Shoshone wins Miller Cup

The 25th Annual Miller Cup could’ve been dubbed the War to Settle the Score, fortunately neither side had enough contempt for such a title to be necessary, but in terms of meaningful events — breaking a 12-12 tie was a pretty big deal.

It took a heroic, come from behind effort, but in the end Shoshone Golf Club brought home the 13th win for their beloved Big Creek course, their fourth straight cup win.

The competition consists of the 12 best players from both Shoshone and Pinehurst Golf Clubs in two days of six singles matches and three doubles matches each day, with simple match scoring determining the winner of each matchup.

The defending champs are given a half point simply for being the defending champions, which means that Pinehurst would need to win 13 of the matches to avoid a potential tie (which would result in a loss when the half point is applied).

The first team to 12.5 points wins the vaunted Miller Cup.

Day one was played on the relatively flat grounds of the Pinehurst Golf Course, where the PGC team took full advantage of their home course and charged out to a 7.5 to 4.5 lead on the backs of singles wins from Danny Kenyon, as well as doubles wins from Taylor Hulstrom and Sean Biotti, Hank Rauenhorst and Chase Jerome, and Archie Rauenhorst and Hogan Samuelson.

Day two took the Silver Valley’s top 24 golfers to the more mountainous terrain of Shoshone Golf Club where the East Siders clamped down on their opposition and won the cup.

Brent Clearman, Jesse Bennett, Hunter Gust, Carter Wardwell and Chad Self all won their singles matches — while doubles teams CJ Kissell and Jordan Cochran, and Dan Sommerfield and Dustin Christensen all scored major points to put the final score at 15-9 in favor of Shoshone Golf Club.

“This is something we look forward to every year,” said Shoshone Golf Club Manager Hunter Gust. “It’s a lot of friendly competition and you just never know what is going to happen when you can get the 24 best golfers in the Silver Valley together. It’s just a great time that seems to get better every year.”

The tournament began in 1995 and is called the Miller Cup because the Miller Beer Company sponsored the trophies and the tournament in the beginning.

Team Shoshone was made up of Hunter Gust, Hayden Hogamier, Jordan Cochran, CJ Kissel, Owen Cotter, Corey Miller, Dan Sommerfield, Dustin Christensen, Chad Self, Carter Wardwell, Brent Clearman and Rocky Therrian.

Team Pinehurst was made up of Danny Kenyon, Jay Ploharz, Darren Williams, Chuck Wardwell, Cade Finlay, Taylor Bush, Taylor Hulstrom, Sean Biotti, Hank Rauenhorst, Archie Rauenhorst, Chase Jerome and Hogan Samuelson.

Christensen was named Miller Cup MVP and all of his Shoshone Golf Club teammates want to thank him for his hard work and dedication to the event.