May 3, 2012 Results
On a beautiful, if not too warm day, we had 113 golfers show up to play one of the jewels on the east side. Far Oaks is quite special and manages to attract some of the more affluent folks in western Illinois so they can show off their "cottages" to us retirees. There must be at least 30 members in some of the families that live in these houses. I have the distinct feeling that my whole house would fit in half a living room of some of these structures. I still get a big kick out of the house behind the 18th tee. That just has to be a dormitory, it's got the classic shape of one. But probably the most pleasing thing about all these big fancy houses is the fact that the landscaping matches the majesty of the homes. It goes beyond wonderful. I strain at home to cajole a few meager flowers to bloom from spring to early fall and if I'm lucky I might get a compliment from a passing neighbor. But these houses at Far Oaks, OMG, they would put Better Homes and Gardens to shame.
On to the course. As usual Far Oaks was in very good shape. For $32 it's a real pleasure to play. All facets of the course are very good and I didn't have any complaints about the condition of anything while we played. No one said anything to me about lousy tees, fairways or greens. Our hats off to the crew for keeping this course in tip-top shape. But, it can't get away with all that gushing without at least one comment, and this is as much our issue as it is the course's. As you know we've been asking the courses to give us 3 different tee distances as best they can to match our "abilities". Today (or maybe yesterday, depending on when I send this out) the tee placements for the B players was interesting, to say the least. Our team started on hole 12, which for the B's is normally a 330, or so, yard hole. Well, our tees coincided with the C players and the yardage was more like 215-220. For me it was tempting to try for the green at that distance, however accuracy at that length is at a premium, at least for me, and being a solid team player, I opted for a lesser club than the driver and layed up perhaps 40-50 yards short of the green (not in the woods either).
But this is kind of the way the day went in our group. The tee yardages were not exactly what we were used to leaving us with weird distances into the green. Of course this led to either overswinging (a normal thing for me anyway) a more lofted club or underswinging a less lofted rascal. The result wasn't always artistic, if you know what I mean. Anyway, it's just something we as once-a-weekers have to adapt to. It certainly doesn't take away the fun of the game, it just puts a bit of a frustrating edge to it.
As for results I must say all teams finished under par for the day which probably means that Far Oaks is not a difficult course overall. But it sure is scenic, for Illinois! I thought this was the Prairie State? Isn’t the prairie flat?
Results:
Two teams tied for first overall with a stellar -12. The Ed de la Peña, Rick Palloni, Harold Howard, and Gary Turner team tied the Dan Snowden, Steve Dierker, and Bob Stephenson team. As for Mr. de la Peña he says his game is back and he's giving fair warning to the likes of Randy Pratt and other pretenders to the crown that he's not going to go quietly into the night and relinquish the praise he's due. Congrats Ed and crew and for sure Dan Snowden and his bunch. Dan must've been smokin' the ball as well as the little white stick
All alone in second was the Jack Eckhard team who fashioned a wonderful -11 out of this heavily sand-trapped course. Jack's teammates were Mike Blank, John Aubuchon, and Dennis Swift. A little secret here, Jack is actually Iron Byron in disguise. He's been testing two different Taylor Made drivers and still can't decide whether to use the one that gives him the 300 yard drive or the one that rolls out to 295. Very good playing guys.
Two teams tied for third at a very nice -9. The Jack Reiner, Larry Riedisser, Bill Neukom and Elmer Dill squad tied the Larry Willman, Bob Thibodeaux, and Pierre Sans Souci team. There's that name popping up again; Larry Willman. Last year he finished in the money innumerable times and he's starting the trend again. Latch onto that star boys, he's going far.
Four teams tied for fourth with a robust -8. 1. The Jim Hawkes team. 2. The Mike Rutherford team. 3. The Walter Smith team. 4. The Doug Torrie team.
Three teams tied for fifth at a -7. 1. The John Boyd team. 2. The Ward Klocke team. 3. The Bob Foeller team.
Six teams tied for 6th at a -6. 1. The Joe Goines team. 2. The Russ Wall team. 3. The Bill Heidbreder team. 4. The John Dierker team. 5. The Lou Pessoni team. 6. The Jerry Mullen team.
Four teams tied for 7th at a -5. 1. The Randy Pratt team. 2. The Phil Hess team. 3. The Bob Meinhardt team. 4. The Charley Wilson team.
Five teams tied for 8th at a -4. 1. The Livingston Sykes team. 2. The Joe Jarvis team. 3. The Wayne Warneke team. 4. The Ted Isringhaus team. 5. The Darryl Rue team.
Two teams tied for 9th at a -3. 1. The Mark Gordon team. 2. The Paul Pals team.
And one team got a lot of strokes for their $46. 1. The Al Rosenberg team finished 2 over par for the day.
Skins: There were none! Too many birdies and eagles that all cancelled each other out.
Closest to the pins: #2 Larry Willman (there's that name again) #6 Bob Stephenson #8 Dennis O’Connor #13 Mike Rutherford #16 Bob Pahmeier