The Seventh Cave Cup

The Seventh Cave Cup was held in remembrance of Ryan ‘Chex’ Andrichik, whose untimely death during the summer of 2021 left the Cave Cup membership reeling. Led by Black Squad Captain Corey Marks & Red Squad Captain Max Malecki, the tournament began with an ample supply of red wine at Wisconsin Dell’s Del Bar Steakhouse on Friday night (that is, until the Cavers were ‘politely’ asked to leave) followed by a Saturday morning pre-tournament ceremony on the first tee of Wisconsin’s Wild Rock Golf Club celebrating Andrichik’s life and career. As Chex’s ashes were sprinkled amidst the foggy dew, a moment of silence and reflection was called for; a tradition that continues to this day. Chex’s signature white and red bucket hat was once again donned by the Red Squad. Then, golf balls were airborne…

 

Saturday’s morning scramble matches began with three straight victories by teams of Captain Marks/Mark Krull, Sean Truesdale/Taylor Dee, and Luke Andrade/Jack Krull. The Red Squad answered at the back end of the session with gutsy victories of Sean Hennessy/Matt Truesdale (2&1 over Matt Taylor/Nick Fox) and Adam Hall/Jeff Johnson (3&2 over Jeremy Wallace/Garrett Vanhal). After another victory by Joe Spesia/Pat Hall, Black stretched to a 4-2 lead heading into the afternoon session.

​

Red Captain Malecki, desperate to cut into Black’s lead, trotted out his two victories pairings again to lead the afternoon foursomes session. Unfortunately for Captain Malecki, both pairings ran out of gas and suffered blowout losses to M. Krull/Wallace (6&4 over S. Hennessy/M. Truesdale) as well as Black’s own buzzsaw pairing of S. Truesdale/Dee (7&6 over A. Hall / Johnson). After another big win by Marks/Andrade (6&5 over Foglton/Malecki) in a match featuring both captains, things looked bleak for the Red Squad. A spark was provided with a half point from Tyler Dicken/Mike Spesia, and with two close matches remaining on the course, there was potential for Red to cut the lead to two heading into Sunday Singles play. However, after battling Taylor’s shanks for much of the match, Taylor/Vanhal gutted out a back nine comeback over Ryan Penders/Joe Houlihan which included the Black pairing making par on the four final holes to win 1 up. The final group, featuring a rematch of the morning’s match between J. Spesia/P. Hall and Nash/ Marconi, was completed with Red making an impressive par on the difficult eighteenth hole after Marconi used the rocky cliff bank to feed towards the hole on his approach. P. Hall then holed a knee-knocking four-footer to complete Black’s own par to halve the hole and win the match, again 1 up. The session finished with Black taking a commanding 9.5-2.5 lead as the Red Squad headed to the bar to regroup and mercilessly pound whiskey shots.

 

Saturday’s festivities spiraled out of control, as they are wont to do, as a neighboring bachelorette party was thrown into the mix and the first ever Cave Cup coed party rocked late into the night. One Caver would later recall being taken aside by one of the young ladies and asked, “who is the sweaty guy who keeps telling me that he used to be a HUGGEEEE PIECE OF SHIT, BUT PEOPLE CAN CHANGE?”

​

Red’s dreams of a Sunday miracle were quickly dashed by Black victories in the first three singles matches by Fox (3&1 over Dicken), Andrade (6&5 over S. Hennessy) & J. Spesia (3&2 over Malecki), the latter of which clinched The Cup. Two Red highlights were claimed by ‘personal’ victories of Foglton (4&3 over Taylor) as he ‘declawed the Tiger’ and Penders (3&2 over M. Krull), who avenged last year’s loss in Memphis in a newly dubbed rivalry, ‘The Battle of The Dads’. The crescendo of the Black wave was reached when S. Truesdale, playing in the final group, rallied from a 2-down back-nine deficit to J. Houlihan which started with a chip-in on the fourteenth and culminated with driving the green on the short par four seventeenth. As S. Truesdale holed his two-putt birdie to win 3&1, a few Cavers standing greenside could have sworn that they heard him proclaim that “there’s a new sheriff in town.”

​

Black’s celebration was bittersweet as was the feeling throughout the weekend. As the Black Squad gathered to celebrate on the eighteenth green, a seminal moment in Cup history occurred- the Red Squad was called to gather in for a group photo. Seven years later and down a man, the Cavers were finally all photographed together. Later Sunday evening, as both the Black and Red players sat in the cabin’s front lawn, a toad was spotted within a planter on the front porch. As the Cavers gathered in to take selfies with the toad (cannabis was consumed), one Caver recalled that one of the ladies from the night before had been mistakenly pronouncing ‘Joey Toes’ as ‘Joey Toads’- yet another nickname for the man who would later become ‘Bones’. As the red wine continued to flow into the early morning hours, Cavers couldn’t help but reminisce about Chex’s effortless grace, gentlemanly charm, and loyal friendship. His final Cave Cup record: 11-1-3, undefeated when paired with his partner, A. Hall, and undefeated in Sunday Singles play.

 

Cheers to you, our friend.