July 11, 2013 Results
All 91 of us found this new venue somewhere WNW of Alton with evidently no problems because when early bird, Mr. Ed de la Pena got there at 0630 he said there were already some of our players there ready to tee it up. The directions supplied in our book were obviously clear enough for even the non-cartographers among us to find this new (to us) course.
And the course seemed to meet the approval of at least most of the folks that crossed my path. It's a classic golf course with the tree-lined fairways and in most cases spacious greens. It's rolling fairways remind one of Forest Park or Normandie. Interestingly enough, many of the par 4's, and the par 5's are actually blind shots with either the green up and over a hill, or around a left or right bend. In the "bend" case, one had to shape their shot to accommodate the turn of the dogleg. We can all do that, right?
The fairways were in quite good shape and if I'm not mistaken were of the Bermuda variety. I get a bit confused between zoysia and Bermuda and if my zoysia would stay alive long enough I could tell the difference. The surroundings of the playing areas could use some sprucing up and some extra grooming, but the layout is, at least in my mind, golfer friendly. It's a good thing we played from the up front tees because some of those back tees were really, really back!!
The greens were very good, although I'm not sure they were amongst the best in the St. Louis area as proclaimed by the young man who started us out in the morning. They were soft so that if we happened to hit an artful shot into them the ball would stop within a reasonable amount of distance, or back up as is the preference by the better among us.
The greens for the most part were quite large and also for the most part the non-potato chip variety. There just were not that many hills/valleys/levels to them. They were very benign and did not have a lot of break to them. Generally easy to read and putt on, although we missed way too many 8-10 footers that would've made our score considerably better.
Our first hole, #9, presented us with at least a 60 foot putt which one of our foursome proceeded to slam dunk. The next hole he did the same thing only with half the distance, so after the first two holes we were -2 and feeling pretty smug. You all know how long that can last, right?
Overall, the course is a new challenge and if there are no real outspoken negatives about it, other than the day trip to get there, we will probably go back. What say you all?
Results:
Flight "A"
Capturing the overall low score (-8) because of a scorecard playoff (#9) was the John Prather, Dennis Terhaar, Larry Amen, Doug Nolte team. Again, we were buoyed by the fast start and putting, at least the long putts, became our strong game - not the 8-10 footers unfortunately. Also with the 64 was what became the Mark Bryant, Ollie Sivcovich, Jack Eckhard, and Paul Pals team. They carded the only eagle on #15 and ran home with the only skin for the day.
In Third place by virtue of the scorecard playoff was the Joe Cernich, Bob Foeller, Don Moschenross, and Harold Howard team with a fine 66 (-6). Also with the 66 were the Paul Rivard team, the Don Giarraffa team, and the Dennis O'Connor team.
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Flight "B"
Three teams tied with identical 67 tallies but the Jeff Delaplain, Ron Muse, Bob Haddad, and Steve Comfort team took home scorecard playoff honors from the Bob Gay, Charlie Riedisser, Charley Wilson, and Ed de la Pena team, and the John Dierker, John Boyd, Dan Fergus, and Don Wulf team.
Also in B Flight was the Jim Waugh team (68), the Joe McDaniels team (69), and the Lee Readus team (69).
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Flight "C"
Four teams tied with 69's for the top of this flight. Via the scorecard playoff the Randy Pratt, Charlie Fischer, Ted Isringhaus, and Don Schmidt team nosed out the Earl Phillips, John Ross, Roger Nikrant, and Larry Willman team and the Stewart Pagenstecher, Dan Ottoline, Mark Hagler, and John O'toole team. Also with the 69 but falling out with the SCP (scorecard playoff) was the Tom Gill team.
The Harvey Ruth squad and the Bill Clark team filled out the C flight with 70's.
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Flight "D"
Shooting even par 72 and winning the sister smooching event of the day, and first place in this flight, was the Ernie South, Vince Koehr, Bob Fell, and George Eickhoff team. Following them and winning via the SCP was the Dan Snowden, Bert Schott, Bob Bischoff, and Harold Lindahl team who shot a +2 74. They nosed out the Larry Riedisser, Bob Eddy, Dee Ridenhour and Jim Hawkes team also with the 74.
The Bob Stephenson team shot a 75 as did the Joe Mullins team.
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All in all I think it was a successful day at a new course. It may be new to most of us but one of us knows it like the back of his hand, one Earl Phillips who actually used to caddy here when the pin oaks were seedlings.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day: #4 Deadly accurate Bob Pahmeier #8 Bob Haddad #13 Bob Foeller #16 Jerry White
Skins:Just one, as mentioned before, the Mark Bryant team with an eagle on #15.