August 1, 2013 Results

One hundred and twelve of us found the Forest Park Golf Course club house with no problem on Thursday. Finding the correct holes to play on the two allocated courses (Hawthorne and Dogwood) however proved to tax even the most astute and adept geographically inclined personnel amongst us. This place is just amazing with respect to a logical layout. It's closest rival for confusion has to be Pomme Creek, which, if it still is a golf course, shouldn't be. Forest Park had to have been laid out at midnight by a cadre of blind folks, and that would be an insult to blind folks.

The epitome of the confusion on this course has to be Hawthorne (at least I think it was Hawthorne) #9, which when approached from in front of the clubhouse, has a neat little stone marker telling you where #9 tee is. Interestingly enough, the arrow on the marker has a point on both ends. So, we dutifully immediately went the wrong way and had to backtrack to a tee box on the other side of the slough. Of course this was observed by one of my antagonists playing in the group in front of us who gleefully motioned for us to turn our butts around and go back from whence we came. Amazingly, somehow, we managed to find the rest of the holes on Dogwood, although between 3 and 4 it's still a real head shaker. The old joke about asking how Phil Mickelson makes his way around a golf course and his retort about the holes being numbered would have special meaning here.

Another observation about this course is that it's quite obvious St. Louis is headed in the Detroit direction wrt a budget. Trying to preserve the environment is a noble cause but come on guys, 6 foot weeds between the tee and green, that's just a tad ridiculous. I'm surprised the greens mowers could even find the greens in some cases. We had to stand on our cart's roof to see the pin on one of those par 3's.

But, I'll have to say, the fairways and greens were excellent. The spring rains have treated this course very well and knowing how much play this collection of courses gets, it was in wonderful shape. At least a partial consensus amongst a small sampling of your esteemed committee revealed that we'll probably play it again next year. This is not an easy course, as most will verify, but it is one worth revisiting.

Oh, one more observation; we started on Hawthorne #7 which is a 276 yard par 4. I believe Dogwood's #9 is a 569 yard par 5!!! So, in reality you get to take one stroke for 297 yards. Amazing.

Results:

Flight A

All alone in First place with an astounding, no ludicrous, -7 (63), was the Paul Pals, Jim Waugh, Joe Pfeifer, and Phil Helm team. It's really no wonder about this score since Paul has discovered something about the golf swing that the rest of us mortals have yet to experience.

In Second was the Bob Foeller, Larry (always in the money) Willman, Pierre Sans Souci, and Wayne Warneke team with a very, very nice -6.

In Third, and nosing out the Charley Wilson team, was the Jack Eckhard, Harvey Ruth, Roger Hennen, and Jerry White team with a -5.

As mentioned the Charley Wilson team had the 65 score, the Ron Muse team shot 66, the Randy Pratt team had 67 as did the Don Giarraffa team.

Flight B

Two teams tied at -2 but because of the scorecard playoff (hole #3 on one of these courses) First the Phil Lucido, Bob Haddad, Dennis Meade, and Ted Isringhaus team Second the Jim Mead, Lee Hanson, Ernie South and Jack Panula team. Just a note here, Ernie South misplaced a putter and if anyone picked it up, please contact him.

In Third place at a 69, and winner of the SCP with a whole slew of 69's, was the Art Soble, Joe Cernich, Bill Wegge, and Lowell Barnes team.

Amongst the "whole slew" of teams was the Bill Clark team, the Darryl Rue team, the Lee Readus team, the Joe Goines team, and the Paul Villhard team.

Flight C

Three teams tied for first at even par 70's (hmm, sister time) but the overall winner because of the SCP was the Dennis Shannon, Larry Amen, Dee Ridenhour, and Ted Schuessler team nosing out the Joe Jarvis, Stewart Pagenstecher, Dennis Terhaar, and Charlie Fischer team and the Bob Day, John Aubuchon, Doug Nolte and George Eickhoff team.

Also with 70's, but losing out in the SCP were the Steve Dierker team and the Doug Torrie team.

Flight D

Three teams tied at +1 (71) but the John Ross, Tom Gill, Dave Gillett, and Tim McCullen team beat out the Ed de la Pena, Paul Scheffer, Dave Kunz, and Larry Riedisser team and the Gene Erard, Earl Phillips, Del Lohmann, and John O'Toole team.

Shooting identical 73's were the Rich Graeff and Paul Rivard teams. Posting a 74 was the Russ Wall team. In with a 76 was the John Dierker team, and finishing out the scoring with a 77 was the Gary Turner squad.

Awards;

Skins :

Sorry, we're not sure what course these were recorded on, but they are numbered consecutively so even Phil Mickelson could relate;

#2 Bob Foeller team #3 Bob Foeller team #4 Paul Pals team #10 Jim Mead team #15 Charley Wilson team #18 Ed de la Pena team

Closest to the pins for the day:

Hawthorne #2 Rich Graeff Hawthorne #4 Jerry Mullen Hawthorne #9 Jim Hawkes Dogwood #2 Jerry White Dogwood #5 Bill Wegge Dogwood #8 Paul Pals