Mike Sundheim

Index | Archive

Erik Cole seemed unfazed when he found out who his playing partner was for the 2009 edition of the Media Golf Tournament. As it turned out, his confidence was justified.

Sharing a cart with a man who traded him, re-acquired him, and signed him to a multi-year contract, all within the last 15 months or so, Cole helped Jim Rutherford get back on top. Team Rutherford captured the annual Media Cup (Okay, there isn’t actually a Cup, though it has been suggested that one be acquired, complete with past winners names) along with WRAL’s Jeff Gravley and 850 The Buzz’s David Glenn with a team score of 55.9.

It was another gorgeous day for the tournament, again held at Brier Creek Country Club, continuing a Canes PR tradition that dates back to the team’s arrival in North Carolina. The annual Media Golf Tournament has been expanded into a full-blown Media Day, a chance for the local press to not only spend a day on the links with the Hurricanes, but to gather a slew of one-on-one interviews before camp begins.

Among the players on the course yesterday were all of the newest Hurricane acquisitions, providing players like Tom Kostopoulos and Stephane Yelle with a chance to meet the media and to get better acquainted with their new bosses. Kostopoulos shared a golf cart with Ron Francis, helping Team Francis – which also included 99.9 The Fan’s Mark Thomas and NBC-17’s Penn Holderness – capture second prize in the tournament. Yelle, who arrived in Triangle less than 24 hours before the tournament, was paired with Jason Karmanos, as Team Karmanos, also featuring News 14’s Ryan Welch and Mark Barger, finished third.

(Side note: Rutherford, Francis and Karmanos finishing one-two-three in the tournament would be a nice result for the PR guy who created the groupings. Apparently, I like my job.)

(Side note two: Third prize was a copy of the 10th Anniversary DVD. Two interesting by-products of that were Yelle getting a DVD that outlines the history of his new team, and Cole trading his first-prize Hurricanes putter to Jason Karmanos for the third-prize DVD, since Cole never got a copy and his son, Landon, would “eat that up.”)

In a week dominated by the start of college football, a bunch of press was generated with yesterday’s tournament. Some has already been aired or posted on the internet, more will filter out in the next week or so. (I will try to add them here) Here are some samples:

• News & Observer: Canes have a “good group”
• Associated Press: Short summer still too long for ‘Canes
• 99.9 The Fan: The Insiders Interviews with Staal, Rutherford, Gleason, Yelle, Aaron Ward
• News 14: One-on-One with Paul Maurice
• CarolinaHurricanes.com: Yelle not afraid to block shots
• WRALSportsfan.com: Canes not afraid to bring back former stars

Subscribe | Discuss | Contact Previous | Next

Comments for Mike?

*Name:

*Email:

Age:

Comments: