really), both the Suffolk County League VII regular-season championship and the League VII Qualifying Tournament came down to two teams: Eastport/South Manor and Mattituck. 

Both teams finished the 2015 season as the league’s co-champions with 11-1 league records. The Tuckers finished 13-1 overall. Two years earlier they had also shared the title (last year Eastport/South Manor won the crown by one stroke over the Tuckers).

Only two strokes separated the teams in the league tournament. The Tuckers defended their tournament title with a tournament record score of 397 on the par-73, 18-hole course at Cherry Creek Golf Links in Riverhead. Eastport/South Manor finished close behind in the runner-up spot with a 399.

“Both teams had great days,” Tuckers coach Paul Ellwood said. “I couldn’t believe the scores coming in.”

Three Tuckers — Alex Burns, Jon Dwyer and Andrew Stakey — shot 79s to tie for fourth place. Ryan McCaffrey and Matt Mauceri both tied for seventh with scores of 80. Brendan Kent shot an 85, leaving him 14th. The whole team qualified for the state qualifier this coming spring.

The Tuckers broke a 200 team score eight times this year. Their team average of 197 is the lowest team average for Mattituck in at least 15 years, according to Ellwood. “That’s a tremendous team average to have,” he said.

For the season, Stakey (38.03), Dwyer (38.34) and Burns (38.49) led the team with their nine-hole averages. Burns and Mauceri both had 14-0 match records.

“They really played tremendous this year,” said Ellwood, who called it the best golf team he has coached. He added: “They all got better and were playing their best golf at the end of the year. That’s what you want. You can’t get better than that.”

Photo Caption: The Mattituck boys team set a tournament record to add the League VII Qualifying Tournament title to their regular-season league championship. (Credit: courtesy photo)