The NCI has pulled off a three-peat, winning the Ronald H. Defelice Cup, the annual golf tournament between NCI and Leidos Biomed, for three consecutive years.
This year’s tournament was held on a chilly fall morning at the Rattlewood Golf Course in Mt. Airy, MD. Most teams had their polos covered with all manner of pullovers, jackets, and sweaters. Golfers arrived at the course around 7:30 a.m. to warm up on the driving range and the practice putting greens, as well as to partake in the continental breakfast.
The competition officially began around 8:30 a.m. with eight team matches. After breaking for lunch, the afternoon rounds began with 15 individual matches. After some fierce competition, including a few grudge matches—Craig Reynolds versus David Heimbrook, and Barry O’Keefe versus Dominic Esposito—the NCI team prevailed with a final score of 12.5 points to 10.5 points.
The tournament, which is named after Ronald H. Defelice, retired chief of the Management Operations and Support Branch, NCI at Frederick, is similar to professional golf’s Ryder Cup in many ways. Both feature individual play as well as two-man team formats that pit two players from one team against two players from the other team. For team play, the Defelice Cup follows the rules of Foursome, in which each team member plays their own ball. The lowest score from each team is used to determine who wins the hole. The team that wins the most holes wins the match, and teams are then awarded one point for every match won. When a match ends in a tie, each team is awarded half a point.
Overall, everyone had a great time. MVPs were named from each team: John Morris for NCI and Dominic Esposito for Leidos. This is a great event, and NCI looks forward to dominating for years to come.
