The Navy men's golf team will travel to Clementon, N.J. this weekend to battle its arch rival in the 82nd edition of the Army-Navy Star Match which will be played at the top-ranked golf course in the United States, Pine Valley Golf Club. The two-day, 36-hole event will be scored as match play, or the more familiar Ryder Cup-style format, with four 4-ball matches played on Saturday (10:00 am) and seven singles matches played on Sunday (10:00 am). The first team to reach six points will be declared the winner.

Please take note that spectators are unable to attend this event. Pine Valley Golf Club is a highly-exclusive club that only allows spectators access to the grounds of the club one time each year which is the final round of The Crump Cup, an invitational golf tournament for amateurs.

Army-Navy Star Series Presented by USAA
This weekend's golf match marks the fourth among 24 Army-Navy Star competitions played over the course of the academic year that determine the winner of the Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA. The annual showdown between the two rivals in each sport is deemed the Star Game with the athletes from the winning team receiving a Star for their letter sweaters. For those sports who face Army multiple times in a season, the Star Game is designated prior to the start of the year. This year's competition kicked off two weeks ago with the Mids' sprint football team posting a 14-7 victory over Army in West Point. Navy's women's soccer team claimed a 1-0 victory over the Black Knights last Friday, while Army won a 3-2 marathon match against the Mids in volleyball.

Navy leads the all-time overall series against Army, 1086-827-43 (.566), including a 440-288-10 (.603) mark over the last 24 years.  Meanwhile, the Mids own a 327-180-10 (.643) advantage in the Star Series over the last 24 years.  

Series History
Navy's golf team enters this weekend's competition with a 44-36-1 advantage over the Black Knights in the annual dual which was first played in 1939 at Sherwood Forest Golf Club in Sherwood Forest, Md. Among the 79 previously-played duals, 54 have utilized the familiar Ryder Cup format, including each of the last 17 (8 wins by Navy, 9 by Army). The Black Knights have won two in a row against the Mids with Navy last claiming victory behind a 6-5 decision at West Point in 2016.

Traditionally played on the campus sites of either Army or Navy, this year's Star Match was moved to Pine Valley Golf Club due to renovations taking place at the Naval Academy Golf Club. This weekend's competition marks just the sixth time (1939, 1940, 1943, 1945, 2012) the two programs have met on neutral ground, including just the second since 1945. Navy has won three of the five neutral site meetings, with a tie and a loss accounting for the other two.

The Course
Pine Valley was founded in 1913 by a group of amateur golfers from Philadelphia. They purchased 184 acres (0.7 km²) of rolling, sandy ground deep in the pinelands of southern New Jersey, and gave George Arthur Crump, who knew the area from hunting expeditions, the opportunity to design the course. This was Crump's first and only golf course design, but he brought together celebrated architects such as A.W. Tillinghast, Hugh Wilson, George C. Thomas Jr., Walter Travis, and H.S. Colt to help him create the course.

In "The Complete Golfer," course architect Robert Trent Jones wrote that Pine Valley "is frequently alluded to as the most difficult course in the world, and this reputation is justified. Pine Valley is a difficult golf course; every year at the Crump Cup, the best mid-amateur and senior players rarely match or break par in stroke play qualifying. There are no rakes at Pine Valley; the sandy areas and bunkers found throughout the course are true hazards. There is no out of bounds at all, and structures including the clubhouse are considered "through the green".

The course has a consistent level of challenge and conditioning on each hole, requiring thoughtful placement of the ball from tee to green, and more specifically correct placement on approach shots to the green due to significant swales and undulations. Pine Valley has one of the best collections of par fives and par threes in the world. The course prides itself in being one of the toughest challenges in all of golf, with a slope of 155 from the championship tees.

Pine Valley's trademarks are the par three 5th hole, which requires a well-placed 220 yard slightly uphill drive over a lake into a small and sloped green, "Hell's half acre" (a barren wasteland on the par five 7th hole which is probably the largest non-sea-side bunker in the world), an extremely deep bunker on the par three 10th hole and the par four 18th, which incorporates many different elements of the golf course into a spectacular[weasel words] finishing hole.

Pine Valley Golf Club is a highly-exclusive club. The only way a guest is allowed into the club is if they are invited and accompanied by a member. There are about 930 members spread throughout the world, and the list is a closely guarded secret. Notable members of the club have included George H. W. Bush, Sean Connery, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Fazio, Bob Hope, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Connie Mack, Bob McNair, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Roger Goodell, Dan Quayle, Brian L. Roberts, Jay Sigel, George C. Thomas, Jr., and A. W. Tillinghast.[8]

More on the Mids
In his 30th season leading Navy, head coach Pat Owen fields a relatively inexperienced team heading into the weekend. Just five of the 14 players that appear on Navy's roster have played in a Star Match, including the only senior on the team Thomas Garbee. The Asheville, N.C. native will make his fourth appearance against the Black Knights where he owns a 1-2 mark in both singles and 4-ball action. He's also looking to close out his collegiate career against Army the way it started, as the Mids claimed a thrilling 6-5 win against Army his rookie year.

Juniors Charlie Musto (Sterling, Va.) and Ward Wilkinson (Ashland, Va.) will make their third appearance in the Star Match, while Michael Brennan (Locust Valley, N.Y.) and Jake Miles (Fredericksburg, Va.) played in last year's tournament for the first time.

Though a young team, Navy has enjoyed success in the early weeks of the season. The Mids opened the year with a second-place finish at the Ryan T. Lee Collegiate in Connecticut and followed up with a victory at The Doc Gimmler on Long Island. Garbee and Musto, meanwhile, tied for individual medalist honors at The Doc Gimmler which earned them Co-Patriot League Golfer of the Week accolades.

About the Black Knights
Army has competed in a pair of tournaments to date, taking 11th at the Alex Ladowitz Memorial Invitational at Colgate and a sixth-place showing at the UConn Invitational. The Black Knights also played a rare match against Alabama, dropping an 8-5 decision to the Crimson Tide in Alabama.

Six of the eight players off last year's Star Match-winning team return for Army, including seniors Gunnar Doyle and Justin Williamson, a two-time All-Patriot League performer.

Up Next
The Mids return to action the week of Oct. 13 when they will send split squads to compete at the Bucknell Invitational (Oct. 13-14) in Lewisburg, Pa. and the Phoenix Invitational (Oct. 14-15) in Burlington, N.C.

### Go Navy ###