May 23, 2013 Results
Well, it was supposed to be a nice day, right? A nice day for kite flying with a cable I'd say. It was at least a 4-club wind and I personally don't have 4 more clubs than what I would normally hit at some of those distances. That was some vicious breeze out there. But 89 of us saw fit to play in these conditions-some in shorts, some in short sleeves.
And it made the air pretty cool too. Luckily I brought a jacket to ward off the wintry blast, but there actually were times when the sun managed to peek out and it did warm up. During those times I shed the jacket only to find that 3 minutes later the sun disappeared and the jacket came in handy once again. I really think I took that thing off and put it back on more times than that worker backed up his equipment off to the side of number 3. That backup beeper sound was getting just a bit annoying at times. How often do you have to backup something to get a job done? I suppose it was a backhoe and this guy was just making the machine live up to its name, but come on. I'll bet he was wearing ear plugs and didn't have to listen to that frustrating sound. And there probably wasn't even anyone behind him anyway. They need backup sound suppressors on whatever he was using. Or at least we should get a refund from the course, right? I'll bet that sound ruined my game for the day. Nah, I think swinging a club does a pretty good job of that.
Anyway, this course was actually in gorgeous shape. Much better than 2 seasons ago when the sod was coming up in chunks so large that the landscape looked like a bunch of bad toupees. But they've brought it back to where it's actually in great shape. You can have the rough tho. We made the mistake of selecting a ball in the rough on #3, obviously because it was a lot closer than a shot from the fairway. But in retrospect that was probably a mistake. The rough was unbelievable. We hacked our way out, but barely. But overall the course condition was probably the best we've played this year. One of the rangers visited us on #3 and he said he's got friends who are Bellerive members that play at Gateway and rave about its conditioning as being every bit as good as Bellerive. This guy also mumbled something about a bridge in Brooklyn that we could invest in, but it was too windy to carry on a meaningful conversation with him. Having visited Bellerive just the day before, I think this ranger may have gotten hold of some tainted cigarettes.
Results:
A Flight
The Art Soble, Mark Hagler, Doug Torrie and Doug Nolte team found out it's not the worst thing in the world to bogey your first hole. We started on #11 with a very good tee shot and promptly ruined that. But after that we sailed along pretty good and managed 8 birdies to offset the lone bogey. By virtue of parring the scorecard playoff hole (#17) and birdieing #18 and #2 we managed to eke out a win over the next team of Bill Heidbreder, Jim Hawkes, Bob Stephenson, and Dave Gillett. They in turn shut down the Jerry Mullen, Bob Brewer, and Paul Pals threesome who also shot the very nice -7.
Finishing with a -6 were the Tom Gill team and the Dee Ridenhour team. Next were the Phil Lucido team and the Randy Pratt team with -4's (67s).
B Flight
The John Boyd, Gene Erard, Bob Haddad, and Gary Turner team beat out the Bob Checkley, Jerry White, Dennis O'Connor, and Phil Hess team via the scorecard playoff with a dandy -3 score (68). The next two teams tied with identical (of course that's what a tie is) scores of 69. These being the Charlie Riedisser, Frank Vien, George Keil and John O'Toole team who nudged out the Livingston Sykes, Frank Greening, Paul Scheffer, and Al Rosenberg team.
Also shooting the most popular score of the day (69) were the John Prather team, the Paul Rivard team, the Dennis Terhaar team and the Charley Wilson team.
C Flight
The Stewart Pagenstecher, Bob Eddy, Bill Wegge, and George Eickhoff team edged out the Lou Pessoni, Paul Villhard, Brian Cox, and Alex Horvat team by virtue of the scorecard playoff to win at the -1 level. In third place was the Bob Bischoff, Dan Fergus, Rich Graeff, and Lee Readus team with a level par 71 (sweet sister's lips boys). Unbeknownst to most of you Bob Bischoff was a late scratch so the captaincy fell to Mr. Fergus who graciously accepted the financial windfall for his team.
The Darryl Rue squad also shot even par 71, while the Don Giarraffa team was at a +1. The Joe Pfeifer and Jack Eckhard teams were at a +2, and winning most valiant effort for the day was the Joe McDaniels team at a +4.
Thanks to all who showed up and faced that tough wind which as improbable as it seems, always seemed to be in your face.
Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #4 Bill Heidbreder #7 Bob Foeller #12 Paul Pals #14 Lou Pessoni #17 Livingston Sykes
Skins: Only one and that was on #18, an eagle by the John Boyd team. One would think the Tom Gill team would've had a skin on #13 because from what we understand Wayne Warneke slam-dunked his third shot for an eagle, but evidently someone canceled him out. Next time Wayne, next time.
And here's some news; We're setting up a father's day outing for either Emerald Greens or Eagle Springs. It will be a normal outing but with your son(s) playing alongside. We'll let you know the particulars soon.
Also, keep this schedule change in mind. We are not playing on July 4th (Thursday) but we are playing Tapawingo on that Monday, July 1st.
Also, also, we seem to be seeing a dwindling turnout, often falling below the magic 100 number, which we like to maintain to assure us of more holes for a shotgun start. If you know of any members of this group who, for some reason, are not playing right now, give 'em a bit of a nudge to at least see if they're still interested in playing.