Robinson, Lurie triumph despite elements
Houston duo win title by 3 strokes after 4 solid days at Cypress Creek
DeVaughn Robinson and Craig Lurie met playing in a Public Links qualifier several years ago. Since then, they have formed a friendship from all the time playing and practicing together at Memorial Park Golf Course.
They make a good pair on the course. On Sunday, the Houston duo completed four days of outstanding play by winning one of the nation’s top two-man, two-ball mid-amateur tournaments.
Robinson, 29, and Lurie, 36, combined to shoot 15-under-par 269 over four days to win the 51st Champions Cup Invitational. The margin of victory was three shots over the runner-up and father-son tandem of Gary and Eric Durbin of Houston.
“You had to bring your ‘A’ game,” said Robinson, who is the reigning Houston city amateur champion. “It’s a tough field. Not only that, but you had to play really good team golf to get the job done. It wasn’t a one-sided thing, it was 50-50 all the way around.”
Robinson and Lurie, the leaders after 36 and 54 holes, began the final round two shots ahead of the Durbins. Robinson and Lurie finished Sunday’s final round at 2-under 69 after rounds of 6666-68 on the 7,450-yard, par-71 Cypress Creek Course at Champions Golf Club, which hosted the 1967 Ryder Cup and 1969 U.S. Open and will be the site of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open.
“All week long, we gutted it out and played great partner golf, minus a few holes on Saturday,” said Lurie, a graduate of Episcopal High School. “Other than that, it was a great tournament for us, and we look forward to coming back next year.”
Added Robinson, who originally is from the Bahamas: “There was a lot of holes where I was out of it, and Craig stepped up to the plate and vice versa. It was good team golf.
“First of all, it was just a pleasure to play four rounds with Craig Lurie. (Caddie) Chris Colville has been outstanding this week. The golf course, the competition couldn’t be better.”
The duo made only two bogeys over four days in at times challenging weather conditions, especially Saturday’s round, when wind from the north reached 35 mph, making for a wind chill of 45 degrees.
“His Saturday round was one of the best rounds I’ve seen in my life,” said Lurie, who played collegiately at Oklahoma “That’s putting it up with the likes of my old teammates Martin Flores and Anthony Kim.
“The conditions (Saturday) were absolutely brutal. He gutted it out and putted like (Ben) Crenshaw.”
The weather Sunday was an improvement from Saturday. Sunday’s play was under an overcast sky with temperatures in the 50s.
The team of Kyle Maxwell of The Woodlands and Derek Meinhart of Mattoon, Ill., took third place at 11 under.
By invitation only, the 2018 edition of the Champions Cup Invitational was made up of 51 teams representing 25 states and Canada, with the average handicap being plus-3.1.
The Durbins got within a shot of Robinson-Lurie on Sunday, but the gap between the teams was usually two to three.
“DeVaughn and Craig played great,” said Gary Durbin, 61, a three-time winner of the Houston city amateur who was on the winning team in the 1999 Champions Cup. “We just could never put enough pressure on them early in the round.”
Finishing at 12-under 272, the Durbins carded rounds of 65-70-67-70.
“We made too many bogeys and didn’t make enough birdies,” Durbin said. “But it was a great week. It was a thrill playing with my son.”
Jack Burke Jr., who cofounded Champions Golf Club with Jimmy Demaret in 1957, started the Champions Cup Invitational in 1961 to express his passion for the development of amateur golf.
“It’s a game, we all love to play it,” Burke, 95, said Sunday while watching the Masters, a tournament he won in 1956. “We just need to bring more competition down here.”