Sept 12, 2013
85 players converged on Quail Creek, the one-time jewel of the municipal courses in the St. Louis area. Rather sadly it has been surpassed by other local courses that offer just as much challenge and surprisingly better conditions. Some may disagree with this but I found the course to be a bit on the ragged side, especially the greens which were showing signs of incursion by weeds (polana grass?). Some greens were better than others but just one or two "lemons" can spoil the day for a course. They've got a lot of work to do to restore this course, green-wise, to the splendor of its earlier years. As we all know, Hale Irwin had something to do with the layout of the course and if he were to see it today he'd be disappointed I'm sure. We were forced to play Quail very early in the season, the 9th of May to be exact, and I don't remember the conditions having deteriorated this much at that time.
The fairways were ok, but certainly nothing special and in many cases it appeared they'd been overwatered leaving very mushy ground in spots. My best drive of the day was on our last hole, #5, but it was cut short by perfectly landing in one of these low-lying mushy areas. We were actually fortunate to find the ball, albeit in the middle of the fairway. Being able to drive on the fairways may have been a mistake in many areas although it certainly helped those players in the advanced age department.
This course always plays long and difficult. We didn't expect scores to attain the double digit under par that we've experienced a few times lately and we weren't disappointed. As it was, the -7 for the day, low honors, was very respectable given the green conditions (very recently aerated) and the overall course condition.
Enough of the griping, here are the results:
Results:
Flight "A"
Two teams vied for first in A Flight with 65's (-7). Coming out in First due to the good old SCP (hole #4) was the Earl Phillips, Joe Jarvis, Harry Trammel and Bob Meinhardt team. Ya gotta figure with Joe and Harry hitting from the way up front tees that something good would have to come from this team. Sure enough they led the way for all the teams.
In Second Finishing right with them score-wise but being nosed out by the SCP was the Pierre Sans Souci, Bob Brewer, Ron Muse, and Frank Greening foursome. Pretty formidable foursome but it's hard to know ahead of time what the playoff hole will be - impossible actually.
In Thrid with a tidy -6 (66) was the Gene Erard, Jack Reiner and Jerry Mullen squad. Very nice shooting guys.
Filling out A Flight with 67's were the Wayne Warneke team and the Joe McDaniels team.
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Flight "B"
Three teams tied at -4 (68's) but rising to the surface in First via the SCP was the Jim Hawkes, Tim McCullen, Bill Clark and Harold Howard team.
Next in Second was the Ed de la Pena, Rich Graeff, John Prather, and newcomer Tom Braun team.
Then in Thrid was the Bob Gay, Art Soble, and Harvey Ruth team.
Next best score was a 69 and three teams posted that to finish out of the money in this flight. They were the Tom Gill, Ernie South, and Randy Pratt teams.
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Flight "C"
Two teams tied with -2 (70's) scores. The Pete Grouzos, Bert Schott, Lou Pessoni, and Doug Nolte was First
The Paul Pals, Bruce Schnelle, Wayne Lamborn, and Paul Villhard team was Second.
In Thrid with a -1 (71) was the John Tipton, Larry Knopfel, Jack Eckhard, and Larry Willman team.
Finishing out the C Flight standings and shooting the dreaded even par score were the Paul Scheffer and Bob Foeller teams.
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Flight "D"
Four teams vied for first in D Flight with the all left handed team of Dee Ridenhour, John O'toole, Joe Cernich, and Bill Wegge was in First.
In Second was Phil Hess, Libby Lanning, Bob Coambes, and Pat Reed team.
In Thrid was the Bill Howell, Doug Torrie, Al Rosenberg, and Steve Comfort team.
. All these squads shot +2 (74's). Also with a 74 but falling of the top 3 thanks to the friendly SCP was the Dan Fergus team.
Two teams played anchor for the day and shot +3 (75's); the Don Wulf (all Wulf and all Riedisser) team, and the Steve Dierker team.
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Awards:
Closest to the pins for the day:
#3 Phil Hess (darn near added to his very long list of holes-in-one) #8 Joe McDaniels #13 Jack Reiner #16 Dan Ottoline (from where he hits he could've dropped the %^&*$!! ball in the cup)
Skins:
#5 Gene Erard team #14 Joe McDaniels team
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