Former BYU and Houston Oilers quarterback Gifford Nielsen took his role as team captain pretty seriously in leading BYU’s team to the Charity Cup victory in a Ryder Cup-type event at Sand Hollow Resort this week.
This was part of a dominating Golf Week in Southern Utah, where BYU and a 32-man team from St. Andrews and Carnoustie, Scotland, dominated the Friendship Cup, University Cup and Charity Cup competitions.
Nielsen, fresh off an assignment to Africa as a general authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, coached, preached, gave pep talks and even led cheers in huddles.
Citing former Oilers teammate Dave Casper, Nielsen said wearing team colors and winning was imperative to everything in a team sport. “Losing isn’t fun.”
Like the team captains for the Utah Jazz and Las Vegas Raiders, he toiled long and hard over a handicap sheet to set players in motion against foes in three nine-hole matches that included best ball, alternating shot and a two-man scramble.
After beating the Jazz team, BYU was tied with the Raiders at 17.5 points before the final nine-hole two-man scramble. Nielsen’s BYU team finished with 28.5 points and dominated the Charity Cup on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a BYU team led by former Cougar Carson Lundell’s 6 under par, defeated Utah State/UVU, Utah Tech, the University of Utah and Southern Utah University. The Cougars’ win over USU/UVU was five shots.
Earlier in the week, the Scots defeated Sand Hollow (USA) by 6 points in match play, a competition that began in Scotland in June. It was the first time in five years Scotland has won.
Former British Open amateur champion (2004) Stuart Wilson led the Scots. The former Walker Cup player, who played in the Masters and Open, made his first appearance in the 5-year-old Friendship Cup.
“It’s nice to be involved and participate,” said Wilson, who shot under par during the week. “It’s been brilliant and this is a real fun course. You can make a birdie as well as a bogey here. The Americans have been so great with hospitality and looking after us. We’ve seen a baseball game (Ogden Raptors), Temple Square, Family History Museum, Zion’s Park and it’s enhanced so much of what you get in a golf trip. It’s been fabulous.”
For the first time in five years, Friendship Cup co-chairmen Mark Leavitt and his Scottish counterpart Rod Sturrock, former starter at The Old Course at St. Andrews, organized two teams from Scotland, club members from St. Andrews and Carnoustie. This enabled the Friendship Cup, created to foster goodwill between Americans and Scots, to field 32 players from each country in a match play Ryder Cup-type competition.
“I thought for a while the second team would be like adding a half, but it’s been three times the work and effort,” said Leavitt. “Maybe with a little time it will be better. Our Charity Cup was completely full with 128 players and we hope it will remain strong. Our previous was 78 players and that was a big jump. Our sponsorships are up and we’ll keep trying our best to make this succeed.”
Among the Scottish players with traditional names like McIntosh, Gillanders, Allison, Christie, McNulty and Kidd was Mark Kubicki of Polish heritage. Playing for BYU’s team in the Charity Cup, his hybrid shot from 175 to 6 feet set up a match-tying birdie on the final hole after being two down.
Kubicki’s grandparents were killed in Wold War II when Germans invaded their hometown of Warsaw. His father and four siblings walked all the way to France, where they joined the Polish Army then migrated to Scotland.
“This is the best golf outing I’ve ever been on in my life,” said Kubicki. “It’s been fabulous, so many things to do and so many great people to meet. It’s making new friends and experiencing this great hospitality here from Mark and others that have made this a lasting experience.”
Kubicki described to former BYU linebacker Bryan Kehl how 40-mile-an-hour winds at his famed Carnoustie course have closed play at times. This was when Kehl was describing playing football in Laramie, Wyoming, in November in his playing days.
These kinds of exchanges epitomize what is special about this international exchange, a journey of camaraderie.
For example, native Utahns competing found it fun that a highlight for the Scots in Utah was eating at Chuck-A-Rama; they’ve got nothing like it in Scotland.
The Utah Jazz team included former players Truck Robinson from the days in New Orleans, Mehmet Okur, Quincy Lewis and Ron Boone. BYU’s team included former players Bryan Kehl and Lee Johnson. Nielsen, a single digit handicap player, did not play due to a sore hip.
