October 4, 2012 Results
123 of us teed it up just before 0800 and sure enough about 5+ hours later we were upstairs at the clubhouse preparing for a meal to top off the rest of the festivities. For several days it was looking like we'd have exactly 124 players, 31 teams of 4 players each, an ideal situation. Unfortunately, one of our players turned up ill at the last moment and couldn't make it to the final Day. We hope he is much better today. More unfortunately this gentleman was most probably the key player on one of these teams, being an excellent golfer and over the magic age of 75 so he could really contribute from the front tees. And most unfortunately he was supposed to be on the team I was playing with! Well, old age and cunning overcame this adversity and the remainder of the team did just fine as a threesome.
Even though some think that playing as a threesome has advantages over a foursome because of the ability of one player to hit twice per shot as a compensation, you'll have to realize this; as a septuagenarian I was the youngest, by far, in this group. I made a small calculation during our round and discovered that as a group we had 242 years of experience between the three of us, or an average of just over 80 years per player. Just surviving the round was the main objective. And to think that we actually tied some "loaded" teams for the day is a real tribute to the other two players who dragged me around the course yesterday.
The Bluffs was in very good shape. The greens were a little marked up but not too bad. They were a tad slow, but not too bad. They were at times, difficult to read, but not too bad. But when 3 grown adults with 242 years of experience miss a two and a half foot for par there just has to be some explanation other than the LOFT principle. There had to have been a gross shift in gravity at the very instant our putters struck that ball, that's all we can attribute that futile attempt to. There are 3 holes on this course that I personally don't care for and that putt on #7 clearly designated that hole as the first one in the sequence. (Numbers 12 and 16 are the other 2).
Enough of the pontificating. Here are the results of the final outing of year.
Results:
Flight "A"-The runaway team for the event was the Duane Jefts, Ron Butler, Roger Danielson and Tom Murphy squad. These guys scorched the course with a -14 (57). We all know that Mr. Jefts can hit the ball beyond normal vision acuity but if he had a misshit off the tee I'm sure Tom Murphy helped hitting from the front tees. This guy is sneaky long (ok maybe not real sneaky, but still $%^& long). And you have to wonder who had the hot short stick. That's where the game is won or lost. Congrats guys.
Two teams came in a distant second with very respectable -8 scores but coming out ahead in the scorecard playoff (the hole #8) was the Rich Graeff, Pierre Sans Souci, Bob Brewer, and Frank Vien team. They nosed out the Randy Pratt, John Boyd, Russ Wall and Dan Snowden team.
The Don Bartoni and Jack Eckhard teams finished with -7 scores while the gaggle of teams at -6 included the wounded Bob Day (actually Harry Trammel) team, the Ed de la Pena team, the Don Giarraffa team, the Phil Lucido team, and the Charlie Pope team.
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Flight "B"-Four teams vied for first in B flight with a -5 score but coming out on top was the Dale Bruce, Ron Smith, Al Rosenberg and Alex Horvat team.
Next was the John Dierker, Steve Dierker, Charley Wilson and Joe McDaniels team.
In third place, with the -5 was the Bob Franke, Karson Kosowski, Darryl Rue and Bob Pankey team.
Also with a -5 but missing out on the top three because of the scorecard playoff was the Dee Ridenhour team.
Three teams turned in a -4 score; the Larry Knopfel team, the Del Lohmann team and the Dennis Terhaar team.
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Flight "C"-All alone in first with a -3, or 68, was the Ted Isringhaus, Doug Torrie, Brian Cox, and Joe Roeder team. In second with a 69 was the Larry Willman, Bill Clark, Dennis O'Connor and Joe Jarvis team. And in third was the Wayne Warneke, Lou Pessoni, Frank Greening, Phil Hess team which beat out the John Prather team. Both teams shot one under 70's.
Three teams managed level par for the day and sent their sisters running for the exits. The Harold Howard team, the Bob Pahmeier team, and the Joe Cernich teams all managed to shoot 71's.
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Flight "D"-Three teams shot one over par 72's for the day, but the team that came out on top via the scorecard playoff was the Bob Thibodeaux, Livingston Sykes, Joe Goines and Earl Phillips team. Next was the Bert Schott, Livingston Lanning, Dave Buesse, and Bob Kriss team. Following them was the Paul Villhard, Jim Waugh, Elmer Dill, and Roger Hennen team.
The John Ross team also shot 72 but was nudged out in the playoff.
The Gene Erard team managed a +2 for the day. The Bob Edwards team a +3, and the team that got the most practice at the Bluffs was the Jack Panula team with a score that shall remain anonymous.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day:
#2 Joe Goines
#6 Dale Bruce
#8 Fred McGavran
#14 Duane Jefts
#17 Paul Villhard
Skins:
Dale Bruce team on #5 with an eagle (one tough hole guys, how'd you do it?)
Don Bartoni team on #11 with an eagle (Ottoline claimed he was having a bad day but I just know that his drive ended up on the fringe of that green)
Duane Jefts team on #12 (one tough hole, nice going guys)