Spidey senses: Eftink, Kies with superhero-esque effort in leading Raiders to Ryder Cup victory

QUINCY — Beau Eftink and Dylan Kies may have found their new good luck charm.

The Quincy Notre Dame tandem rocked Snoop Dogg shirts — black button-ups with a No. 93 and ‘Dogg’ written on the back — and Spider-Man hats to go along with their American flag pants as they won both of their nine-hole matches against Quincy High School’s Ty Novosel and Hunter St. Clair during Wednesday’s Ryder Cup at Spring Lake Country Club.

“I might have to wear a Spider-Man hat at regionals or sectionals or state, one of the three,” Eftink said.

It took a couple trips to and from Walmart to find the perfect outfit.

“We went to Walmart to start. We didn’t see anything that had a collar on it, but we didn’t look too hard,” Eftink said. “Then we went to Target, which didn’t have anything at all. Then we went back to Walmart because we were like, ‘Surely there’s something,’ and we found the shirts and we were like, ‘That would look amazing.’”

Then came the hats.

“We were walking through the youth aisle, and I looked over and there was this Spider-Man hat just laying there,” Kies said. “It just really popped out to me. We just grabbed it and ran with it.”

Eftink and Kies used their Spidey senses to win the front nine two-person best ball match after just six holes. They followed that up by winning 2-and-1 on the back nine, punctuated by Eftink’s wedge shot on No. 17. Eftink’s drive found the middle of the fairway 117 yards from the hole, and after Kies hit the green with his approach, Eftink had the green light to go flagstick hunting. He stuck his wedge 8 feet behind the hole, leading to a birdie that sealed the match.

“I’d usually probably play that toward the middle of the green,” Eftink said. “But since he already had one up there that we could possibly make or just two-putt and get out of there, I just decided there’s no reason for me not to take this right at the flag, so I did.”

After dropping both matches to Novosel and St. Clair Monday at Quincy Country Club, Kies couldn’t wait to get to Spring Lake, a course at which both he and Eftink have much more experience.

“We were definitely ready to come here,” Kies said. “Right after we were finished Monday, I was like ‘we’re going to putt really good on Wednesday.’ We know the greens here. He and I never really putt or play well at the country club, so we were ready to get out here and play some good golf.”

Eftink said the familiarity gave him an extra bit of confidence heading into Wednesday.

“The QCC greens are good, but Dylan and I feel like we can’t really putt on them that well. We couldn’t make anything,” Eftink said. “We knew when we came to Spring Lake we would putt well because this is our home course. We like these greens. It’s a good confidence booster.”

Playing at a familiar course, Eftink put together one of the more impressive rounds Kies has seen. Eftink estimated that he shot around 8-under by himself.

“Beau just played out of his mind,” Kies said.

Eftink eagled Nos. 3 and 14 by himself and pulled off two miraculous shots from behind trees, one which led to a birdie and a win on No. 12 and another that helped Eftink and Kies halve No. 16.

“We were pretty much blocked out, and I told Dylan ‘just put one out there where we can make a par or something,’ and he did, which is really nice and helpful for me to make that shot,” Eftink said. “I just took a wedge, opened up the face, put it forward in my stance, and hit this big slinging high draw. The one on 12 went to about 5 feet. On 16, I hit it to about 15 to 20 feet, but it was helpful because we didn’t want to hit a 30-yard pitch shot.”

Eftink and Kies had some help from their Raiders teammates in sweeping the six matches on Wednesday. Olliver Hendrian and Keeden Orpet-Hulett defeated Issa Geiesendorfer and Andrew Ali, while Grant Lepper and Aiden Tangy bested Jackson Smith and Tyler O’Brien to give the Raiders a 10-2 advantage over the two-day Ryder Cup.

“They played lights out, their entire team,” Blue Devils coach Randy Mettemeyer said. “We didn’t play that poorly, and we got beaten soundly. Tip of the cap to them. Hopefully that’ll give us a little bit of motivation for next year.”